Toll diversion studied in southwest Maine - found to be 2 to 3 percent

Diversion from the tollroad to the parallel free road is an issue in southwest Maine, as in other places. In Maine they've just studied it again. HNTB ran surveys for the Turnpike on the nearby free roads and at the York toll plaza to establish how many people are taking the free road to avoid the toll.

With the help of police they pulled over a sample of motorists and gave them a questionaire, asking them their origins and destinations, the reason for taking the route they were on, any stops they make, the frequency with which they make the trip, etc. See here for a presentation on the survey: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/HNTBprsn.pdf

Their findings:

- two to three percent of the traffic on the Turnpike is diverting to avoid the toll

- 4.2% to 4.9% of traffic on local roads is avoiding the toll

But what's the toll they are avoiding? No simple answer.

The cash toll at the York toll plaza is: Class 1 car $1.75, Class 2 2-axle 6-tires $4.40, Class 5 tractor-trailer $7.00.

For personal E-ZPass they have a quarterly commuter plan allowing unlimited travel for $42.50 per quarter, so people doing more than eight toll passes per month start to save money with the pass.

The business class E-ZPass toll rate is a bit over half the cash toll rate - $2.40 for a Class 2 van, $3.55 for a tractor-trailer at York.

On top of those discounts business vehicles with E-ZPass accounts have a monthly bill based discount with $35 plus 20% off monthly bills of $300 and more and smaller discounts for smaller bills.

Earlier study similar results

Bruce Pelatier of Maine Turnpike Authority says the survey results were similar to others done previously - showing that a few percent of motorists will divert and take the slower journey on local roads. However the number is not large because the time penalty on the local roads is significant.

Alternates 2 lane main streets and rural road

US1, the old Post Road is mostly just 2 lanes, often with a third central turning lane and it is the main street of the various coastal communities on the sea side of the Turnpike. It was surveyed northbound in York and southbound in Wells, not far to the north. Also surveyed were state routes 4 and 236 on the inland side of the Turnpike.

To avoid the toll plaza motorists have travel about 35 km (22mi) between Portsmouth NH and Wells ME at Exit 19 on the Maine Turnpike.

The parallel roads on the landside 4 and 236 are more circuitous but less built up so travel times are probably not much different.

A study in 2006 tracked down motorists via license plates and attempted to deduce how many were avoiding the toll plaza.

It was criticized by local officials so the stop-&-hand-questionaires study was done recently by HNTB.

Results for both surveys were similar.

Toll Plaza rebuild planned in new location

The toll plaza is an issue because the Turnpike Authority is moving to rebuild it. Some of the locals would like to use diversion as an argument for abolishing the toll.

Unlikely. It's the Turnpike's largest moneymaker.

About 60 years old the existing plaza is poorly located in a low spot, and on a curve.

Nearby ramps cause weaving problems.

The roadway is sinking. Gores are visibly sunken. (see picture nearby)

If there were a Toll Safety Agency the plaza would probably be closed as sub-standard.

"It's basically located in a wetlands," says Pelatier.

Four possible locations for replacement plaza

Four possible locations for a new toll plaza have been tentatively chosen for alternatives analysis and permitting. The plan is to do 2 or 3 lanes of open road electronic tolling through the middle with cash lanes on the sides.

The Turnpike is three travel lanes each direction here.

45k veh/day

York Toll Plaza does an average 45k vehicles/day, almost a three fold increase in 25 years. Of the 45k 5.4k or 12% are trucks.

About 50 percent of transactions are done by transponder (E-ZPass), the rest cash with toll collectors. A high proportion of motorists especially in the summer are visitors - tourists and vacationers.

The Turnpike Authority, Pelatier says, wants a location for the replacement toll plaza in a straight section of roadway for good sight distances, and on at least a slightly high spot- to help with deceleration and acceleration.

BACKGROUND: The first stretch of the Maine Turnpike - 72km (45mi) from near the New Hampshire line to Portland - opened in 1947 making it the second state tollroad to be built in the US in the automobile era after the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It now consists of 175km (109mi) of expressway of which virtually all the original stretch has been rebuilt to 6 lanes divided from the original 4. The remaining 105km (65mi) is 4 lanes divided.

It has 17 interchanges, six service plazas and 19 toll plazas, all but two of them side or ramp plazas. Originally a ticket system catering to longdistance traffic it has become increasingly a multipurpose road with substantial commuter and daily business traffic.

About ten years ago there was a shift to point tolling, a shift which involved many compromises and generates continuing 'equity' arguments. A special committee is reporting on the distribution of toll points and the charges.

Maine was an early adopter of electronic tolling in the mid-1990s but had an orphan AT/Comm system until Mark IV E-ZPass was introduced in February 2005 and the state became part of the big interoperable tolling network.

The Maine system did an average 209k toll transactions per day and generated $83m in toll revenue in 2006. Operating expenses were $36m. The Turnpike has about $320m of outstanding debt.

Gorgeous pictures from the Maine coast are from http://www.johnbald.net/gallery/cat_maine_coast.html

 And here is a wonderful volunteer effort by a Maine National Guard  engineer battalion to help Iraqi villagers with the help of donations from people in Maine:

 http://www.adoptaniraqivillage.org/index.html

TOLLROADSnews 2008-01-25