Illinois Tollway tops 3 million transponders in use, now 80% transponder tolls

The Illinois Tollway now has more than 3 million transponders in use and they are being used for 80% of total transactions, or 1.75m/day of the total 2.2m/day. Illinois tolling is done via E-ZPass Inter Agency Group standard active transponders from Mark IV branded as I-PASS.

Executive Director Brian McPartlin says even occasional Tollway travelers are getting transponders: “Daily Tollway commuters have long been our core I-PASS users, but we continue to see folks who travel once or even twice a year signing up for the great benefits that electronic toll collection offers."

The huge surge in transponder tolling on the Illinois Tollway occurred around the beginning of 2005 when the most common cash toll was hiked from 40c to 80c but the I-PASS transponder toll was kept at 40c. On one day (Dec 31 2004) 43,696 transponders were sold - as many as were sold in a whole month previously.

Tollway CEO Jack Hartman told us afterward he'd seriously underestimated the appeal of transponder tolling and exaggerated likely public reaction against the cash toll increase. He said he thought a doubling of the cash toll was "the most we could get way with."

In the event there was almost no criticism of the doubled cash toll, except that 80c, was and is, awkward for coin machines and toll collectors to handle.

Hartman said that looking back he wished he'd taken the cash toll to the round $1.00.

Transponders in use (% transactions)
1993: transponder tolling started
1997: 37k
1998: 50k
2001 Dec: 700k
2002 Jun: 800k
2003 Dec: 1.1m (44%)
2004 Dec: 1.5m (54%)
2005 Jan: 1.9m
2005 Apr: 2.0m (72%)
2005 Jul: 2.2m
2007 Jun: 3.0m (80%)

Source: old reports Toll Roads Newsletter and TOLLROADSnews

To get I-PASS customers pay $50, which includes a $10 deposit and $40 in pre-paid tolls. Customers signing up for automatic payment by credit card benefit from automatic replenishment of their pre-paid toll accounts when the balance drops below $10. The $50 I-PASS pre-paid balance never expires and I-PASS

I-PASS was launched in 1993 at mainline toll plazas on the North-South Tollway (I-355) and introduced at all toll collection lanes by 1998 for passenger vehicles. The program expanded to include commercial vehicles, including trucks and busses, in 2000. The Tollway became interoperable with the E-ZPass toll authorities only in Sept 2005.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-06-27