Florida, E-ZPass exchanging toll camera data to test license plate based tolls

Several toll agencies in Florida and the E-ZPass have begun exchange of camera based data to test the feasibility of levying tolls on one another's license plates in a pilot program. In most states when the transponder readers don't recognize a local transponder, or any transponder, a camera is triggered that takes pictures of the rear and sometimes also the front of the vehicle. Each state or tolling area (E-ZPass IAG, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas etc) will generate a toll bill or violation notice based on their ability to access 'foreign' state motor registry databases.

The pilot program to exchange camera based data between toll areas is being conducted under the auspices of the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI) and the I-95 Coalition.  

Started last week

Several toll areas began exchanging camera captured license plate data last week.

No tolls are being actually processed in the pilot program, just the camera files are being exchanged to test the feasibility of tolling one another's customers.

Today Florida Turnpike seeing an E-ZPass transponder on a car from say Delaware will try to collect a toll or issue a violation notice by mail to the owner of a car that was seen in  open road toll lanes in say Miami, without any help from the local toller.

Under interoperability Florida's Turnpike would send the camera file data direct to the E-ZPass toll agency, say Delaware DOT which would process it like its own local camera files, first checking to see if the car owner in Delaware had an E-ZPass account.

If the driver had an E-ZPass account  the Delaware account could be debited by the amount of the Florida toll.

If not Delaware E-ZPass could in theory use its access to local motor registry data bases to identify the vehicle owner and send a toll bill or violation notice (depending on  business rules) in the mail to collect on behalf of Florida's Turnpike. This part of possible future interoperability is NOT being trialed at present because there are no arrangements with state motor registries, and there may be legal complications in making inquiries on behalf of another state. (ADDITION Friday 10:30 and see comment by Jim Crawford below)

It would work the other way too. A Florida vehicle in Virginia say would be gotten on cameras on a Richmond Metropolitan Authority's (RMA) Downtown Expressway. Instead of trying to collect the toll via the Florida databases, RMA would send the camera file to Florida's SunPass processing center which might find the vehicle had a SunPass account that could be debited to collect the Richmond VA toll.

Florida and the E-ZPass states would settle periodically by exchanges of net balances owing.

JJ Eden chairman of ATI told us the pilot program is an effort to learn what needs to be done to handle one another's camera data. Business rules vary from one area to another, so part of the challenge of interoperability is how to deal with different business rules, or harmonizing them.

Each participating toll authority will need to consult their own lawyers to see if there are problems sending license plate data to other states, Eden says.

ATI already has a detailed model for exchange of camera files. Now that is being tested with real camera files.

IAG executive stresses no lookups on behalf of other states

Jim Crawford executive director of E-ZPass IAG this morning stresses there have been no discussions with the IAG on having members look up license plates for one another, adding: 

"We do not look up each other's license plates and to do so would be a violation of law in at least a couple of States."

Crawford says from an IAG standpoint they are looking at whether they could provide reciprocity for account holders who approve having their read tags in other areas and charged to their E-ZPass accounts.

But he says they need to establish that there is a need this.

And he adds: "There are a number of technical issues that must be addressed as well, especially for ticket based toll facilities."  ADDED Friday 10:30

Money next

Next step, Eden of ATI says is how money balances would be moved between different toll jurisdictions.

Bank of America New York and Fidelity gave presentations to ATI recently on how they could service toll authorities interoperability balances.

Texas and Oklahoma Turnpike are working on details of interoperability and planning levying tolls on one another's vehicles and exchanging balances. They plan to test money exchanges soon.

Danger of federal intervention

Another role for ATI will be to lobby Congress to not mess up developing industry efforts to implement toll interoperability with a clumsy Washington DC imposed standard as foreshadowed in HB44, the Surface Transportation Authorization Act.

ATI now has some 40 toll authorities signed up, 30 paid up, and ten watchers. See below:

https://www.tollinterop.org/Common/Home.aspx

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-06 ADDITIONS Friday 10:30