Florida SunPass and the new SunPass Mini

[piusg]

Behold my tale of woe, lest ye suffer the same fate as I...

Here in Florida, our automated toll-collection system is SunPass. For years, we've had similar electronic transponders that a number of toll roads use for their automated toll-collection systems.

At the beginning of July, SunPass introduced the new SunPass Mini--no longer a box, the Mini is a sticker with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip at its heart. They're easy to make, easy to install, you don't have to worry about them getting ripped off, and they don't fall off your windshield during a hot summer day. Perfect, right?

http://gregorypius.com/sunpass/sunpassmini.jpg
The SunPass Mini RFID sticker


Giddy with excitement about not having to ride one-handed through the toll plazas anymore, I went straight out and bought a new SunPass Mini, went to http://www.sunpass.com, loaded it up with tolls, and affixed it to the lowest part of the inside of my windshield.

Then, after calling SunPass operations to ask them how I was supposed to be exempt on 95 Express (95 Express, at http://www.95express.com, is South Florida's "expressway-within-an-expressway" project from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale that charges for congestion tolling; exempt from tolls are registered carpools, hybrids, and motorcycles), they told my "Oh--you cant use the Mini on your motorcycle! It needs to be on a glass windshield."

Oh swell. Thanks for telling me.

Nowhere does any of the literature that comes with the Mini tell you that the Mini is incompatible with motorcycles. Not the docs, not the package, and not the store. Not even the website (at the time) said so. Oh--it does now, now that I demanded that they replace my windshield--ain't no way I'm getting that Mini and its monster adhesive off without taking my windshield's notoriously fragile coatings off with it. (y'know, in retrospect, I should've known that anything that says "Buckle Up" on it probably wasn't designed with us bikers in mind.)

Anyway. thanks to me demanding a $400+ windscreen (a request that is currently with their legal department), the gig is up; now the sunpass.com site is practically rotten with warnings bout how the Mini is incompatible with motorcycles. But to date I have not yet heard back from the folks at SunPass regarding my windscreen; when I originally talked to them, they suggested using "Goo-Gone" or some similar chemical to get the Mini off of my shield. However, any Beemer pilot knows that the only thing you're supposed to put on a BMW windshield is soap, water, and bugs.

Meanwhile, I reluctantly reactivated my "brick" transponder. However, a poster in another thread has indicated that the electronic toll transponders work fine in the topcase! Upon reading this, I stuck my brick to the inside of the topcase and discovered that it does, in fact, work great! Groovy, baby!

Now if I can just get the folks at SunPass to pony up for a new shield...

[Duane_in_Florida]

Good luck, but I don't have lot of hope for you. Mechanical removal might be a little more productive. Assuming you have a polycarbonate windscreen, anything that will chemically remove the sticker will probably dissolve the shield.

The old "brick" Sunpass always worked fine just sitting in the top of my tankbag. I like that config better because I can move it between vehicles anyhow.

[XMagnaRider]

Behold my tale of woe, lest ye suffer the same fate as I...

...
they told my "Oh--you cant use the Mini on your motorcycle! It needs to be on a glass windshield."
...


Can someone explain to me why the SunPass Mini won't work on a motorcycle windscreen but will work on an automotive "glass" windshield? Automotive windshields are not 100% glass. They are multi-layered, where at least one layer is a kind of transparent plastic.

(Perhaps the answer is bureaucratic, or maybe they didn't set up their software to allow a Mini to be associated with a motorcycle, but I bet that the answer is not related to the physics of the RFID and its mounting.)

[niobium]

Too late!!!

I, too, purchased a couple of the minis and affixed them to the inside of the windshields of both bikes. Nice of them to provide all of the information up front. I have a call and an email in to Sunpass asking them to explain the reason that the transponder won't work on plexiglass...my guess is that the call center in Bangladesh will NOT know this. May have to pursue the windshield replacement path as well (someone must tilt at the windmills).

On the bright side, I believe if you pass through the toll and the transponder does not pick up, they match the toll camera image against the license plates of their registered transponders and deduct the toll from your account without a violation.

On the dark side, I recall someone on the Internet selling what looks like a plastic license plate cover for cars that is actually a diffraction grating...it works like clear plastic at an angle perpendicular to the surface, but is opaque from any other angle. A LEO behind you can see through normally to your license plate, but the traffic cameras (above or off to the side of the road) see a black surface. I don't know if they sell one in the size for a motorcycle plate, but plastic is easy to trim. Of course, this would be morally wrong.

[piusg]

Sancho, my lance, please...

This story broke in the Ft. Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel yesterday:

SunPass Mini doesn't work on motorcycles (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sfl-flbsunpass0811sbaug11,0,5588063.story?track=rss)

I spoke with Attorney Mark Leonard, Esq. at the Turnpike Legal Department. He forwarded me to a young lady in Tallahassee by the name of Jamie Leang, whose number is 850-414-5357. She is with the State of Florida Department of Transportation, Claims Department Administration.

She is sending along a claim form I must have notarized, but she--as well as Mr. Leonard--seems to think my claim is meritorious.

I'll keep you posted.

[jayjacobson]

I think the bigger story here is the use of a toll road. We dutifully pay our mega-taxes for this mega-government AND then STILL have to pay MORE for a private road! WTF, over?!