Pa. Turnpike will study all-electronic collection of tolls
A consultant will look at the feasibility of doing away with booths, a growing trend in the U.S.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike will consider doing away with toll booths, toll collectors, and drivers' fumbling for bills and coins.
The turnpike has advertised for a consultant to study conversion to all-electronic collection, a method already used on toll roads and bridges in several states and fast gaining in popularity.
"In our industry, it's pretty much accepted that this is the wave of the future," turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said.
The study will take a year, and if all-electronic collection is deemed feasible, it will set forth a proposed timetable for converting the 545-mile turnpike system, including its extensions.
"We have almost 70 toll plazas. It is a monumental task," DeFebo said.
"We'll be there someday. There's no doubt in my mind," said turnpike chief executive Joe Brimmeier.
At present, 62 percent of turnpike users have E-ZPass transponders, and that percentage is expected to grow when the turnpike starts charging higher tolls to cash customers in January.
With E-ZPass, motorists establish a prepaid account and mount a transponder on their vehicles. Tolls are automatically deducted when they pass a tolling point.
In an all-electronic system, the license plates of drivers without E-ZPass would be photographed and bills would be sent by mail, typically with a service charge or premium added.
All-electronic-tolling systems use gantries that detect the transponders as vehicles pass underneath. Traffic maintains highway speeds as it passes the tolling points, eliminating the backups that occur at conventional toll plazas.
The turnpike currently has five locations with E-ZPass express lanes that don't require motorists to slow down as they pass: at the Gateway toll plaza in Lawrence County, at the Warrendale plaza in Allegheny County, at the Mid-County plaza in Montgomery County, and on the Mon-Fayette Expressway at Jefferson Hills and in Fayette County.
At other E-ZPass collection points, a 5-m.p.h. speed limit is posted.
The turnpike already is converting some interchanges to cashless operations.
Westbound on- and off-ramps at the Virginia Drive interchange north of Philadelphia are E-ZPass only, and a new eastbound interchange in Bucks County will open as E-ZPass only this month.
Two other E-ZPass-only interchanges are under construction, on the main line in Chester County and on the Northeast Extension in Carbon County, DeFebo said.
Next year, the three exits immediately east of the Breezewood interchange - Fort Littleton, Willow Hill, and Blue Mountain - will go cashless, Brimmeier said.
The turnpike may place machines at those exits that read toll tickets and accept credit cards. Vehicles without E-ZPass or credit cards would be photographed and billed by mail.