Georgia

Georgia State toll authority (SRTA) is offering free applications (apps) for iPhones and Android mobile phones that allow motorists to register their occupancy/toll eligibility. Users of Express Lanes who normally pay tolls because there are insufficient people in the vehicle use the app to signal they have the eligibility for toll-free rides on occasions they do have the three bodies required.

Short of toll-payers on the I-85 Express Lanes off-peak Georgia state toll authority (GSRTA) is allowing the off-peak tolls to go down as low as one cent/mile. The off-peak toll band now varies between one cent and 90c/mile.

Until now the off-peak price band has been 10c to 90c/mile - the actual toll being set by dynamic pricing algorithms according to traffic and available roadspace.

Dropping the bottom toll rate from 10c to one cent is intended to encourage use of the express lanes at times when the 10c/mile keeps them nearly empty.

Georgia generated shock waves in infrastructure investment circles with an announcement  last night that it was canceling the managed or toll lanes procurement for GA/I-75 and I-575 to the northwest of Atlanta. The project had seemed to be well past the point of no return.

The Georgia I-85 toll express lanes (GA85XL) now in their eighth week of operation continue to attract more patronage, but tolls while growing, are still low per mile.  We've worked on seven full weeks of data. Average weekday traffic in the variably priced lanes is now 11,210 vs 4,170 in the first week.

Toll paying traffic in the GA/I-85 Express Lanes (XL) continued strong growth in the third week of operations. Average daily tolls were 8688 up 39% in Week-3 over Week-2's 6265 which in turn was up 44% on the dismal 4170 of the first week. So toll paying traffic has slightly more than doubled since the first week.

The average toll rate remained a modest 88c in the third week.

Georgia I-85 Express Lanes (GA/I-85XL) traffic is growing strongly in the third week of operations without loss of travel time advantages as compared to the second week. Tuesday toll-paying traffic Oct 18 is reported at 9200 vs 5773 Tues Oct 11 and 3513 Tues Oct 4.

After a dismal first week with little traffic the Georgia I-85 toll express lanes (XL) did somewhat better in their second week. Toll-paying traffic averaged 6250/day in the second week, up 44% on the 4170 daily average of the first week. (Monday 10th holiday excluded) Data provided by Georgia Tolls (SRTA) show no improvement so far in traffic flows in the free lanes. Of course we're only talking two weeks of operation.

The launch of managed toll lanes this week on I-85 northeast of Atlanta was so mismanaged that the state Governor intervened after three days and very publicly ordered changes.  For three nights TV, radio and the press in Atlanta reported the fiasco of noticeably worse congestion in the general purpose lanes alongside almost empty "Express" or toll managed lanes on the big highway northeast out of Atlanta, the first in a huge proposed network.

Georgia DOT are close to formally calling for proposals for toll or 'managed lanes' in the I-75/I-575 corridors northwest of downtown Atlanta. Their quiet procurement of a toll concessionaire has already selected three groups as qualified to make proposals. They are some of the biggest international groups in the toll concession business:

Intermec Inc, a former owner of Amtech, the toll tag segment of TransCore, recently demanded that the Georgia state toll authority (GaSRTA) buy Intermec readers or insist that their vendor buy license rights they claim to hold to multiprotocol readers.