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A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and maintenance.
Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing toll booths, where vehicles must stop and the driver manually pays the toll with cash or a card. In most systems, vehicles using the system are equipped with an automated radio transponder device. When the vehicle passes a roadside toll reader device, a radio signal from the reader triggers the transponder, which transmits back an identifying number which registers the vehicle's use of the road, and an electronic payment system charges the user the toll.
E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agencies in several states, which use the same technology and allow travelers to use the same transponder on toll roads throughout the network.
FasTrak is the electronic toll collection (ETC) system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads, toll bridges, and high-occupancy toll lanes along the California Freeway and Expressway System.
EZ TAG is an electronic toll collection system in Houston, Texas, United States, that allows motorists to pay tolls without stopping at toll booths. Motorists with the tags are allowed to use lanes reserved exclusively for them on all Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) roads. As of late 2003, the EZ TAG can also be used on all lanes of tolled roadways in Texas that accommodate electronic toll collection.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Illinois charged with building, operating, and maintaining toll roads in the state. The roads, as well as the authority itself, are sometimes referred to as the Illinois Tollway. The system opened in 1958 in the Chicago area, and has subsequently expanded to include the eastern and central sections of Interstate 88 (I-88) extending into the northwestern part of the state. Beginning in 2005, the system was reconstructed to include more lanes and open road tolling, the latter of which uses I-Pass transponders to collect revenue as vehicles pass antennas at toll plazas or designated entrance or exit ramps. As of 2017, ISTHA maintains and operates 294 miles (473 km) of tollways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois.
I-Pass is the electronic toll collection system utilized by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) on its toll highways that launched on November 18, 1993, with the opening of Interstate 355. It uses the same transponder as the E-ZPass system used in the Northeastern US, the Chicago Skyway, and the Indiana Toll Road, along with the Indiana State Road 912 Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal bridge.
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane.
The Dallas North Tollway is a 30.2-mile (49 km) controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which runs from Interstate 35E near Downtown Dallas, Texas (USA), to U.S. Highway 380, in Frisco, Texas. On December 20, 2023, the NTTA announced the Tollway's next extension which runs 6 miles (9.7 km) through Prosper and Celina and ends at FM 428.
The Westpark Tollway, also Fort Bend Westpark Tollway, is a controlled-access toll road in Texas, serving western Houston and Harris County, and northeastern Fort Bend County. Construction on the facility began in 2001 and portions of the road were opened to traffic in May 2004. Construction of the roadway was completed in August 2005. The Westpark Tollway begins on Westpark Drive just past the South Rice Avenue intersection in the Uptown District of Houston and runs approximately 22 miles (35 km) west to Farm to Market Road 1093 just past Farm to Market Road 723 in Fulshear, Texas. It runs roughly parallel and to the south of Westheimer Road in Harris County and concurrently with FM 1093 in Fort Bend County.
TxTag, operated by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), is one of three interoperable electronic toll collection systems in Texas. The system is also interoperable with the K-TAG system used in Kansas and the Pikepass system used in Oklahoma.
The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a not-for-profit government organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chapter 366 of the Transportation Code, the NTTA is empowered to acquire, construct, maintain, repair and operate turnpike projects; to raise capital for construction projects through the issuance of turnpike revenue bonds; and to collect tolls to operate, maintain and pay debt service on those projects.
Video tolling is a form of electronic toll collection that uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road toll. The system dispenses with collection of road tolls using road-side cash or payment card methods, and may be used in conjunction with "all electronic" open road tolling, to permit drivers without an RFID device to use the toll road.
A ticket system, also known as a closed toll collection system, is a system used on some toll roads in which a user pays a toll rate based on the distance traveled from their originating entrance to their destination exit.
i-Zoom was the former name for the electronic toll collection system used on the Indiana Toll Road (ITR), which now uses the E-ZPass system. On June 27, 2007, the system was implemented from mile 1 to mile 23 of the road under the unique branding of "i-Zoom", which was fully compatible with E-ZPass and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority's I-Pass system; the remaining toll plazas came online on April 1, 2008, with increased cash toll rates. i-Zoom transponders were then made available for purchase at service plazas and CVS/pharmacy locations in northern Indiana. As of September 2012, the i-Zoom branding was retired by the ITR for the universal E-ZPass branding used by most states in the E-ZPass system; outside of the implementation of a transponder with a smaller form factor and the removal of the i-Zoom logo from post-September 2012 transponder units, along with a website upgrade in 2014, no other changes to transponders or accounts are planned.
e-TAG is a free-flow tolling electronic toll collection system used on all tollways throughout Australia. It was originally developed by Transurban for use on their CityLink tollway in the late 1990s, with the system since adopted by all toll roads, bridges and tunnels in Australia. The technology had different names depending on the issuer, such as Breeze, Linkt, and E-toll. However, these are all interchangeable across Australia and no surcharges apply for use on other operators' toll roads.
There are approximately 25 current toll roads in the state of Texas. Toll roads are more common in Texas than in many other U.S. states, since the relatively low revenues from the state's gasoline tax limits highway planners' means to fund the construction and operation of highways.
Linkt is Transurban's e-TAG tolling brand in Australia. Linkt first replaced the Roam Express brand in Sydney in 2017, followed by the go via brand in Queensland in May 2018, and then the Citylink brand in Melbourne in July that year. In August 2020, it also replaced the E-way brand that was used by Interlink Roads, the operator of M5 South-West Motorway and fully-owned by Transurban since October 2019.
NationalPass is an interoperable service created by TransCore, which is designed to eventually provide single transponder access to all public toll roads and bridges in North America.
References
- ↑ Dr. Harold W. Worrall "A System at RISK" Pg. 113
- ↑ "A System at Risk" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
- ↑ "Upgrade Your Tollmate App: Push Notifications Now Available | Driving North Texas". Archived from the original on 2016-07-11. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
- ↑ "United States Patent Application: 0160171787".
- ↑ "Expressway Authority to test toll payments via cell phone | www.news965.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
- ↑ "Tech startup tests cellphone transponder on Central Florida toll roads - Orlando Sentinel". Archived from the original on 2017-01-10. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
- ↑ "PayTollo®". www.paytollo.com.