By Jim Cameron

As a college student in the early 1970s, I had a summer job as a toll collector on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Boring job but great pay. But it was clear, even then, that toll collection would become automated, at first with special lanes with those baskets you’d throw your change into (assuming you had the correct change).

By the early ‘80s, New York and Pennsylvania toll authorities (which between them make up two-thirds of the nation’s $3 billion a year tolling industry) began experimenting with electronic toll tags, as much to reduce congestion at booths as to replace human collectors.

But it was Oklahoma that introduced the first electronic toll system, The Pikepass in 1991.

Entrants in a Westport Cedar Point Yacht Club regatta race return home today.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Irene Penny for WestportNow.com

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today used the platform of Union Station in New Haven to announce that the New Haven Line has totally replaced its old rail cars with the new modern M8 cars. The $1.2 billion project began in 2006 and 405 cars have been delivered, he said. Westporter John Hartwell (l), vice chair of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, joined the governor for the announcement. “We are thrilled with these cars and that there is a major transformation of the system under way,” he said. Contributed photo

Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe said today that he is working to establish a establish a Commission on People with Disabilities, “which will move beyond the requirements of the ADA and help those with disabilities participate more fully in community life.”

An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the town’s population reports having a disability, he said.

Marpe made the announcement on the today’s 25th anniversary of the signing of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).

He said the planned commission aims to ensure that Westport “is a town where people with disabilities have the opportunity to enjoy full and equal access to lives of independence, productivity, inclusion and self-determination.”

Today’s morning intermittent rain did not stop work on the Bedford Square development in Westport’s downtown. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Bob Eckman for WestportNow.com

A Great Egret spotted on Westport’s Sherwood Mill Pond.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Mark Molesworth for WestportNow.com