Milestones on the way to Highway 407 technology

1940s: the basis for modulated backscatter e-tolling laid in Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) tags developed by US, French, Swedish, British, German companies and laboratories to reduce ‘friendly fire’ shootdowns in air combat - Philips, Seimens, RCA, Delco, Bell Labs, Lockheed, Fairchild, Emerson Electric, GEC, Thomson, Marconi, Saab

Mid 1940s: University of Hawaii develops “slotted Aloha” time division multiple access (TDMA) for US armed forces to allow the handling of multiple wireless message transmissions by the one receiving point on the Hawaiian islands, later used widely in military communications

1953: first automatic coin machine (ACM) demonstrated for tolling on northbound toll lanes of Raritan plaza of Garden State Parkway NJ, the machine devised by Harry Loewengart and co-workers at Taller & Cooper of Brooklyn New York (later Litton) from the mechanism of a bank coin sorter/counter following unsuccessful attempts with the coin mechanism from a cigarette vending machine

1953: first ACM from Grant Money Meter (later to become Automatic Toll Systems, Yonkers NY) based on bus fare box mechanism put into service at the Fairlawn Plaza New Jersey on the Garden State Parkway or on southbound exit lane of Raritan Plaza. Grant bought ACM rights from T&C and quickly sold machines to many turnpikes, often with T&C as system integrator

1956: first tabulation cards (“tab cards”) prepunched square hole automatic brush-read 80-column Hollerith toll tickets manufactured by IBM deployed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike allowing the toll attendant at the exit to be provided automatically with information about the motorist’s entry point. Following revelations of fraud with this system the industry moved to a Remington-Rand/Univac 90-column circular hole card first deployed on NJ Turnpike and NY State Thruway. Massachusetts Turnpike, Kansas, Florida, and Texas turnpikes followed soon after

1956: first automatic weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems from IBM deployed in the pavement at the Pennsylvania Turnpike for automatic vehicle classification

1961: first central computer control of all toll terminals at a plaza by TRW at the George Washington Bridge, Fort Lee NJ

1965: first automatic ticket issuing machines made by Taller & Cooper deployed on the New Jersey Turnpike allowing major labor saving at entry points on closed toll systems

1967: first use of automatic license plate cameras from Taller & Cooper for toll audit and enforcement on the New York State Thruway

1972: first deployment of radio frequency (electronic) toll transponder at 420 KHz brandnamed the Dezignator from General Electric on the Golden Gate bridge for buses, staff vehicles and emergency services (used under-bumper mounted transponders to communicate via an antenna in the pavement)

1973-6: Port Authority of NY&NJ started extensive tests of three other e-toll systems

1975: Bengt Henoch later of Philips Sivers Lab Sweden gets patent on 10.3GHz battery-powered RFID system, tests with buses in Stockholm, the origin of PREMID, then Philips, later Combitech, launched at 2.45GHz, later taken to 5.8GHz

1979: Los Alamos National Laboratory team led by Gary Seawright put modulated backscatter radio frequency ID in the public domain, while further developed by Amtech (Animal Management Technologies) in US and Philips (later Combitech) in Europe - first use for tagging cows, while others develop and test surface acoustic wave (SAW) tags

1985: SAIC helps Caltrans with tests of SAW tags for e-tolling on the Coronado Bridge San Diego, major use of RFID for tracking railroad cars

1986: Port Authority NY&NJ has SAIC/Amtech do e-tolling for buses on bus-only lane near the Lincoln Tunnel

July 1987: first use of magnetic stripe toll ticket on the Pennsylvania Turnike speeding manual toll collection

late 1987: Philips/Combitech deploy PREMID the world’s first electronic toll system on mwy in Alesund Norway

Jan 1989: first US deployment of present 915MHz modulated backscatter electronic toll transponders from Amtech Corp of Dallas Texas at the Crescent City Connection, New Orleans Louisiana with transponders freely available to any motorist

Sept 1991: the first deployment of multi-lane open road electronic tolling (MULORET) at highway speed on 2-lane toll plaza bypasses on the Kilpatrick, Cherokee and Chickasaw turnpikes in Oklahoma using Amtech read-only transponders beefed-up

with batteries

1992: Comitech installs first read/write e-toll system on AREA mwy in France

May 1994: first deployment of bumper-mounted active radio frequency transponders from Mark IV, Mississauga Canada on the Orlando Florida toll expressways

1994: the French toll road operator SANEF applies congestion or value pricing on the A1 north of PARIS with higher toll rates at times of Sunday congestion

April 1995: first deployment of active inside-windshield transponders from Mark IV on the New York State Thruway in the Albany area

Aug 1995: Combitech begins trials of first open road lectronic tolling on Tauern Autobahn. The success of this installation is unclear. It has not gone public.

Dec 1995: the opening of the first all-electronic toll road (the first plaza-less toll road) at SR-91 Express Lanes in Orange county California, also the first investor built toll facility in the US in the era of motorized transport; first application of ‘value-pricing’ in the US with toll rates varying by time-of-day

NOTE: This list draws heavily on information provided by US toll installation veteran Al Palmer of Camarillo California - mrtolls@aol.com - who is working on a book-sized history of toll roads in North America, and on toll consultant Scott Davis of Tustin California - MTDLTD@aol.com. Both drew on their memories, searched some records and talked to old friends. Many thanks to them. I consulted others too. Lists like this depend on records and recollections of varying reliability. Some entries are a matter of judgment. The list may be US-biased, not because we want to deny others recognition but because information about them is harder to obtain. Any comments, additions, or corrections to improve future lists like this are welcome. Editor.