ibtta

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Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's resignation from IBTTA has been quietly acknowledged by the trade association by removing its name from the official membership list. (see nearby)

However there has been no comment by IBTTA, and no other acknowledgement of the departure of one of the oldest and longest standing members of the established industry trade association.

Shock and awe were the main reactions we picked up Friday to the news that the Pennsylvania Turnpike had departed in protest from IBTTA the toll industry's long established and generally well-regarded trade association.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is withdrawing from the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) on the grounds it has been leaning too much toward private and international toll operators. Turnpike chief executive Joseph Brimmeier tells us he and other US public toll authorities will be forming a new American Association of Public Toll Roads.

US secretary of transportation Mary Peters this week called for the toll industry association IBTTA to work for the elimination of all toll booths in the US by 2014. The last ones "should be sent to the Smithsonian (Museum)," she said.

Tollroads are 36% safer than free roads according to data published by Jeff Campbell in an article "Toll vs Nontoll: Toll facilities are safer" which will appear in the next issue of the IBTTA journal TOLLWAYS. Campbell is the research manager at IBTTA.

There is some journalism school somewhere where they teach a "tollroad-execs-living-it-up-at-your-expense" formula story because you see the identical thing pop up all over the place, year after year in print, TV, radio and on the web - just the names, the meal menus, and the money are different.

The suspicious thing about these reports is that the toll industry's trade association IBTTA always gets a priceless plug  for running lap o' luxury, party-time events in exotic locales.

Type 'Maine Turnpike' and 'Vienna' in a Google search box and you'll see that the Turnpike delegation of five attending the IBTTA annual conference in Vienna is big news back home. The list of stories goes on for several pages. Most of them are variants of an AP story by Francis X Quinn though one or two others picked up on it separately.

MARKETING & PR

Alternative Milestones

There are no free roads. There is a toll road , or there is a taxing road, or there is no road.

WORDS

Toll, fare, or road payment

IBTTA in Rome