ORT

2013-05-23: In the fall Peter Mills CEO of the Maine Turnpike plans to present his board of directors with options for the future of toll collection at the important but troublesome south end of the Turnpike around York. He says the Turnpike Authority has three to four years to get a new toll system in place.

The cost of driving these days has far extended past the cost of a monthly car payment and gasoline. Parking, maintenance, taxes, tolls and insurance can add up quickly, even if you use a competitive marketplace such as Autoinsurance.us. Open-road tolling is a smart technology that offers convenience and could help lower prices for taxes and tolls.

2012-08-23: New Hampshire DOT has its second open road tolling (ORT) project under way at the Hooksett toll plaza on the I-93 Turnpike north of Manchester. Central toll lanes of the 14 lane plaza are being closed off this week to allow demolition of booths and islands so that 2x2 ORT lanes can be constructed through the center.

2012-08-19: Wikipedia will tell you in its entry for E470 tollroad in Denver that tolling began on its first segment from I-25 south of Denver to Parker Road July 15 1991 "making it the first highway in the US to implement electronic tolling." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-470  Wikipedia also will tell you that: "The Dallas North Tollway was the first toll road in the United States to implement Electronic Toll Collection technology, with the introduction of

2012-08-03: Open road tolling (ORT) is scheduled to begin not far from the center of the Virginia capital Richmond Monday midmorning August 6 - at the busy mainline plaza of the Downtown Expressway (VA195). Three open road toll lanes will operate westbound through the plaza with four cash lanes (two staffed, two coin machine) alongside.

The new ORT lanes will speed the trip home evenings for central Richmond workers who live to the west or south.

Maine Turnpike Authority are doing their first open road tolling (ORT) at the New Gloucester mainline plaza near mile-67, about two thirds of the way north on the 103 mile Turnpike. A contract was approved by the directors today. The present 10-lane conventional barrier plaza will give up the four central lanes for a single high speed ORT lane each direction plus generous shoulders, leaving three conventional cash/slow-speed electronic toll lanes each direction.

A single open road toll (ORT) lane on I-80 at the Delaware Water Gap bridge toll point is consistently carrying more traffic than five conventional toll lanes alongside, Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission  reports.  Traffic has been steaming through the leftside ORT lane at about 2,000 vehicles per hour (1.8 seconds per vehicle) during weekday peak periods, whereas the conventional toll lanes tend to back up when traffic goes above about 400

Maine native and toll systems engineer Daryl S Fleming has previously worked as a consultant to the town of York and advised them that all-electronic tolling (AET) is the most cost-effective collection mode for the controversial toll plaza there at the southern end of the Maine Turnpike. He argues here against the idea of doing a hybrid open road toll in the center with cash-to-the-sides (ORT+cash) at the existing plaza:

Daryl Fleming, Ramon Grijalva and Tom McDaniel who comprise the eTrans Group all have PhDs in engineering. But just as impressive they were heavily involved in the nitty-gritty of getting the first electronic toll systems to work during the late 1990s. We first met them back then in Toronto Canada when they were on the job at 407ETR on the world's first big all-electronic startup.

They've been at it here and there ever since.

Maine Turnpike Authority's proposal for an open road toll (ORT) plus cash toll plaza gets editorial support this morning from the Portland Press-Herald, the major newspaper of the state.  The editorial writer picks up on the great reception ORT+cash got in the introductory test over the Memorial Day weekend at the Hampton toll plaza in New Hampshire. It's just 20 minutes south of the contentious toll plaza sites near York Maine.