Indiana Toll Road collects transponder tolls for first time
Posted Tue, 2007-06-26 08:41
Indiana Toll Road Concession Company (ITRCC) collected tolls electronically for the second day today with traffic moving about normally - with about normal delays, spokesman Matt Pierce says. On the first day (Jun 25) there was one unusually large backup providing grist for negative news mills but it was mainly caused by bridge rehab work and a lane drop about 6.7km (4mi) before the Westpoint toll plaza. There were also a few lanes not working right.
All the toll lanes are working in mixed mode - with all toll lanes staffed, and cash paying vehicles mixed in with transponder
equipped vehicles - so you wouldn't expect any noticeable improvement in speeds through the plaza. Speeds in mixed mode lanes are basically set by the speed of manual toll collection.
Posted speeds in the lanes are 5mph (8km/hr).
"We're focussed on checking out and fine-tuning the system now (not speed)" Pierce says.
Electronic tolling has been retrofitted into six existing toll plazas on the 37km (23 mile) barrier stretch of the Toll Road in far northwest Indiana. Work is underway on doing electronic tolling for the remaining 216km (134 miles) ticket section, due to be operating by year's end.
In the six toll plaza barrier section there are 52 toll lanes.
42 are operating satisfactorily, Pierce says, while four are not. They are wide-vehicle lanes and the antennas don't provide
adequate coverage.
In another six lanes electronic tolling has been deferred because of complications in rebuilding the lane pavement, where the vehicle detection and classification loops are set.
Mostly I-PASS transponders so far
"Around 30%" of vehicles going through the toll plazas yesterday were using transponders, Pierce says, most of them I-PASS
and a few E-ZPass. Some 90k Indianans own the Illinois Tollway system's I-PASS transponders, many of them having bought them to use the Chicago Skyway electronic toll lanes. The Skyway did not issue its own transponders and is in engineering terms a toll plaza in the Illinois Tollway's I-PASS system.
ITRCC has been issuing its own I-Zoom brand transponders since June 18 and taking orders for about a hundred a day. About 600 are out there now.
On present plans the tollroad will get its first dedicated electronic toll lanes - transponders-only - about mid-July. That is when travel times through the toll plazas should improve.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-06-26
Indiana Toll Road Concession Company (ITRCC) collected tolls electronically for the second day today with traffic moving about normally - with about normal delays, spokesman Matt Pierce says. On the first day (Jun 25) there was one unusually large backup providing grist for negative news mills but it was mainly caused by bridge rehab work and a lane drop about 6.7km (4mi) before the Westpoint toll plaza. There were also a few lanes not working right.All the toll lanes are working in mixed mode - with all toll lanes staffed, and cash paying vehicles mixed in with transponder
equipped vehicles - so you wouldn't expect any noticeable improvement in speeds through the plaza. Speeds in mixed mode lanes are basically set by the speed of manual toll collection.Posted speeds in the lanes are 5mph (8km/hr).
"We're focussed on checking out and fine-tuning the system now (not speed)" Pierce says.
Electronic tolling has been retrofitted into six existing toll plazas on the 37km (23 mile) barrier stretch of the Toll Road in far northwest Indiana. Work is underway on doing electronic tolling for the remaining 216km (134 miles) ticket section, due to be operating by year's end.
In the six toll plaza barrier section there are 52 toll lanes.
42 are operating satisfactorily, Pierce says, while four are not. They are wide-vehicle lanes and the antennas don't provide
adequate coverage. In another six lanes electronic tolling has been deferred because of complications in rebuilding the lane pavement, where the vehicle detection and classification loops are set.
Mostly I-PASS transponders so far
"Around 30%" of vehicles going through the toll plazas yesterday were using transponders, Pierce says, most of them I-PASS
and a few E-ZPass. Some 90k Indianans own the Illinois Tollway system's I-PASS transponders, many of them having bought them to use the Chicago Skyway electronic toll lanes. The Skyway did not issue its own transponders and is in engineering terms a toll plaza in the Illinois Tollway's I-PASS system. ITRCC has been issuing its own I-Zoom brand transponders since June 18 and taking orders for about a hundred a day. About 600 are out there now.
On present plans the tollroad will get its first dedicated electronic toll lanes - transponders-only - about mid-July. That is when travel times through the toll plazas should improve.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-06-26