State Thruway toll booths, like this one, will soon be coming down.

Travelers in the state of New York report a sudden mass die-off of hundreds of members of the species Telonium exactionum nummi — or toll booth — along the New York State Thruway.

Researchers suspect that the booths suffered from an acute technological infection known as gantrification. Historians note the earliest appearance of T. exactionum nummidates to June 24, 1954, when the first members of the species found a favorable niche in a landform known as an interchange.

Some hardy members also staked out a presence in areas known as barriers.Over the years the species successfully multiplied in both areas.

A mechanical parasite identified as the exact change coin drop (or coin hopper) appeared in 1957, but the species successfully defended itself by quarantining infected members in exact change lanes in barrier areas. A curious infection, known as round-trip tolls, began a slow spread in 1970. Fortunately, the malady again proved to be specific to barrier areas and did not spread to interchanges.

Another mechanical parasite–the automated toll ticket machine–arose in 1989, but the species again fended off the challenge with an isolation strategy. In 1993 a technological infection known as E-Z Passfirst appeared in the barrier areas. By 1997 the disease had spread throughout the interchange areas. The infection also overwhelmed the coin hopper and eliminated that parasite by 2003.

The first instance of gantrification (also known as cashless tolling) is thought to have appeared at a barrier area known as the Tappan Zee Bridge. Another barrier area in the vicinity of a bridge at Grand Island fell victim in 2018.

There is some evidence that gantrification is a mutation of the E-Z Pass infection. If that is the case, the mutation has outcompeted its forerunner, which has apparently disappeared. The loss of T. exactionum nummiwill be mourned by hundreds (if not thousands) of truckers who delighted in running their rigs through the gaps between booths.

Teloniaare survived by over a thousand loyal symbiotic attendantswho dealt daily with an increasing volume of credulous travelers unwilling to believe that only currency and coin were acceptable at the booths and who provided an answer to the eternal question: “Where’s the nearest bathroom?!!!”

Peter Chodan is a Dunkirk resident with data for this piece provived by https://www.thruway.ny.gov/oursystem/toll-collector-history.html