Posted on 04/05/2010 10:49:46 AM PDT by Willie Green
It's been two years since electronic tolling debuted on the Indiana Toll Road.
Drivers no longer have to fumble with coins and cash at toll booths if they have i-Zoom transponders or a similar device from another state.
And, eventually, they won't even have to slow down to pay their tolls.
The next step for the 157-mile tollway will be implementing open-road tolling, which uses scanners to collect tolls electronically while vehicles are traveling at highway speeds.
Toll roads in several other states have already installed open-road tolling. The Illinois Tollway provides a nearby example.
There is no set date for when the Indiana Toll Road will become an open toll road, said Matt Pierce, spokesman for ITR Concession Co., the private company that operates the road.
It could be several years.
Pierce said traffic congestion and the use of electronic toll payment both need to increase before it makes sense to switch to open-road tolling.
"Ultimately, open-road tolling is the goal," he said. "When Illinois went to open-road tolling, it was driven by congestion."
ITR spent $15 million in 2007 to expand toll plazas, and the implementation of i-Zoom in 2008 more than doubled the number of vehicles that can pass through a toll booth each hour, Pierce said.
As a result, congestion isn't a problem, even though drivers with i-Zoom are required to slow down to an almost-complete stop at toll plazas before a mechanical arm rises and allows them through the gate.
But Pierce said he expects traffic to pick up as the economy recovers, eventually causing congestion on the Toll Road.
The second factor is the percentage of drivers who pay electronically instead of with cash.
Because cash lanes still need to be available for drivers without a transponder, Pierce said more than 80 percent of transactions need to be electronic before it makes sense to start open-road tolling.
About 65 percent of transactions on the Indiana Toll Road are electronic.
ITR is beginning to test cameras at a few toll plazas as a first step to prepare for open-road tolling.
Cameras are necessary to enforce payment on open toll roads. Anyone who drives through an open-toll lane without a transponder will be caught on camera, identified by their license plate, and billed if they don't pay the toll retroactively online.
The i-Zoom scanners can already read transponders at highway speeds, Pierce said.
"We're not waiting for the future to come and say here's your challenge," he said. "We're going to be prepared for it."
The state agency that operates the Illinois Tollway finished installing open-road tolling in 2006.
The agency spent about $730 million, paid for with toll revenue, to install the system, spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said.
She said the investment is paying off with fewer backups at toll booths.
"There are customers who are definitely saving 10 to 15 minutes each way on their commutes," she said.
/mark
Once thought to be the lasting legacy of Governor Rod Blagojevich.
So ask for a reduction on gasoline taxes since the money is not being equitably distributed by the Feds.
And how will people fund the rail system? Wave an electronic rider card at the gates?
I don’t mind this - as all pay the same toll.
However, once mini-minded libs begin to apply their warped logic - we’ll soon have means by which certain folks can pay less than others.
Wanna bet?
Well I have to confess - as a convienence, this setup works pretty well. In GA you can optionally purchase your ‘cruise card’ to cruise through toll booths at full speed, in special lanes...it gets scanned when you drive through and works like a debit card that you can reload.
It’s not mandatory, so you can wait in line and just pay the toll like everyone else if you don’t want to buy the cruise card. They don’t force you to carry a transponder if you don’t use the card.
What I’d have a BIG problem with is if they were making it mandatory statewide to have the transponder, just to drive on ANY roads...toll or not.
Opens the door for movement tracking, taxing your mileage, taxing you for ‘excessive travel’ etc...
And ... it has the added benefit of tracking ALL of the cars coming and going!
And God help you if your credit card expires and you go through open road tolling. One friend of mine had this happen to him, and when he challenged the fine and surcharge, they upped it to $3,000 and threatened to pull his license. Don’t challenge IDOT’s authority.
I thought the open road tolling project started under George Lyin’ Ryan.
I still use coin to pay (and pay double for the priviliege). You have to register your car with the transponder so it can’t be moved easily from car to car. I won’t be very interested in this approach until the transponders are as anonymous as a prepaid phone card bought at the 7-11.
Sounds like a pretty good project for a Federal Bureaucracy somewhere...
Don’t forget automatic fines for speeding if they clock your time to destination as too short!
You should try the E-470 system around Denver, Colorado. Last October I was driving through there (from Ohio). In December I received a bill ($5). They use cameras to read License Plates and send the bill to address of the owner. I’m glad I wasn’t speeding - they way I read it, I think they could have sent me a speeding ticket also though nothing was “posted” on the road about that (other than the speed limit signs).
The funny(!!) thing, I just received another bill today (7 months later) for an additional $2.5 for what I guess is another segment on the loop from Oct 4th, 2009. Who knows why it took so long.
If there is to be a toll on roads then gas tax should be abolished;conversely I don’t believe toll roads should have been built with any public monies as long as gas taxes do exist.
Pretty soon they’ll just plant a GPS chip in your a*s and toll you every time you drive, ride, run, walk, breathe, sneeze, swivel your chair, take a d......
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