Port Auth NY/NJ pushes on with cashless toll plans - possible by end-2012
Posted on Tue, 2009-09-08 23:14
Port Authority New York New Jersey could abandon cash toll collection in 2012 on present planning. They would be the first big bridge and tunnel authority to implement all-electronic tolling (AET) in the US and one of the first in the world after the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia which went all-electronic in January this year. (CORRECTION SEE END) So far most of the cashless tolling has been on toll roads.
Around the end of this year, or early 2010 the PANYNJ Tunnels Bridges & Terminals Division will have completed a detailed plan for the conversion to cashless. 
The plan will be made public and go to the board of directors in the first half of 2010, one official told us. If the board approve the plan the procurement for the cashless conversion will begin almost immediately.
It would take 18 months to 2 years to implement.
The planning team is still debating the pros and cons of a staged switchover, crossing by crossing, as opposed to an all-at-once approach.
PANYNJ have two teams of consultants working on the AET plan on which about $10m is being spent:
- Traffic Technologies Inc on front-end toll systems
- IBI Group on business rules and back office processing
Taken for granted is that AET will be a mix of E-ZPass transponders and camera-based or video tolling. The front-end will not be different in character from the systems used in open road tolling with vehicle detection and classification, tracking through the toll zone, transponder readers, and cameras, probably front and rear. But the emphasis will be on higher performance - greater accuracy, reliability and maintainability.
The biggest challenge and changes will be in business rules and processing of video - the non-transponder side.
Some systems are all-electronic on the road but offer cash machine payment along with bank card payment at terminals or kiosks at gas stations, convenience stores or rest-stops. New Jersey Turnpike service plazas would be an obvious place for such terminals if they decide to go for them.
Another decision to be made is whether and how far to encourage prepayment/preregistration of video tolls - where motorists log-in or call in to identify themselves and their vehicle by its license plate before the trip. North Carolina Turnpike plans to push preregistration of video toll trips.
Pioneers of open road tolling
PANYNJ were early pioneers in open road tolling at the Outerbridge Crossing toll plaza in the southern part of Staten Island. Three leftside cash lanes were removed for the two lanes of open road tolling which began June 28 2005 (CORRECTION). Tolling is in the NJ-NY or eastward direction and the ORT lanes are signed for the same 45mph speed (72km/hr) as the bridge and its approaches.
PANYNJ facilities are heavily commuter oriented but the largest - George Washington Bridge - also carries quite high volumes of trucks and cars passing through the region. Therefore the
PANYNJ toll system will probably have to handle five-digit volumes of license plates from outside the regional or tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) commuter motor registries.
PANYNJ collects an average 340k tolls/day of which about 250k (73%) are E-ZPass transponder tolls. AET has to focus on how to handle the 90k/day presently cash - by some combination of increase in transponder usage and video tolling in which the license plate number and motor registry databases are used to identify the owner of the vehicle who is responsible for paying the toll.
George Washington Bridge (GWB) is the biggest challenge because of its sheer volume and because of the considerable numbers of motorists from outside the tristate region.
BACKGROUND: At average toll transactions of 148k/day (tolling is eastbound only of 2-way bridge traffic of >290k/day) the Fort Lee toll plaza complex for the GWB is one of the largest volume toll points in the country. Truck tolls are 12k/day or 8%.
Average daily toll volumes at other PANYNJ crossings from the latest annual report (2007) are:
- Lincoln Tunnel 60k of which nearly 10% 5.7k are buses, more than the truck volume 7% 4k
- Holland Tunnel 48k through a vintage tunnel from the earliest days of automobiles, tight dimensions, >98% are cars
- three Staten Island bridges 93k/day with substantial truck traffic 7.2k or 7.7% the busiest being the Goethals which links the NJ Turnpike with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge via the Staten Island Expressway
Tolling is PANYNJ's big profit center. They lose money on ports ($57m), on rail transit ($336m), on bus transit ($107m) and on real estate, ferries, and on the world trade center ($156m) and they make money on airports ($330m) but especially on toll crossings ($478m) - numbers from their 2009 budget p7.
Within the bridges and tunnels - this uses the latest data which is from 2007 - GWB is the highly profitable crossing according to PANYNJ accounts. Grossing $326m GWB has $161m expenses and makes a $165m profit after operating expenses, depreciation, amortization, and interest. (It pays no taxes.)
The two tunnels with $205m in tolls are more expensive to operate ($216m) and lose money ($11m), though not on the scale of PANYNJ's other subsidized activities. (Toll rate increases since 2007 are likely to have put them in the black.)
The Staten Island bridges gross $187m in tolls and run up $98m in expenses for a profit of $89m.
RECENT TRAFFIC: Officials say 2009 traffic remains below 2008 levels which were down on 2007. Car traffic has come back but truck traffic still lags.
on decision to go to openraod tolling see
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/822
CORRECTION: we orginally wrote that PANYNJ's plans might be the first major bridge conversion to all-electronic tolling in the world. This was incorrect Peter Rigg of the Sydney Roads & Traffic Authority in Australia points out. Their Sydney Harbour Bridge & Tunnel went all electronic in January this year. Riggs cites a TOLLROADSnews report 2009-01-12 headlined: "Sydney Harbour Bridge goes cashless - first big urban bridge to go all-electronic toll".
see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3933
TOLLROADSnews 2009-09-08 CORRECTION 2009-09-09 23:45