RANKINGS:FL king of toll capacity, NJ leads in toll travel

Federal Highway Admin (FHWA) data just released shows Florida (FL) leads the US in centerline miles of toll facilities and also in lane-miles of toll roadway, but New Jersey (NJ) is top of the US heap in tolled traffic. NJ is way ahead at nearly 33m veh-mi daily with a big gap to three states bunched together: New York 20m, Illinois 20m and Florida 18m. In traffic PA is not far behind at 15m.

A surprise to some will be the high ranking of Puerto Rico (PR) which carries more toll traffic (7.6m) than Ohio (7.2m), Texas (7m), Oklahoma (5m) and California (4.7m). In terms of capacity (lane-miles) the big toll states are closely bracketed: FL (2518), NY (2287), NJ (2283), and PA (2,134). IL (1415) is not far behind. It has the largest single urban tollway system and they are wide – mostly 6 and some 8 lanes.

Florida of course has the most diverse toll systems – major urban systems in its three largest cities Miami, Tampa and Orlando, as well as the major intercity system and many smaller toll roads run by the state, and a great heap of toll crossings to barrier islands.

Many may wonder at Texas’ small showing. It has almost no toll bridges or tunnels which of course boost up veh-mi in states like California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Maryland. Texas has more new toll facilities in construction, design or plans than any other state in the US, and the population is increasing fast. So TX will rise rapidly in these tables in the near future.

Florida seems likely to consolidate itself as the leading toll state in the US in terms of toll capacity online. It may soon gain #2 place in toll traffic but will take some years to overhaul NJ for top place. Colorado doesn’t quite make it into these tables but with two or three more toll projects under way it will soon jump in.

Nevada is the only state without any toll facility at all. Maybe gambling finances everything there?

The data suggest toll roads carry 2.3% of total road travel in the US: 175m out of 7,370m veh-mi/day, but of course they represent a larger proportion (7.8%) of travel on motorway-standard roads (2,230m.)

‘Interstates’ plus ‘Other freeways and expressways’ of FHWA terminology we call motorway standard roads, or simply motorways to try and simplify the mass of confusing US definitions and different usages. US motorways represent 55,547 centerline-mi and 250,370 lane-mi. Toll facilities are therefore 8.5% of centerline-mi and 8.4% of the lane-mileage or capacity of the US motorway system.

In some states of course toll facilities loom much larger. In FL the 2518 lane-mi of toll facilities represent 44% of the motorway capacity of the state (5763 lane-mi). In NJ the 2283 tolled lane-mi are 53% of the state’s motorway capacity (4288 lane-mi.) The only problem with these numbers is that the best estimate we can get of motorway standard roads in the US is ‘Rural interstate’ + ‘Urban interstate’ + ‘Other freeways & expressways’ (OF&E.) The ‘other’ means non-interstate and includes US-routes and state routes like for example the Pomona Fwy CA-60 in Los Angeles or MD-100 and VA-267 (Dulles Airport Access/Toll Road/Greenway) in the greater Washington DC area. But FHWA only breaks out the urban component of OF&Es. There are a few motorway standard rural non-interstates (OF&E) – parts of CA/US-101, NY-17 in the Catskills, and NJ-55 for example. So FHWA simply has no categorization that allows a fully comprehensive estimate of motorway standard roads (or what it calls ‘freeways & expressways’) in the US. (Contact Paul Svercl FHWA 202 366 5036 paul.svercl@fhwa.dot.gov)