Osceola Parkway: Toll road with signals on yellow

The Osceola Parkway is unusual as a toll road in that it is built to arterial rather than expressway standards. 12.4 miles (20km) in length, costing $92m and opened to traffic in September 1995 this new southern Orlando metro area toll road has more at-grade signalized intersections than interchanges, though it is designed for eventual upgrade to full expressway standard.

But meanwhile Osceola County probably deserves praise for resisting the urge to do too much too early. If it had incurred the cost of full expressway standard it might be in deep, deep financial trouble!

The facility is running well below expected traffic and toll projections, admits Larry O’Dell, director of public works for the county and the principal official for the project. In May, its ninth month in operation traffic was an average 9,000 vehicles a day and revenues were running at an annualized $3.2m. By comparison projections for the toll road made before construction were for a first year with average daily traffic flows of 24,000 and annual toll takings of $8.3m. A look at the record since opening suggests toll receipts for 1996 will be lucky to be half what were forecast for the first full year.

The forecasts were made by URS/Coverdale & Colpitts of New York City and used a traffic modelling technique in place of the more conventional traffic survey/diversion estimations (though these have also been known to produce forecasting errors of similar size.)

The Osceola Parkway provides a convenient new approach to Walt Disney World and associated tourist and entertainment attractions on the western fringe of the Orlando area. It caters for motorists driving northward up the mainline of Florida’s Turnpike from the 4m pop. Miami-Palm Beach strip on Florida’s southeast coast. Or for Disney area employees driving to work from homes in Kissimmee or elsewhere in Osceola county. Or contractors and suppliers based there to gain access to Disney.

But maybe the marketplace is telling us that the area is being overbuilt with terrific highways, and that toll roads have trouble competing so long as gas taxes are paying for ‘free’ roads. The principal free road is I-4 that picks up southbound I-95 traffic at Daytona beach and heads right through central Orlando and goes past Disney on its way southwest toward the 2.4m pop. Tampa/St Petersberg area on the central west coast. I-4 picks up OOCEA’s Bee Line Expressway (T-528) traffic from Melbourne/Cocoa Beach and also traffic from the front door of Orlando International Airport. But there are also a bunch of pretty good ‘free’ arterials criss-crossing the area.

Perhaps the most serious toll competition is OOCEA’s Central Florida Greeneway (T-417), the southern segment of an evolving Orlando area beltway that runs parallel with the Osceola Parkway just one to two miles (1.5 to 3 km) north of it and which provides expressway standard service to traffic volumes that in much of the rest of the world are catered for by a 2-lane arterial. Fortunately for the holders of the Parkway bonds T-417 lacks an interchange with Florida’s Turnpike so the Osceola Parkway can pull most of the Miami-Disney traffic. It is however competing with the traditional route, arterial US-192 that takes off from the Turnpike earlier for traffic from the direction of Miami.

No doubt the traffic signals aren’t helping patronage on the Osceola Parkway. As an interim intersection control device European/Australian style roundabouts would have been smarter, if a bit bold for the U.S. (“They aren’t in the Manual,” meaning the AASHTO state officials’ standards book.) Roundabouts keep traffic flowing much better than signals at traffic volumes less than warranting interchanges, provide more safety than signals, attract patrons with more of a free flow expressway feel and they are usually cheaper (see future article.)

A good bit of the Osceola parkway is a trooper’s paradise with a posted speed limit of only 45mph (72km/hr). One local told us the cops are garnering more in speeding fines on the Oseaola Parkway than the tolling station is getting in tolls. Heck, that may have been tongue in cheek. The county’s Mr O’Dell proffers that the 45mph speed posting is “too low” and says they will have to hike it. The 45mph was set on the advice of lawyers (Who else could be so...) to conform with other state speed postings in those segments where there’s an urban style curb (kerb) rather than a full pull-off shoulder, even though the kerbside lane is 14 foot (4.27m) and there’s also a 2’ (61cm) gutter.

Tolling is conducted about midway along the Osceola facility with a mainline barrier plaza near Shingle Creek, a floodplain with not many nearby crossings for toll dodgers (called ‘shunpikers’ in the old days.) The toll at the mainline plaza for a car is $1 and there are also ramp plazas charging 50c per car at an interchange a bit closer to Disney. Regulars can use electronic tags, the OOCEA Mark IV E Pass system being in use on the Osceola parkway. Construction is mostly four lanes, though there are 6 lane stretches immediately off Florida’s Trunpike, and on the bridge over Shingle Creek near the main toll plaza. There is no median barrier except on the Shingle Creek bridge.

The Disney company strongly supported construction of this county toll road in order to improve patrons’ access to its business, and in turn is paying heavily for the roadway via the Reedy Creek Improvement District which it dominates. Reedy Creek put $7.5m into a contingency trust fund to provide against revenue shortfalls and is paying $1 million year in flat subsidy to the Parkway enterprise. It also provided some guarantees for the bonds. The county borrowed enough in its initial bond sale to cover $21m in interest before the project broke even so there is no early cash flow problem. Just some concern about the quality of traffic forecasting and about its medium term prospects. (Contacts Osceola Co Larry K. O’Dell tel 407 932 5306, URS consultants Arthur H Goldberg tel 212 736 4444)