Your cash will soon be no good on 47 miles of the Florida Turnpike, and 220 jobs are disappearing as the Sunshine State works to get rid of manned toll booths.
The last day to pay cash is Friday February 18th. It’s also the last day for one toll taker who didn’t want to give his name.
“Well damn what am I gonna do now? Where do I go from here?” he wondered when he got the news. “I gotta start looking for a job again. I don’t want to do that, not at my age.”
A turnpike spokeswoman acknowledged losing the jobs is painful, but said it was no surprise to workers, this has been in the works for two years.
"Right now they are being assisted in various ways in terms of trying you know, placement, resume writing and some training," said Sonyha Rodriguez-Miller. "We know that in this economy it’s particularly tough."
Starting February 19th, if you don’t have a SunPass, you still won’t stop. A camera will take a picture of your license plate and send you the bill with an administrative fee.
Rodriguez-Miller notes switching to fast-lane tolls makes things safer.
"We reduced crashes at the toll plazas by approximately 60 percent," she said.
But that news is little comfort to many workers headed for unemployment.
"People are building automated systems and just putting people out of work left and right," said an unnamed worker. "It just doesn’t seem right."
The next planned cashless phase will go from the Golden Glades interchange to I-595. That's scheduled to start in 2014.
Follow Julia Bagg on Twitter at @juliabagg.
