News

2013-04-30: Our new US secretary of transportation Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx has shown great passion for a streetcar line. His reasoning is that this charming 100+ year-old walking-speed mode will "revitalize" downtown Charlotte. Only streetcars can do this, he insists.

2013-04-29: Michael L Johnson longtime president and chief executive of the Kansas Turnpike Authority is retiring June 15, he told staff Friday. His departure coincides with Kansas DOT taking control of operations July 1 under a recently passed law that makes the state secretary of transportation the designated chief operations officer of the Turnpike Authority.

2013-04-26: Matthew Click southeast division director for tolls for HNTB has written the most powerful case we've seen for toll lanes.  It's short but sharp. Toll managed lanes he says are really the only feasible way that major urban areas can come to grips with the costs of congestion. Building extra free lanes will not relieve much congestion because latent demand in peak hours soon overloads them. So there's congestion in more lanes in rush hours.

2013-04-25: Kapsch has released the specifications of the time division multiplexing (TDM) protocols used in E-ZPass electronic toll collection signaling.

2013-04-22: The I-185 Southern Connector tollroad in Greenville SC is closed for three days - from 10pm Sunday April 21st to 10pm Wednesday - for a film shoot.  A notice prominently highlighted on the pike's website has been warning of the closure, saying all access points will be barricaded. And in case anyone was tempted to move the barricades, it says these will be "manned by law enforcement officers."

2013-04-19: Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA) directors under pressure from shrill populists and special interests to abandon plans to toll the Sakonnet River bridge reaffirmed the start of tolling July 1 in a vote Wednesday.  David Darlington chairman of RITBA says the authority can't fund necessary maintenance of the four bridges it's responsible for without larger toll revenues.

The Dulles Greenway's holding company Toll Roads Investors Partnership II (TRIP2) $-billion of outstanding bonds have been downrated by Fitch from BBB- to BB+, reflecting what the rating firm says is high leverage, expected thin coverage of debt service and dependence for liquidity on increases in tolls beyond already high levels.

2013-04-18: Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) officials are putting out the idea of congestion tolls on the I-64 Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) and the I-664 Monitor Merrimack Bridge Tunnel (MMBT) to manage traffic. Chairman of the HRTPO Molly Ward and chief executive Dwight Farmer included the idea in a presentation to the state transportation board this week in a powerpoint slide (reproduced nearby.)

2013-04-18: TransCore has quietly told major customers that it is prepared to license the use of toll tag protocols eGo and SeGo in the readers manufactured by Kapsch and 3M/Sirit. There has been no discussion of the license fee $-amounts or terms, our sources say. TransCore made the offer in order to keep the protocols in play for adoption for national interoperability (IOP).

2013-04-17: HB1197 introduced in the state legislature today by Republicans would abolish the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission turning its storied turnpike over to the state DOT. The bill's prime sponsor was state Representative and deputy Whip Donna Oberlander from Clarion in the northwest of the state.