Florida Turnpike

2012-10-26: Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is the first toller in America to commit to implement dual pricing - a mix of variably priced express lanes and regular fixed price lanes in the same toll highway. The first is likely to be on the FL589 Veterans Expressway in the Tampa area which is being widened from 2 to 4 lanes each direction.

Florida's Turnpike bonds have been reaffirmed by Fitch Ratings as 'AA-' among the most highly rated of toll bonds in the country. Outlook is called 'Stable.' Fitch in spelling out the factors behind the high rating cited:

- Strategic Importance: The Florida Turnpike is a critical transportation link with a mature traffic profile and established demand.

Crashes are down drastically at the Miami toll points of Florida's Turnpike since their conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET) February 19 this year. Five former mainline toll plazas (one a split plaza) went completely freeflow and cashless in the conversion. Previously they'd had open road tolling (ORT) through the middle but cash toll booths to the sides of the mainline plazas.

Feel sorry for reporters in Miami. The nonsense of local reporting compels a Followup-Today of yesterday's Big Story - the corporate jet that landed on the Turnpike near Hollywood FL, north of Miami. In dailies the News Editor demands that Follow-Up. So whether or not they get anything today they have to file something today as the followup, even if it's nonsense.

But the Miami Herald outdid themselves in nonsense today with this lede:

There have to be  jokes this week about airplane landing tolls on Florida's Turnpike. About 1pm Wednesday a small aircraft landed in the northbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike less than a mile south of the Hollywood FL exit. It landed traveling south against the flow of traffic.

Just weeks after OOCEA, the Orlando toller, defeated a move at the state legislature by Florida Turnpike to dismantle it and take over its network of tollroads in central Florida, all is apparently forgiven. The chair of the OOCEA Walter Ketcham announced before the holiday break that the state Turnpike had offered what he called a "meaningful partnership toward making the Wekiva Parkway a reality."

Florida DOT, Faneuil and eight officials involved in toll collection on Florida's Turnpike are defendants in a class action suit that claims motorists paying with $20 bills and above were unlawfully detained on a systematic basis by toll collectors demanding identification and other "personal information" before the toll gate was raised.

With less than a month until the busy Miami area HEFT segment of Florida's Turnpike goes all-electronic there's a push to publicize a growing network of off-road locations where motorists can use cash to top up their SunPass transponder accounts. Most of the publicity has previously gone to the new Toll-by-Plate or license plate based collection method that will substitute for cash payment when toll booths and coin machines cease operations February 19.

Florida's Turnpike made the first step toward implementation of all-electronic toll (AET) operations with the beginning of toll-by-plate midnight Monday night (2010-10-11) on the southern 47 mile (76km) stretch of the Turnpike in the Miami-Dade area. Known as the Turnpike Extension (previously HEFT) from Mirimar looping a bit west and south to its end around the edge of the Miami Dade metro area it ends in the Florida City/Homestead area.

With cash payment disappearing on the tollroads of Florida as they go all-electronic, the state Turnpike is publicizing a major initiative to allow motorists to pay their tolls offroad with cash or a bank card.  The program uses the BlackStone “Touch-n-Buy” touch-screen terminals - bright red machines in use for multiple purposes at nearly 600 locations around Florida - in pharmacies, convenience stores, gas stations, ethnic markets, check cashing stores,