TOLLROADSnews

Congestion charges good: PANYNJ

Port Authority officials think there is promise in variable toll rates as a traffic management tool. They began with differentiated toll rates by time of day March 25, 2001. Assessment has been complicated by the ructions of 9/11/01 and the lack of normal traffic patterns, but a paper prepared by assistant director Mark Muriello and planning manager Danny Jiji says that its "value pricing" has enhanced PANYNJ toll... MORE

A thousand km new pike in Texas

Texas DOT is looking at huge toll proposals for its "IH-35 High Priority Trans Texas Corridor" (35TTC). It involves 1,000km (600mi) of highway on new alignment north-south across the state from Denison at US-59 on the Oklahoma border to the Rio Grande River an the Meixcan border crossings at McAllen/Reynosa... MORE

UMN finds only best GPS will toll

Tests by engineers at the University of Minnesota suggest that only a presently expensive form of satellite based GPS called NDGPS is accurate enough for tolling. Only the highest quality in-vehicle receivers costing $3,000 apiece and improved digital maps will do the job... MORE

Orlando's tollroad adventures - a history

Building roads is an adventure and it can make for great stories. Take Orlando's Southern Connector now better known as FL-417 or the southern portion of the Central Florida Greeneway. Located on the southern fringe of the developed area it was a dicey finance back in the late 1980s when it was planned... MORE

All Austrian motorways to toll trucks Jan 1, 2004

All 2,000km (1,200mi) of Austria's motorways are being wired for DSRC (shortrange electronic tolling), the immediate application of which is a nationwide toll system for trucks of over 3.5t (7700pd). Four hundred overhead gantries of equipment are going in for fire-up in the new year. It will be the first  national motorway system with full DSRC coverage. Only the old tollroads and toll tunnels retain conventional toll plazas. All the new tolling is with... MORE

Houston TX: toll increases for new pikes

Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) is raising tolls for cars 25c, Nov 1, potentially boosting revenues about 30%. At present 2-axle vehicles at mainline toll plazas in Houston TX pay $1.00 cash and 75c by transponder (EZ TAG). At ramp plazas tolls are currently 25c, 30c, 35, 50c, and 75c with the lower

DaimlerChrysler's big lie on ET

In its promotion of satellite based GPS/GSM style electronic tolling DaimlerChrysler has spread some serious misinformation about the limitations of short-range electronic tolling (ET). This misinformation has twisted the public debate and poisoned decisionmaking in Europe... The false implication is that DSRC doesn't work well at full highway speed. Or in the multi-lane open road environment. It works fine. MORE

Very silly piece by ignorant academics

Eno Foundation's TRANPORTATION QUARTERLY (Summer 2003) carries an exceptionally silly piece called "The inefficiency of toll collection as a means of taxation: evidence from the Garden State Parkway" by Jonathan R Peters and Jonathan K Kramer, a couple of junior northeast academics. They start by alleging...MORE

German autobahns to toll 2003-11-02

The startup of Germany's ambitious system for tolling trucks on the 12,000km (7.5k mi) nationwide autobahn (motorway) system is now due for November 2. That is a two month delay. It follows complaints that not enough of the On-Board Units (OBUs) are available and many concerns about possible "chaos." The fears were stirred partly by rivals and opponents, but mostly by trucking companies and their trade... MORE

Business favors more tolls in Texas

A Governor's Business Council in Texas has produced a report which says that tolls have an important part to play in dealing with the state's road needs. (p47) The report "Texas' Roadways – Texas Future" is a substantial piece of research on scenarios for 25 years and policy options, having employed as consultants ...MORE

Anchorage Alaska gets toll authority

The state governor has signed a bill in Alaska forming a Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABTA). The state is committing to $500k/year through 2009 to support... KABTA's job is to build and operate a $1.9 billion bridge an approach roads. MORE

407-ETR traffic levels off

Traffic on Toronto's all-electronic 407-ETR tollroad has leveled off. Trips this year are almost identical to last year at about 300,000/workday and 240,000 AADT. Vehicle-km traveled are down a tad at 1,680m (about 1.04b veh-mi). The leveling off is probably a combination of... MORE

Fluor proposal for Washington Beltway tolls

Fluor corporation's plan for Washington's Capital Beltway is proving irresistible to elected officials. It promises to provide 12-lanes and some key interchange rebuilds for $630m the costs being recouped from four toll express or HOT lanes in the center. Tolls would vary by time of day between $1.00 and $4.25...MORE

