Tampa looking at all electronic cashless future

Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority is another looking toller looking at going cashless. Susan Chrzan, spokesman says "We are working towards cashless tolling."

The Authority has been enthused by what she calls the "very successful" implementation of all-electronic tolling on the elevated reversible. They are ahead of forecast in traffic and getting positive reviews from all over, most important, locally.  The 15km (9 mile) Reversible Lanes facility, two-thirds of which is elevated, opened July 2006 and is designed principally for commuters from the eastern suburbs going downtown. It adds three lanes to the previous two lanes in the peak direction.

FTE does toll collection

Toll collection on the Tampa tollroads is conducted for the local authority by the state Florida Turnpike Enterprise which in turn manages private contractors, so any decisions to end cash collection would be made jointly with the state enterprise. FTE has a contract with Raytheon to upgrade the whole state managed toll system with provision for a changing mix of lane constrained and open road tolling. The Raytheon unit (Hughes at the time) was the pioneer of all-electronic tolling in North America- on 407ETR in Toronto.

Chrzan says that with new dual mode (TransCore E-6) readers being installed on the Tampa expressway they will be well placed to promote new sticker tags. 70% of transactions are now by transponder.

Sticker tags to be issued free - they will cost the Authority about $8.50 each vs $20+ for the SunPass hardbodies - will boost transponder usage even further.

Chrzan says no special study of cashless is contemplated at the moment but the objective is being considered in all their plans.  HNTB are general engineering consultants and Wilbur Smith do their traffic and revenue and toll rate advice.

Major projects in the immediate future are the I-4 Connector, an extended interchange with the major east-west free highway, and major rehabilitation of the Crosstown through the center of the city, just west of where the Reversible Lanes end.

BACKGROUND: Toll revenues were $28m in the last year reported on the authority's only tollroad the Selmon Crosstown Expressway which is 22.5km (14 miles) and has two mainline toll plazas and 17 interchanges. 4 pairs of ramps have ramp tolling. Elsewhere most ramps are missing to prevent free rides. THEA does about 90k/day.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-04-14