cashless

America's largest toller MTAB&T in New York City is moving to convert its toll collection at the Henry Hudson Bridge to all-electronic or cashless.

The last toll collector in Colorado handed in their coin tray for the last time 10pm Dec 31 as the Northwest Parkway went cashless with all-electronic tolling. The parkway's big sister E470 went cashless in the first half of 2009, and the last cash was collected July 3. I-25 HOT Lanes operated by Colorado DOT have always been cashless.

By April 2011 Johannesburg metro area in South Africa should have a world class all electronic toll (AET) system doing upwards of 2m toll transactions/day and collecting $500m/year.

Maryland authorities are proposing toll rates for cars of 25c to 35c/mile peak hours (6 to 9am, 4 to 7pm workdays) and 20c to 30c/mile offpeak - metric: 16c to 22c/km peak and 12c to 19c/km off-peak.

Port Authority New York New Jersey could abandon cash toll collection in 2012 on present planning. They would be the first big bridge and tunnel authority to implement all-electronic tolling (AET) in the US and one of the first in the world after the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia which went all-electronic in January this year. (CORRECTION SEE END) So far most of the cashless tolling has been on toll roads.

HEFT, the busiest tollroad in Florida with an average 460k transactions/day and point flows of up to 175k AADT is going cashless in the spring of 2011. The first construction contracts for toll equipment gantries and other civil works have just been let - $33m worth.

South Jersey Transportation Authority's board has endorsed a $56k report by Wilbur Smith Associates to lay out the implications of moving to all-electronic tolling (AET) as compared to upgrading obsolete electronic and cash collection and providing open road lanes on the Atlantic City Expressway (ACE).

North Texas Tollway Authority on the President George Bush Turnpike and E470 Public Highway Authority in Denver CO will cease all cash toll collection this week. The conversions to all-electronic tolling (AET) will be very differently conducted.

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (aka Illinois Tollway) and local officials have broken ground on Illinois' first cashless or all-electronic toll interchange - located appropriately close by one of the Chicago area's premier hightech institutions, the Fermi National Lab. The Illinois Tollway has been a leader in implementing open road tolling through the middle of all of its mainline plazas, but all of these retain cash collection on the sides.

Doug Watt a visitor to Denver was not impressed by service on the Northwest Parkway. "You are the most rinky dink operation I have seen in my life," he declared in an email to the Parkway. Watt said he "sat forever in a line of cars" as each driver tried to figure out an IOU form that is left in a rack beside a booth for motorists using the tollroad between 10pm and 6am when the mainline plaza is unmanned.

An end to cash toll collection on the 183A tollroad northwest of Austin Texas hasn't discouraged motorists, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) reports. Traffic and revenue on the 183A is holding up well after two months of cashless open road tolling.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, an Australian icon and one of the oldest and largest toll operations in Australia went cashless Sunday morning (2009-01-11) about 8am local time. Tolls were collected by hand for the last time from a motorist who was presented with a framed certificate attesting to him being the last person to pay a cash toll to a toll collector on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) have set July 2010 for the end of cash collection on their Selmon Expressway also known as the Crosstown. They are featuring the decision - made in principle more than a year back - and the date on their website at http://www.tampa-xway.com/ORTComingSoon.html

Toll execs like Paul Violette of the Maine Turnpike Authority and others contemplating cashless or all-electronic tolling worry about getting emails from customers like this which we just received:

"Dear sir or madam

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.

Tollers in Central Texas are using a novel kind of flyer to get out the message about the end of cash tolling - scratch cards. The cards offer free transponder toll miles as prizes in an effort to publicize and recruit new transponder users. Over 80% of transactions on their 183A tollroad northwest of Austin are already by TxTag sticker tag transponders, but they want to boost that number further by December 1 when remaining cash lanes are closed for good.

North Texas Tollway Authority's (NTTA) board has approved a staff proposal that they raise posted speed limits at all their mainline toll plazas to full highway speeds - granting full recognition to open road tolling. At present posted speeds from half a mile (0.8km) before the mainline toll plazas are 45mph (72km/hr) except for one plaza (DNT MLP2) where the post is 40mph (64km/hr).

The New York State Thruway Authority will be hiring consultants soon to study the costs and benefits of different toll collection modes including all-electronic tolling (AET), also known as cashless. The announcement was made not in any board decision, or in a press release, or in any presentation to an IBTTA conference, and there's no RFP yet. But a reader pointed out to us a pair of postings that have just popped up on the NYSTA website.

Maine Turnpike Authority's board have asked HNTB engineering consultants to study options for upgrading toll collection at the existing York toll plaza. HNTB are also being asked to do a more in-depth study of cashless all-electronic tolling option.

Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority is another looking toller looking at going cashless. Susan Chrzan, spokesman says "We are working towards cashless tolling."