electronic tolling

Ohio Turnpike Commission will fire up their first electronic toll system October 1, and the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group (IAG) will be able to boast a continuous interoperable toll system from Maine to southern Virginia and from Boston harbor and Rhode Island to west of Chicago.

A Connecticut woman is heading a law suit against Rhode Island Turnpike & Bridge Authority (RITBA) over discriminatory toll rates for E-ZPass. RITBA which only introduced electronic tolling on their Newport Pell Bridge this January is charging $1.75 to out of state E-ZPass Inter Agency Group (IAG) accounts including Massachusetts FAST LANE.

Ohio Turnpike Commission's board have approved a schedule of new toll rates and vehicle classes to coincide with their introduction of E-ZPass electronic tolling due for the final quarter of 2009. Approved at the same Commission hearing is a second round of toll increases 24 to 27 months later - on Jan 1, 2012.

Just eight weeks after the Dec 16 introduction of electronic tolling at the Pell Bridge near Newport Rhode Island 67% of transactions are by transponder. 14% are out-of-state E-ZPass IAG transponders and 53% are transponders issued by Rhode Island toll bridge authority (RITBA) which operates the Pell toll bridge, the gateway to Newport RI from New York and Connecticut.

James Oberstar house transportation chair wants US Government 'stimulus' money to go only to projects that use items "manufactured in the United States." (Oberstar 2009-01-07 http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3922) The United States has only one factory manufacturing electronic toll transponders and readers - TransCore's in the northern part of Albuquerque NM.

The American offices of Kapsch are reporting "extraordinary success" in a performance evaluation of their 5.9GHz electronic toll system in trials on E470 in Colorado recently. In a press statement they say a nationally known, independent R&D laboratory evaluated the system and determined that it collected "100%" of more than 10,500 DSRC sample passes.

by Kodo Ogata, Tokyo – Despite a late start Japan's electronic toll (ET) penetration has increased hugely to 75% of transactions - as of the first week of Sept 2008.  (The US rate is below 70% - Editor) This is especially amazing since Japan was so far behind the US in implementation of ET (2001 on vs 1989 to 2000 for most US tollers.)

Rhode Island Turnpike & Bridge Authority (RITBA) is joining the E-ZPass interagency group (IAG) as an associate member, and is in the middle of an electronic toll systems procurement. Telvent Caseta got the $1.8m contract a few weeks ago for front end work, beating TRMI, Intrans and Transtoll.

They'll install and integrate front end systems for 12 lanes equivalent (ten real lanes, two being double covered superwide lanes).

A small toll plaza off I-84 in the little town of Hood River on the Columbia River in Oregon is the first in the state to do electronic tolling. They now have five months experience using sticker tags, and the Port of Hood River finance director Linda Shames says they have been "very well received."

Electronic tolling went operational throughout the Indiana Toll Road around 3am Tuesday April 1. The fire-up of electronic tolling on the trip-toll or 'ticket system' between milepost 23 in Portage and the Eastpoint plaza at milepost 153 near the Ohio border occurred in the early hours of the morning along with a major cash toll increase. All 22 toll points along the 253km (157 mile) road now have electronic tolling.

The Ohio Turnpike Commission has selected TransCore to do a toll system upgrade including the Turnpike's first electronic toll (ET) system for $28.7m. The contract also provides for setting up a customer service center to establish and manage ET accounts, dispatch transponders and handle violations and inquiries. The Turnpike Commission will staff the center itself.

French tollroad operator Cofiroute is running a lottery with "romantic weekend" getaways and zero tolls as prizes for those who sign up for an electronic toll transponder in a 4 week drive this winter. Telepeage and 'libert-t' are the transponder account brandnames.

Says the ad: "Jouez... et gagnez peut être un week-end romantique!!!" (Their exclamation marks, not ours)

The Indiana Toll Road Concession Company now expects to have electronic tolling (ET) fully operational by April this year. That will be five or six months behind the initial plan which was to have the job complete toward the end of 2007. But it should be well before June 29 2008, the date by which electronic tolling is contractually required under the term of the concession with the state.

The Illinois Tollway now has more than 3 million transponders in use and they are being used for 80% of total transactions, or 1.75m/day of the total 2.2m/day. Illinois tolling is done via E-ZPass Inter Agency Group standard active transponders from Mark IV branded as I-PASS.

Indiana Toll Road Concession Company (ITRCC) collected tolls electronically for the second day today with traffic moving about normally - with about normal delays, spokesman Matt Pierce says. On the first day (Jun 25) there was one unusually large backup providing grist for negative news mills but it was mainly caused by bridge rehab work and a lane drop about 6.7km (4mi) before the Westpoint toll plaza. There were also a few lanes not working right.

A nice piece of brief retrospective journalism in USA Today May 20 recognizes electronic tolling as one of the 25 inventions that have changed our lives in the past quarter century. And it credits North Texas Tollway Authority, actually in its then manifestation, the Texas Turnpike Authority, for being the first major toll authority to adopt it.

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise reports the 3 millionth SunPass transponder activated today. The first million took nearly four years from the beginning of electronic tolling on the Turnpike and associated systems in 1999 to the fall of 2003. The second million was rung up in about 21 months by the summer of 2005. The third million has taken about the same year and three-quarters.

Massachusetts Turnpike will have an RFP out for a new ten year toll services contract this summer. Spokesman John Carlisle says reports suggesting TransCore were fired were a bit misleading.

"They are most welcome to bid for the new contract" he said.

"We did think the prices they quoted for a couple of modifications were a bit high, but the pricing did meet the terms of the contract. We saw problems in the contract they were working under."