PENNA PIKE:West end moves to point tolls

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is converting the westernmost 50km (31mi) of its mainline to point tolls — getting rid of tickets. #1 or Gateway Plaza at the OH state line will become a flat rate barrier plaza. #1A the New Castle Plaza (at MP15km), #2 Beaver Valley Plaza (MP20km) and #3 the Cranberry Plaza (MP45km) will each be removed. A new plaza (3M), to be the new westernmost point of the ticket system will be built at the 50km mark on the site of Butler service plaza at Warrendale just 5km east from the present Cranberry Plaza at IC3.

The changes were precipitated by the design of a new direct connection between I-79 and the turnpike. At present the connection can only be made via the Cranberry interchange (IC3) and several heavily congested blocks of the busy main street of the town, because the two motorways cross without a direct IC 3km to the south. This is the rapidly developing northern suburban fringe of the greater Pittsburgh area. The Turnpike found it difficult to sufficiently enlarge the #3 Cranberry plaza from its current 3 entry/4 exit toll lanes to the 5-entry & 8-exit toll lanes needed to handle increasing traffic using the trip toll system. Detailed designs were done for a $25m enlargement and reconstruction of #3 plaza but the enlarged plaza encroached on US-19, a major arterial through the middle of a heavily built up commercial strip.

So the Turnpike commissioned a study of the costs of ending the ticket system and going to point tolls levied as a flat rate at barrier and/or ramp plazas.

Becoming commuter pike

Trip tolling using a ticket is splendid for longer distance motorists. Just one stop to pick up the ticket and another at the end to pay. But the plazas, dispensing as well as collecting, tickets for payment require more elaborate interchanges and/or larger plaza acreage. They cost more to operate than point by point tolling with barrier and ramp plazas. And to the extent that trips are short, as occurs with commuting traffic, the inconvenience to the motorist is less with tolling at points (barriers or ramps) than with tickets. A motorist going one leg only stops once with point tolling, and two legs once also if the point toll is put on the ramp. Only motorists driving three or more legs have more stopping in a point toll system. By definition all trip tolls regardless of length involve two stops, one to grab the ticket, the other to turn it in as evidence of origin in order to pay according to trip length.

The 574km of the East-West Mainline (EWM-line, I-76) and the southern three quarters or 137km of the NE Ext (I-476) were built to the trip toll principle, all the plazas being equipped both to issue and to collect trip tickets. By contrast all the sections of the Penn turnpike built in the last three decades have adopted point tolling — a combination of mainline barrier plazas and ramp plazas. These include (1) the northern 41km of the NE Extension (I-476) between Wilkes-Barre and Clarks Summit in the Scranton area, (2) PA-66 a 21km spur to Greensburg east of Pittsburgh, (3) PA-60 the 28km Beaver Valley Exwy which straddles the East-West Mainline north of Pittsburgh and the developing toll road system south and west of Pittsburgh known as (4) PA-43 the 120km Mon-Fayette Exwy, and (5) the 45km Southern Beltway.

There’s an inexorable logic to getting away from trip tolling as the suburbs of the Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia areas spread out around sections of the East-West Mainline converting them increasingly into relatively short trip commuter routes. Trip tolling requires at least a third of a plaza to be devoted to space and equipment for entering motorists to pick up tickets carrying their entry registration. The existing ticket system works out more expensive to operate too as compared to point tolling, especially for these short trips..

Gannett & Fleming consultants estimated in the “District 1 Toll Conversion Study” report that over 20 years operations and maintenance costs of the present 4 ticket plazas (at exits 1, 1A, 2, 3) would be $208m, whereas a new barrier plaza and a new ticket plaza as the western terminus of the ticket system would cost $150m or $158m (depending on the location of the barrier plaza.) Moreover the capital costs of rebuilding and enlargement needed to maintain the existing four ticket plazas would be $67m compared to $50m or $53m for tearing out the 4 ticket plazas and replacing them with 2 new plazas and a point toll system. The consultants were told to maintain revenue at the present level.

Both the point toll proposals involved just a single mainline barrier plaza, (1) Alt-2 near the OH line, or (2) Alt-3 between IC2 and IC3, which they called plaza 2M. So both the point toll systems considered by the conslutants give away substantial free rides — Alt-2 has 25km without a toll between IC2 and IC3 and Alt-3 gives 20km toll free between the state line and IC2.

Getting rid of plaza #1A at PA-60 need involve no loss of revenue since PA-60 is an access controlled toll road itself [see (3) above] and tolls at the PA-60 toll plazas can be adjusted to capture some of the value of travel on the EWM-line.

The consultants were apparently told to evaluate just one barrier plaza even though there are two separate legs (and also the IC-1A with PA-60.) Neil Raup, the project manager told me that the commission felt two tolling points on the mainline would have produced too much stopping to pay tolls, so one free stretch was inevitable.

The Commission chose Alt-2 with the new barrier plaza near the OH line, so there will be free travel for 25km between IC2 and IC3. This is exceedingly popular in the Beaver River valley settlements of New Castle, West Pittsburg, Ellwood City and Koppel — off IC2. It means they can use 25km of the turnpike for free on their commutes down to I-79/279 into the Pittsburgh area.

