AET

Tampa Expressway Authority chief exec Joe Waggoner says all-electronic toll (AET) collection is "going well." They ended cash collection at the Tampa Hillsborough County's Selmon Expressway Sept 17 last year and now have the familiar AET combination of transponder tolls and license plate image based billing.

Pat Jones CEO at IBTTA makes a great point in a letter published this weekend in the Washington Post (below) about an an odd omission by the politicians speaking at the opening ceremonies at the Inter County Connector in the near northern suburbs of Washington DC last week. Neither the US secretary of transportation, nor the Maryland Governor, nor local elected representatives - no one at a microphone - mentioned its path-breaking new technology.

A new report to customers by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NYMTA) is mostly devoted to what's being done to make the subways and buses run better but there are couple of pages embracing all-electronic tolling at the City's bridges and tunnels. The report is titled "Making every dollar count" Agenda 2011." There's a link to the full report at the bottom.

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.

Wilbur Smith Associates and McCormack Taylor have been selected by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to produce a study of possible conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET). The Turnpike has made no decision to go cashless but the study is clearly a move in that direction.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike, America's oldest, already has exits where no cash is collected, and a couple in planning. It also has a number of cash lanes that are unstaffed - served by automatic toll payment machines that handle bills, coins and bank cards and dispense change.

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.

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.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has issued a request for statements of interest (RSI) in conducting a feasibility study on conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET). The study is to cover the full 545 miles, 877km including the Turnpike mainline and the several 'extensions' and must present options available, general system requirements, estimated costs, traffic and revenue implications and a schedule for implementation.

New York's MTA Bridges and Tunnels (MTAB&T) are doing a "pilot project" with all-electronic toll (AET) collection at the Henry Hudson Bridge plaza on the far northern tip of Manhattan island.  A staff presentation to the MTA board says the benefits of all-electronic are: less stopping and reduced travel times for motorists, reduced operating costs for MTAB&T and reduced capital cost in the future.

The last cash tolls were to be collected in the early hours of Saturday morning (Sept 18) on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa Florida. The planned conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET) began at 9.30pm Friday night with just one cash lane each direction and the beginning of license plate toll collection in the central lanes.

According to plans the conversion was to be complete buy 4:30am Saturday.