Massachusetts DOT may do pilot of all-electronic tolling, Gov says

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is keen to move quickly to get a "pilot" project for all-electronic tolling (AET) running on the Turnpike. In a radio interview this week he mentioned the possibility of "tests" of all-electronic tolling at the Turnpike's interchange with MA128 (I-95) and also on the Tobin Bridge.

The Governor said: “I’d love to try to do something sooner rather than later... I hope it’s months, just a pilot.’’

Patrick called it "open road tolling" but from his description of no lines and no cash toll collection, and use of cameras, it is clear he was referring to what is referred to in the industry as all-electronic tolling (AET).

[LINGO: Open road tolling (ORT) in toll industry lingo refers to highway speed tolling for those with transponders, those without them being required to pull off into conventional cash lanes and pay at toll booths to the side - the Illinois Tollway being the prime example of ORT.  All-electronic tolling (AET) also referred to as cashless implies no cash collection the prime example being 407ETR, CO/E470, and major tollways in Dallas TX.]

Officials from Raytheon's toll systems unit in the Los Angeles area met for a couple of hours with Governor Patrick a couple of weeks earlier. Raytheon only do all-electronic tolling.

Massachusetts Department of Transportation now control both the Turnpike and the Tobin Bridge, the first having been transferred to it by the now defunct Turnpike Authority, the second from the Mass Port Authority.

We asked MassDOT what they are doing in response to the Governor's hope for a pilot project.

Adam Hurtubise a spokesman told us that at the Governor's direction, they are "exploring efficiencies in tolling that would make things easier for drivers and more cost-effective for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation."

The statement he provided us in an email followup reads: 

"This next-generation tolling initiative includes but will not be solely focused on (all electronic tolling - TRnews) - we'll be looking at a wide variety of efficiencies (for example, elimination of paper ticketing) that will make tolling easier for drivers.
 
"There are no specific timelines for implementation because we are still in the preliminary stages of exploring and learning more about what technologies exist.

"At MassDOT, the status quo is no longer acceptable. 

Open competitive bids

"It's our job to move to a new business model that allows us to better adapt to new technologies.
 
"When the time comes to implement a pilot project for open road tolling or any other new technology on existing toll roads, MassDOT will open that project to a competitive bidding process."

MassDOT inherited from the Turnpike some of the most expensive cash toll collectors in the world so the department has a strong incentive to go all-electronic.

In the summer of 2008 the base pay for fulltime toll collectors was $53k/yr. With benefits plus overtime many were costing close to $100k/yr.

CORRECTION: We had a satellite picture of the wrong interchange/toll plaza above right until a sharp reader caught it for us. Correction made 2010-03-08 11:15

TOLLROADSnews 2010-03-05