Accelerating electronic toll collection
By: Jack Nerad for Driving Today
Date: 2004-06-23
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If you've ever waited in a long queue of cars to pay a toll, you know how frustrating it can be. So it has to come as good news that entrepreneurs are doing something about the problem. TransCore, a leader in electronic toll-collecting systems, has just begun construction of a world-class test track to develop sophisticated open road tolling (ORT) wireless applications. The goal is to design systems without toll gates, eliminating highway bottlenecks.
The new Albuquerque track will serve as a hub for electronic toll collection design innovations. Since the mid-1990s some toll roads have used express-lane formats for open road tolling, and the new test track will evaluate expanded wireless design scenarios that contemplate the complete elimination of barriers, enabling free flow of traffic among multiple lanes. The company's previous systems are already in use on the Oklahoma Turnpike, Dallas North Tollway and the George Bush Turnpike in TK.
Testing in New Mexico first began in 1985 during the early days of the technology. The new and larger track, located at Albuquerque's Fiesta Balloon Festival Park, is one-third of a mile long, with six lanes at its widest point and three lanes at its narrowest. It is equipped with the latest innovations in automatic vehicle identification technology.
With the enormous increase in traffic nationally, the need to eliminate choke points on high-traffic thoroughfares has accelerated. During the late 80s and early 90s, electronic toll collection helped to decrease vehicle lines at toll plazas dramatically. Building on this successful model, toll authorities are looking for ways to further speed vehicles through toll plazas. Open road tolling allows electronic toll collection transactions to occur under normal highway driving conditions, eliminating plaza barriers and creating a new toll road design that helps alleviate congestion.
Oklahoma's PIKEPASS system is the first and largest open-road Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system in the world, allowing motorists to automatically pay tolls at highway speeds. Developed in the early 1990s, it is a statewide system, encompassing nearly 600 miles, 10 turnpikes, 453 lanes and more than 500,000 users. In 2000, TransCore was awarded a $33 million contract to upgrade and replace the entire toll collection system and add 164 new ETC lanes. Ultimately, as more and more motorists migrate to electronic toll payment, toll authorities imagine roads that are primarily an open-road design, eliminating toll plaza congestion, improving motorist safety and controlling operational costs.
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