Gone are the days of rummaging through your pockets for that elusive dime, the one that, once you find it, bounces off the rim of the toll booth change basket, preventing the pike from lifting.

Today, you don’t even need to feather the brake pedal as you pass through one of the most state-of-the-art tolling systems in the world, located at the north end of the Golden Ears Bridge.

Drivers passing through the two large metal gantries that span the width of the bridge deck don’t get a sense that they’re paying between $1.40 to $9.40 – depending on the vehicle – to cross the Fraser River.

But in just a matter of seconds, the time when your front bumper reaches the first gantry to when your back bumper reaches the second, your information is already being scanned, accounted and charged.

“There are three main systems in the toll collection,” said Fred Cummings, vice-president of major construction projects with TransLink. “First is the laser system for vehicle classification, then there’s a camera system for licence plate recognition, and then a radio transmission system to interact with the transponders.”

The classification system is a series of lasers on the first gantry that creates a 3D profile of your vehicle, based on the size and length, to determine what type of vehicle is crossing the bridge. There are four vehicle classifications: motorcycles, cars, small trucks, large trucks.

The laser system triggers the cameras on the second gantry to begin shooting. Two cameras are fixed on all six lanes, plus another two on either shoulder lane, for a total of 16 cameras across the bridge.

As you drive through the gantries, six photos are taken of both your front and back licence plates.

The radio transmission system is then activated by antennas on the second gantry, sending a signal to the transponder in your car. Although the transponders look the same, each has specific internal identification that connects your account to that particular transponder. If you don’t have a transponder in your vehicle, this system won’t register with your account.

The secure computers at Transroute process the information received from the gantry-based systems and link it with your personal account information stored on record. Your account is immediately charged, and the transaction will appear on your next QuickPass Tolling bill.

You have an account if you have registered as either a QuickPass video user or transponder user. If you don’t set up an account, which is free and discounts the cost of using the bridge, an account will automatically be created for you the first time you cross the bridge, based on the information the gantry systems collected on your vehicle (classification and licence plate number).

Once a new account is set up for an unregistered user, ICBC identifies the vehicle and its owner, and that information is added to their QuickPass account.

Currently, TransLink does not charge drivers from out-of-province because there is no agreement in place to, as is done with ICBC, cross-reference a licence plate number to get account and billing information.

“You either pay today, or tomorrow, but you will be paying,” said Rountree. “Even though you may be from the state of Washington or the province of Alberta, we’re keeping your transactions. We know you have been using our bridge.”

Currently, the system is undergoing a 90-day independent validation period, which means every registered video licence plate or unregistered licence plate that is captured on camera is also being reviewed by a human image reviewer.

This allows for employees to not only ensure accuracy in the laser and camera systems, but also train the optical character recognition software to identify the differentiating characteristics of each licence plate.

“We teach it by going back and correcting it; it learns,” said Rountree. “It’s like teaching a child. ‘No, that’s not a T, that’s an I.’”

The image reviewers have to ensure that font, size, syntax, and character proximity are all accounted for in training the system, so the technology can recognize B.C. and out-of-province plates.

Once the validation period is complete and the system accuracy is on par with expectations, image reviewers will only monitor licence plates that the software classifies as having a “low confidence level” in recognizing.

Although the system has been tested extensively in extenuating conditions – from heavy rain and fog, to low lighting – Rountree said there will still be plates that need to be manually read due to low confidence that may be caused by the photo being too dark, the vehicle being too far away, or the plate being obstructed.

“It’s driven entirely by technology,” she said. “Right now, we’re independently validating the technology. ... We have redundancies in place to ensure it’s working properly.”

As part of the 90-day monitoring period, Rountree will be examining out-of-province bridge traffic, and if it’s significant enough that it warrants charging drivers from outside of B.C., it’s something she will work towards.

Like expanding the fees to out-of-province drivers, the technology has a lot of flexibility to be changed at TransLink’s request.

“TransLink did something and stepped up. They said, ‘Everyone’s a customer. Anyone who wants to use our bridge is a customer,’ versus what other tolls may call a violator,” said Rountree. “It’s not technologically state-of-the-art, but this type of tolling is new to B.C. ... And it’s flexible in a sense that we can expand it to include time of day pricing, higher tolling during commuter times, as well as commuter programs.

“In the end, this is a very advanced free-flowing fully automated electronic tolling collection,” said Rountree. “This project is different. This bridge is different. But this technology is well established. It is very, very smart.”