The Illinois Tollway is currently testing two new smartphone applications that could provide travel information and allow drivers to pay tolls easily with their phones, if approved.

One app is called SafeTrip and would announce traffic information over a phone’s speaker. The other would act as a “guest pass” for out-of-state or other drivers who do not use the tollways often to pay tolls with their phone as their vehicles pass the plazas. It is not intended to replace the I-Pass transponders currently used by drivers who frequent the roads.

The intention of the apps is to help keep the tollways as up-to-date as possible with technology and increase appeal among younger customers.

“There’s a new generation, the millennials, but also our existing customers who aren’t millennials… who are using their smartphone in every aspect of their lives, and it’s only becoming more pervasive,” said executive director Kristi Lafleur. “We are trying to make the tollway as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to use it.”

Source: Chicago Tribune