Like er, confusion in the, like, news room - pity the poor readers in Miami

"Extension of Dolphin Expressway to be SunPass only" read the headline in the Miami SUN-SENTINEL (2004-07-08). The headline writer can't have read the report, not even the first paragraph we first thought: "The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority is making a statement with its first major expansion in 12 years - a new kind of toll plaza that lets those with SunPass cruise at highway speeds while forcing cash-paying drivers to leave the highway to a set of tollbooths beside the main road."

Making statements eh, but what message is it sending? Clichethink.

So there will be cash toll collection despite the headline.

But wait a minute? What's this next par: "The authority is also building a westward extension of the Dolphin Expressway that will be the first road in South Florida available only to SunPass users."

Well maybe the headline's right after all.

Poor Miami readers, are they supposed to make sense of this kind of journalism? No wonder newspapers lose circulation...

Let's try get it right:

"Dolphin Exwy Extension to be SunPass only

"The 2-mile extension of the Dolphin Expressway (SR-836) beyond the Turnpike to NW 137th Avenue will be limited to motorists with SunPass electronic toll accounts when it opens in 2007. There will be no cash toll booths available.

"Officials said that most of the motorists using the extension will be frequent users and are likely to get SunPass. The volume of motorists wanting to pay cash on the extension would be too small to warrant construction of toll booths and associated manual toll collection equipment.

"Consideration will be given to video tolling where motorists without transponders have their picture taken by automatic cameras, the motor vehicle registry referenced, and a bill is sent in the mail.

"A groundbreaking for the extension and new toll plaza was held July 8.

"The SR-836 Extension work most of which is west of the Turnpike also involves a new toll plaza located east of the Turnpike on the approaches to the extension, but also catering to traffic traveling between the Turnpike and existing SR-836. Cash collection will remain for Turnpike-836 traffic but only in small plazas located off to the right side. Motorists with SunPass will be able to cruise by the new toll plazas at highway speeds on a section of regular 2-lane roadway, their toll accounts read by antennas on an overhead gantry."

Clear?

The rest of the SUN SENTINEL report, for those who hadn't turned the page in bewilderment at the headline and first few pars was fine.

There are serious moves to cashless open road tolling in the Miami area. The biggest is the planned conversion of the Turnpike's Sawgrass Expressway into a no-cash highspeed ETC only facility. That'll be a big test, because it is an existing conventional tollroad. About 40% of present users pay cash. They will be asked to forgo the option and get a transponder or be video-tolled - at a premium toll rate.

As Servando Parapar CEO of MDX says, the no-cash arrangements, ET-only 836-Extension will be no big deal. It's a new pike. Its customers will delight in the new accessibility they are getting, the traffic signals they are bypassing and the five or six minutes they are saving with the new road. That to take advantage of the new facility, they have to get a transponder will be no no big deal.

You have to wish the Turnpike with its Sawgrass ORT the best of luck, but expect that they will face some protests - for taking away the cash option presently there. TOLLROADSnews 2004-07-11