Just wave and go with electronic tolls

Drivers using the Windsor-Detroit tunnel linking Canada with the US will shortly be able to pay electronically on both sides of the border. Until now, electronic payment has only been available on the US side. Tunnel president Neal Belitsky said it’s part of a plan to eventually phase out tunnel tokens after 2013. “We’re going to be getting out of the token business,” Belitsky said. “It takes time to buy rolls of tokens. All that is going to disappear. If you look throughout the US or Canada, you can count
November 2, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Drivers using the Windsor-Detroit tunnel linking Canada with the US will shortly be able to pay electronically on both sides of the border. Until now, electronic payment has only been available on the US side.

Tunnel president Neal Belitsky said it’s part of a plan to eventually phase out tunnel tokens after 2013. “We’re going to be getting out of the token business,” Belitsky said.

“It takes time to buy rolls of tokens. All that is going to disappear. If you look throughout the US or Canada, you can count the number of transportation facilities that use tokens ... probably on one hand.”

The electronic system uses Nexpress cards, radio-frequency identification (RFID) cards similar to those used in the NEXUS program. Canadian customers will be able to order a Nexpress card online, load it with funds, then pass through the toll gates quickly and smoothly by waving the card at an electronic reader.

“It’s a lot faster and it’s a lot more convenient,” Belitsky promised.

Belitsky said there are currently about 15,000 tunnel tokens in circulation. He envisions the tunnel will stop selling tokens in early 2013, and stop accepting them entirely at the end of that year. Belitsky said the tunnel will still have attendants, and always accept cash.
Charging, Tolling & RUC

Related Content

  • User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    November 28, 2013
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
    Read More
  • Cross referencing data sets reveals now decision support information
    November 18, 2014
    Combining previously unrelated sets of data can provide an in-depth view of travel patterns. "Through the use of analytical tools, Urban Insights seeks to help transportation organisations benefit from the vast amounts of detailed data they collect every day.”
    Read More
  • First among equals
    May 21, 2012
    Dr Peter Sweatman, Director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and the new chairman of ITS America, has no doubt where safety stands in the ITS world What do you hope to achieve in your term as chairman of ITS America? I really want to advance the agenda of safe and sustainable transportation because ITS really is the only weapon that can advance that. We have been working on connected vehicles for safety for a number of years, putting all of the right elements in place,
    Read More
  • Continental: US road deaths are ‘public health crisis’
    June 6, 2019
    The 40,000 deaths on US roads last year amount to a ‘public health crisis’, according to Continental North America’s president Jeff Klei. Giving the opening keynote address at ITS America’s 28th Annual Meeting & Expo, Klei said: “If you could save 40,000 lives a year, would you? We believe this situation needs to be treated with the same priority as other health crises in this country.” But help is at hand, he said. The concept of ‘Vision Zero’, where there are no fatalities from crashes, “seems a lon
    Read More

Highlighted Content