Comment:

This decision creates big problems down the track, as do most decisions to curry favor by offering stuff for free. The precedent has been set for de-tolling a major segment of the PA turnpike and will generate political pressures to “free” other sections. Once the news about free rides north of Pittsburgh gets to Philadelphia commuters there will start asking: Why not abandon tickets IC24 through IC30 at the NJ state line, and let’s sock those NJ sods with a big barrier toll at the Delaware River bridge so we can have free rides in the Philly area. And why not on the NE Ext from IC25A to IC33? The Commission in Harrisburg is always spending money out west, and doesn’t do zip for Philly, they’ll say.

Moreover the free ride IC2-IC3 north of Pittsburgh will attract a major increase in traffic. Gannett & Fleming say in their report for the Commission it will “produce a potentially undesirable increase of traffic along this segment.” (p33) They estimate (p10) a 43% increase, as traffic is drawn away from US-422/I-79 or PA-18/PA-65. Level of service on the EWM-line will go from the present LOS-B to C immediately, and to LOS-D later. In these circumstances there will be traffic pressure for widening 25km of the mainline, IC2-to-IC3 from 2x2-lanes to 2x3-lanes. The consultants say the traffic generated by freeing the IC2-IC3 leg will put it “on the borderline of the (Commission’s) criteria for adding a lane in each direction.” (p31) This widening will be an extremely expensive project and of course with tolls abolished there will be no revenue to support it. That, we think, is financially and politically irresponsible.

Alternate-4

TRnl’s alternate is to implement the Turnpike’s chosen Alt-2, but to add to it a toll on the IC2-IC3 leg. Getting rid of the tickets makes sense given that this section is becoming commuter territory with many single and 2-leg trips. Our Alt-4 would toll IC2-IC3 traffic by adding point tolls on the EB on-ramp and on the WB off-ramp at IC2 where most of the new commuter traffic will enter/leave the EWM-line from/for PA-18. There wouldn’t need to be a barrier plaza across the EWM-line itself at this point because the rest of the traffic would pay tolls on PA-60 or at the state line plaza #1.

In this day and age the objection that an extra toll point is an extra stop is invalid. Commuters don’t need to stop to pay tolls. Such regular users can easily be recruited to electronic transponders and given a dedicated roll-through, if not a highway speed e-toll lane.

Popular

The Turnpike got great huzzahs in the area for this scheme... because it is a giveaway. The Commission says it’s not because the same revenue is being raised. True, because interstate travelers at the border plaza#1 are being socked with a huge toll increase to finance the giveway to commuters IC2-IC3. It’s a bad inequitable cross-subsidy. And it may not even be a viable cross-subsidy as traffic adjusts to changed charges and changed level of service. I suspect a proportion of the interstate traffic rather than suffer the big toll increase at plaza#1 and stop&go traffic on the free section IC2 to IC3 will avoid the turnpike mainline — for I-80, PA-66, US-422, local roads etc.

Hopefully the Commission will revisit the decision before too long. Otherwise as non-paying traffic builds up people will come to think of their free ride IC2-IC3 as some kind of entitlement. And as the turnpike is turned increasingly into a favor-dealing political machine rather than a sound business, its ability to raise capital will be jeopardized. It will then be more at the mercy of the whims of politicians, and become a source of distorted travel patterns and wasteful investments.

Bud’s Breezewood-Bedford edict

This process is already under way. One of the small outrages of TEA21 was this clause: “j. Tolls on Pennsylvania Turnpike — Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no tolls shall be collected during the 6-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for travel either entering Bedford and exiting Breezewood, Pennsylvania, or entering Breezewood and exiting Bedford.”

Now recall (1) the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is an instrumentality of the state of PA (2) TEA21 is federal legislation. The US has no jurisdiction over the Penna pike and has no valid power to legislate a toll-free section of a PA state turnpike, any more than has the government of New York or of Canada.

But this is US Rep Bud Shuster’s district and to heck with the US constitution, and the limited legitimate reach of federal law. Bud happens to be in charge of the House transp committee, and his staff can slip all kinds of stuff into great fat bills like TEA21. If he can bluff the Pennsylvania Turnpike into giving his constituents a free ride by inserting a legally absurd clause into TEA21, this DC scoundrel will try anything! And I’m told, the Turnpike Commission is going along with Bud’s Breezewood-Bedford edict! Anyone with any honor in Harrisburg would have said “Bud, we run this show, not the US govt. We decide tolls, not you guys in DC. If you think otherwise, why not take us to court?” At least, I’m told, they quietly negotiated some federal compensation for the lost tolls Bedford-Breezewood. (Contact Kathy Liebler, Penna pike 717 939 9551x2850)

map caption

The Turnpike proposes to end its ticket system on the EW Mainline at a new toll plaza 3M. Plaza#1 will be converted to a barrier. #1A only connects to the turnpike (thick line) on PA60 so this toll plaza can be removed. Toll plazas at IC2 and IC3 are being removed allowing this section to be free. IC2 connects to PA18 a free road (not shown) parallel to PA60. We argue for ramp tolls at IC2 to enhance turnpike revenues and avoid the bad precedent of a free travel leg. At Cranberry IC3 is being rebuilt to provide a direct connection between the EW Mainline pike and I-79, a major improvement.