NON-JOINERS:Virginia, Maryland stay out of E-ZPass

“Our toll facilities are commuter roads. There is very little interstate traffic on them. And very few Smart Tag users go interstate. We get one or two phone calls a month inquiring whether our tags can be used on other toll facilities, but that’s about all. We keep monitoring traffic to see how many E-ZPass tags are turning up but so far it is very small.”

Less than one-tenth of one percent, says Daughtry.

She said she cannot think of any way she could persuade her department that the E-ZPass IAG dues would be worth paying. She was told these would be $400k/year rising to a million within a few years. She said she as also concerned about the costs of new signage, and the rules and regulations going along with membership.

“Someone described it as paying a lot of money to be told what you can’t do,” she said.

West Virginia is the nearest state that is a member-in-good-standing of the IAG and the West Virginia Turnpike (I-77/64) has a doubledigit percentage of out-of-state E-ZPass traffic. But that tollroad is a major pass through the Appalachian mountains and a major interstate trucking route.

Maryland

Maryland Transp Authority (MDTA) across the Potomac from Virginia is formally an E-ZPass member, paying its dues and participating in IAG decisions, but it has not yet implemented reciprocity, and so does not yet accept E-ZPass transponders. Since April 1999 it has issued its own M-TAGs – again Mark IV ET tags and readers – which operate as an electronic substitute for a ticketbook system for commuters. For $20 – valid for 60 days – such ‘commuters’ get to make up to 50 ET trips, an arrangement that mirrors a ticket book system that will remain in use until about end-2001. That’s a toll as low as 40c. By comparison every cash toll is $1.

By end 2000 MDTA had 65k M-TAGs in use by automobiles at the three Baltimore harbor crossings: the Fort McHenry Tunnel (I-95), the Harbor Tunnel (I-895) and the Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695) where this small number is doing a quarter of total toll transactions, over 30% of weekday, and over 40% in peak hours. The crossings carry 110k, 60k and 30k veh/day and, so, some 200k tolls/day. The ET commuter plan is doing 50k tolls/day on 65k tags, one of the highest ratios of transactions to tags in the US. Although there is no financial break only about 10k commuters continue to use tickets. But that puts the ceiling on ET penetration at about 30% of tolls.

MDTA’s original installation for $22m covered readers in 50 toll lanes at the three harbor crossings and an add-on put ET equipment in 12 toll lanes in the northbound-only tolling mainline plaza of the JF Kennedy Highway (I-95) just north of the Susquehanna river. That isn’t active yet. It will be fired up about the end of 2001 when an improved software system is installed. MDTA’s present software from Lockheed Martin doesn’t allow it to operate multiple toll plans.

Recently Lockheed got the go-ahead on a $25m addition that involves the software system upgrade to enable it to cope with E-ZPass tolls as well as the M-TAG commuter plan customers. The $25m also involves installations at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other work to extend the ET system to commercial vehicles.

Maryland’s tollster is aiming at interoperability with E-ZPass by year’s end. About 4% of vehicles currently going through the Baltimore harbor crossings have E-ZPass tags. They are read as ‘invalid’ tags by the M-TAG system.

Virginia

Toll facilities in Virginia include (1) the Dulles Toll Road (VA-267) in northern Virginia, (2) the Coleman Bridge near Williamsburg and (3) the Powhite Parkway Extension (VA-76) on the outskirts of the state Capital Richmond operated by VDOT, the (4) Dulles Greenway (VA-267) Dulles airport to Leesburg operated by investors, the Richmond Metropolitan Authority’s (5) Downtown Expressway (VA-195), (6) Powhite Parkway (VA-76), (7) Boulevard Avenue Bridge (8) Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel run by its own statutory authority. Two more toll facilities are under construction: (9) the Chesapeake Expressway tollroad (VA-168) on the far southeast coast of VA to be owned by the city (10) the Pochahontas Parkway (895-Connector) a Fluor Daniel Morrison Knudsen development connecting southern Richmond to the airport. All use the same ET equipment from Mark IV, identical to IAG E-ZPass ET equipment. System software is from TransCore, and that company is currently providing update and enhancement of the Virginia Smart Tag system to provide it with more flexibility. The software will support Virginia’s participation in E-ZPass, Daughtry told us, if the state should change its mind and move to join the IAG.

All Virginia toll facilities are part of a single electronic toll accounts system operated by Castle Rock under contract to VDOT. Castle Rock establishes all ET accounts, distributes transponders, handles customer inquiries and complaints, collects e-tolls and remits amounts owing to the various toll authorities in the state. (Lori Vidil MDTA 410 288 8406 lvidil@mdot.state.md.us, Miriam Daughtry VDOT 804 786 2758 daughtry_mh@vdot.state.va.us)