Skip to main content

Port Authority of NY/NJ to go all electronic?

Image
By
From the News-Journal of Wilmington, DE, there was a recent story about how the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) is considering removing traditional toll booths from their toll facilities and gravitating towards electronic toll collection. This would be put in effect to improve traffic flow into New York City, as all Port Authority tolls are levied into traffic driving eastbound into New York City. The last toll booths that were removed in the New York City area were some of the toll booths at the Spring Valley Toll Barrier on the New York Thruway (in Rockland County) and the elimination of a 25 cent toll on the Hutchinson River Parkway at the Bronx-Westchester County line near New Rochelle. This took place about 15 years ago.

The authority now uses a mix of electronic toll collection and staffed toll booths where drivers can pay with cash at its bridges and tunnels that span between New York City and New Jersey. Under an all-electronic tolling system, the authority would use cameras to record the license plates and send bills to motorists who do not have E-ZPass accounts. This practice is currently used in the collection of tolls on the ETR 407 in metropolitan Toronto.

One feature of the toll changes could be the implementation of on-peak and off-peak toll pricing for all drivers. Currently, passenger car drivers paying cash are charged $6 at all times. Those with E-ZPass pay $5 during peak times and a $4 off-peak toll is charged at other times. There is currently no word on how the tolls would change with electronic tolling.

High speed, all-electronic tolling, or "open road tolling" could work very well, in theory. It will help the traffic flow by diminishing and possibly eliminating some bottlenecks that lead towards toll booths. Open road tolling is currently being implemented at various toll facilities along the New York Thruway in Orange and Rockland Counties. It is also use along the various tollways in the Chicago area and on the DE 1 Turnpike in Delaware, and based upon my experiences driving around Chicagoland and Delaware, it seems to work very well. The open road tolling in question is for cars that have an E-ZPass or I-Pass device, the rest of the people are expected to pay their toll at a booth.

The downside to going all-electronic and demolishing the toll booths would be the collection of tolls to people who do not have electronic toll collection devices in their car. The Port Authority states that they would send bills to those people, but how honest will people be with paying. Surely, there will be many people who will promptly pay their bills, but others may disregard the bills. The Port Authority could enlist the help of collection agencies in collecting tolls (with interest) to delinquent persons. How will statements be sent? Will it be by the toll, or will it become a monthly affair?

I like the idea of all-electronic tolling, but I would prefer a mix of open road tolling and traditional toll booths. But knowing the lack of open space around the bridge and tunnel toll facilities around the New York City area, this may be the best way to go about things in order to alleviate traffic jams.

http://tinyurl.com/ywm2ap - News Journal (Wilmington, DE)

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hawaii Route 8930

By
Hawaii Route 8930 is a 2.5-mile State Highway on the Island of O'hau.  Hawaii Route 8930 is aligned over Kualakai Parkway over the course of its entire alignment south from Interstate H-1 to Kapolei Parkway.  Hawaii Route 8930 is one of the newest Hawaii Routes only having been completed during 2010.   This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page.  All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below: https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 8930 The history of Hawaii Route 8930 is brief given it is a modern facility.  Hawaii Route 8930 and what was known as "North-South Road" were built to facilitate the developing areas of Kapolei on western O'ahu.  According to hawaiihighways.com the first stage of Hawaii Route 8930 was completed from Kapolei Parkway north to Farrington Highway as a four-lane highway during November...
Post a Comment
Read more

Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road

By
Madera County Road 607 is an approximately seven-mile rural unsurfaced highway which spans from Road 600 near Raymond west to Road 29.   Road 607 west from Raymond Road Cemetery (established in 1905) is part of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road corridor surveyed in 1853. The corridor lies in the gap between Fresno Crossing at the Fresno River west to Newton's Crossing at the Chowchilla River. The Buchanan Copper Mine would be along what is now Road 607 in the namesake Buchanan Hollow during July 1863. The Buchanan Mine is thought to have once had a population of between 1,000-1,500 residents by the early 1870s. Copper prices would decline in the decade after the Civil War and much of the activity at Buchanan shifted towards cattle ranching. The last businesses in the community would shutter during World War II and it is now a true ghost town. Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road What is now Road 607 was a component of the larger Sto...
Post a Comment
Read more

Former US Route 50 and the Pioneer Route Lincoln Highway on Johnson's Pass Road

By
Johnson's Pass Road is one of the oldest highway corridors in California.  Johnson's Pass was part of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road as it was completed during 1856 over the Sierra Nevada.  The pass would later be incorporated into the Pioneer Branch of the Lincoln Highway in 1913 and US Route 50 in 1926.  Johnson's Pass Road would be bypassed by a new alignment of US Route 50 over Echo Summit in 1938.  A replacement of the Meyers Grade east of Johnson's Pass would be opened to traffic in 1947.   Johnson's Pass Road remains accessible to traffic and is still signed by the Lincoln Highway Association.  Pictured as the blog cover is the view from the top of Johnson's Pass Road overlooking modern US Route 50 and Lake Tahoe.   Part 1; the history of Johnson's Pass Much of the history of what become the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road is discussed in the  September 1950 California Highways & Public Works  during its Centennial Edition.  The or...
Post a Comment
Read more