Skip to main content

New survey shows technology revolutionising tolling

Advances in electronic tolling are transforming highway transportation by providing greater mobility, smoother traffic flow, and improved safety for drivers and their passengers, according to new survey data released by the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA). The new survey, Toll Technology Transforms Mobility for Customers, conducted during the third quarter of 2016, collected technology-related data from 36 tolling facilities in 18 states, representing all regions of the cou
September 14, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
Advances in electronic tolling are transforming highway transportation by providing greater mobility, smoother traffic flow, and improved safety for drivers and their passengers, according to new survey data released by the 3804 International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA).

The new survey, Toll Technology Transforms Mobility for Customers, conducted during the third quarter of 2016, collected technology-related data from 36 tolling facilities in 18 states, representing all regions of the country.

One of the major findings was that, with the implementation of new technologies, cash use continues to decline. As a share of total revenue, from 2010 to 2015 cash use decreased from 29 to 18 per cent.

In addition, between 2010 and 2015, there has been an increase of 19.3 million electronic transponders on America's roads. There were 32.7 million toll accounts in 2015, up sharply from 19.9 million toll accounts in 2010, an increase of more than 64 per cent.

The 36 toll facilities participating in IBTTA’s 2016 National Toll Technology Survey experienced a combined increase of US$4.7 billion in revenues between 2010 and 2015.

According to Earl ‘Buddy J. Croft, III, executive director of the 6162 Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, and IBTTA president, as all-electronic tolling (AET) expands, people and goods travel more efficiently, helping to spur more robust economic growth. He said more tolling agencies are turning to AET as a proven congestion-buster that delivers a safer, more predictable ride for users who need to reach their destination on time.

Patrick D. Jones, executive director and CEO of IBTTA said that technology is transforming today's driving experience as more states move away from cash tolls and embrace cashless solutions. Colorado and Washington, with the exception of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (SR16), already have state-wide AET and Massachusetts plans to deploy AET state-wide this October.

As demonstrated in the report, the ongoing rise in the use of electronic and video tolling—and the decrease in the use of cash on toll facilities—signify an increasingly high-tech future for tolling and transportation throughout the country.

"This data offers us a stunning illustration of how technology has rapidly altered the transportation landscape in the last several years, and forecasts the increasing role it is certain to play well into the future," said Jones.

"As more tolling innovations make their way through the technology pipeline, and as the industry works toward achieving interoperability nationwide, drivers are looking at a user-focused future enhanced by ever-evolving technologies that continually improve convenience and safety on America’s highways, bridges and tunnels," Jones concluded.

Related Content

  • IBTTA 2011 Annual Meeting highlights developing trends in tolling
    January 26, 2012
    Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser of this year's IBTTA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, talks about hot topics for discussion. The IBTTA's 79th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, which takes place this year in Berlin in September, will once again take many of the developing trends from around the world and look at their effects on the tolling sector. Host organisation Toll Collect's Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser, says that the event has to be viewed against a backdrop of major global change.
  • Stronger economy ‘likely to be a factor’ in increase in US motor vehicle deaths
    February 19, 2016
    Preliminary estimates from the US National Safety Council indicate motor vehicle deaths were eight per cent higher in 2015 than they were in 2014, the largest year-over-year percentage increase in 50 years. The National Safety Council estimates 38,300 people were killed on US roads and 4.4 million were seriously injured, meaning 2015 likely was the deadliest driving year since 2008. Over the last year at the state level, the National Safety Council estimates Oregon, Georgia. Florida and South Carolina al
  • The challenging European road to carbon neutrality and the need for distance-based charging
    November 1, 2023
    Fuel taxes are falling and EVs have the potential to create social equity issues. The answer may lie in expanding the use of technology which has successfully been used for two decades with trucks
  • Mario Cuomo Bridge: an ITS hotbed
    January 4, 2021
    The 3.1-mile Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge over the Hudson River in New York State is not just a massive engineering project – it is an ITS hotbed too. Phil Riggio of HDR tells Adam Hill why