The Mackinac Bridge Authority will not accept cash transactions starting this Saturday, March 21. Drivers crossing the Mighty Mac will need to pay with a credit or debit card or use a MacPass card or windshield sticker.
The move is a temporary effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"We realize this change may be an inconvenience for many of our customers, but eliminating the handling of cash between drivers and our employees is one more way we can help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus," says MBA Executive Secretary Kim Nowack in a press release.
According to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, so far this month about 64 percent of customers have paid the bridge tolls with cash, 7 percent with credit or debit cards, and 29 percent with MacPass cards or windshield stickers.
Nowack says even if COVID-19 threatens an area on either side of the bridge, it will never close.
“There’s a lot of people that go across to one side or the other for health care and supplies,” she says. “Grocery stores and fuel deliveries go back and forth across the bridge daily.”
The MBA has already suspended its driver assistance program and its snowmobile, passenger and bicycle transportation programs in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