Oregon: GPS tolls to phase out fuel taxes

An Oregon state agency has proposed a 20-year-plus transition to mileage-based tolls as the principal means of financing and managing the state's roads as fuel taxes decline. The Road User Fee Task Force (RUFTF pron 'rufftuff') was appointed by the legislature in Nov 2001 and given eight years to design and implement a new revenue collection system...MORE

Trucking up strongly - a toll assist

ATA estimates the tonnage of freight trucked in the US is up about 5 percent over the level of the middle of last year. It is still slightly below the peak in December 1999... Trucks represent about 25% of toll revenues on average, far more on major truck routes like the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes, Indiana Toll Road, Chicago's tollways, and the New York State Thruway. MORE

Colorado tolling on

The Denver area's toll beltway is rolling west with three major developments, going counter-clockwise:
(1) At the beginning of this year the E-470 Public Highway Authority opened the final section of its road making the connection to I-25 north from Denver Int Airport. (2) By October or November this year the Northwest Parkway will extend the circumferential route another 15km (9mi) to Broomfield near US-36. (3) This April the state and three local jurisdictions in the west of the area announced an agreement to do the permitting and route selection (EIS) for a final 35km (22mi) segment from Broomfield to I-70/C-470 in Golden... MORE, MUCH MORE

Electronic toll costs 7c-9c vs cash 14c-27c

Electronic tolling (ET) is generally touted for its customer benefits - ending the hassle for the driver of handling cash while driving. Its other customer benefit is in allowing quick movement through the toll plaza. It eventually allows full open road tolling. For toll operators the major attraction of ET is the increased throughput per toll lane...MORE

Garden State Parkway swallowed by NJ Turnpike

The New Jersey Turnpike is swallowing up the Garden State Parkway. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is pushing ahead with what he calls a merger of the state's two largest toll agencies, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) and the New Jersey Highway Authority (NJHA) which operates the Garden State Parkway (GSP or Parkway.)

Congestion means demand, what no... IRF chief

To any novice in the back office of an investment bank, road congestion means demand is exceeding supply. It is a sign of success. It means it is time for more investment to adapt supply to demand. To a...MORE

Reauthorization's protracted struggles

A major battle is under way over “Reauthorization,” the legislative contest to reshape federal highway and transit aid for the next six years. Most of us recall 1991’s ISTEA, and 1998’s TEA21. Now they are trying to settle the legislation for FY-2004 (which begins Oct 1 this year) to FY-2009. The Bush administration proposes a $190 billion federal-aid highway program for the six years Fiscal... MORE

Support for 4-mile tunnelway in northeast Sydney

An Australian government report urges a 6.5km (4mi) long tunnelway to Sydney's Warringah peninsula in the northeast of the metro area. The conservative Liberal Party opposition in the state of NSW has said it will make support for the investor-financed project a priority in its election campaign later this year, while the state Labor Government is expressing skepticism about the financability... MORE

Ireland's eleven new tollroads

According to Celtic myth the River Boyne was formed when BoAnn, the beautiful young wife of the leader of the local Clan Nectain, angered the gods by... The river was also the scene of the climactic Battle of the Boyne, 1690, when King William of Orange defeated the "popish" James II, ending for the last time the Catholic threat to the British monarchy. A 35m (110ft) high obelisk to William used to stand at the site but this memorial to protestantism was dynamited by IRA militants in the 1920s.

Eighty years after the obelisk fell the Boyne battlefield site is dominated by a 95m (312ft) high reinforced concrete A-frame tower supporting an asymmetrical cablestay bridge for a new tolled MORE

Wacko mayors of London and New York

The world's two greatest cities, New York and London are both currently run by wackos - men of great intelligence and ability but with a definite crazy streak. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone is a juvenile anti-American on foreign policy issues. He absorbs the most hysterical and paranoid lines about George Bush, for example, and parrots them like some silly troubled adolescent... Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York is... a different kind of nut. MORE

Penn Pike & I-95 interchange at last

The feds are fronting most of the $650m for connecting the Pennsylvania Turnpike with I-95 at Bristol PA at the far eastern end of the Turnpike. The long overdue project involves (1) relocation of the eastern barrier plaza of the Turnpike westward (2) an interchange routing I-95 directly onto the far eastern portion...MORE

Dartford Crossing back to UK government

The logo of the Dartford River Crossing Limited (DRCL) with its jolly three shipping flags is no more. With the transfer of operations of the Thames River toll crossing to a new concessionaire the nautical logo of DRCL is being replaced by the roady logo of the UK Highways Agency... MORE