AET

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is keen to move quickly to get a "pilot" project for all-electronic tolling (AET) running on the Turnpike. In a radio interview this week he mentioned the possibility of "tests" of all-electronic tolling at the Turnpike's interchange with MA128 (I-95) and also on the Tobin Bridge.

North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) has engaged cash stores operator ACE Cash Express to provide walk-in options for NTTA customers to pay their video toll - local brand is "ZipCash" - invoices. The ACE Express stores and cash machines will also allow north Texas tollroad users to open and load cash-backed transponder accounts locally branded TollTag.
 
Customers will be able to use the ACE Cash Express stores and machines to:

Port Authority New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) will completely replace their existing toll system with one allowing easy conversion to all-electonic toll (AET) collection. The new system will support existing cash collection so the move to all-electronic or cashless tolling can be made separately from the switchover from old to new systems.

Egis say in a statement today that their all-electronic tolling (AET) - they call it "free-flow tolling" - on the Golden Ears Bridge in the Vancouver metro area has worked smoothly through increased Olympic Games traffic so far. They call it "a touch of French expertise around the Olympic Games."

Massachusetts DOT is seeking a new Deputy Director of Statewide Tolling to "transition existing toll collection operations to Open Road Tolling or All Electronic Tolling.”  The move reported first by Hilary Chabot at the Boston Herald pays up to $102k/yr and is open only to state employees.

The tolling deputy director would also assess installation costs, savings from eliminating toll collectors, and likely traffic improvements from free-flow all-electronic tolling.

The Boston Herald reports that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his transportation  secretary Jeffrey Mullan met Jan 28 with Raytheon officials to hear their pitch on the potential for all-electronic tolling (AET).

North Texas Tollway will in future bill all non-transponder reads initially as a video toll under their ZipCash brand for camera-generated tolls sent in the mail. Violation notices will no longer be sent directly for trips through open road toll lanes where there is still cash collection alongside.

We posed the following question Jan 23 to Dan Paradee, spokesman for the Maine Turnpike Authority on the controversy over the form that their southern toll plaza should take - (1) cash and roll-through electronic as now (2) open road tolling (ORT) through the middle and cash on the sides, the HNTB recommendation (3) all-electronic.

In the artsy, historic Ybor City area of Tampa less than two miles (3km) northeast of downtown Tampa construction has begun of the I-4/Selmon Crosstown Expressway Connector. It is in essence  an elaborate interchange between the two parallel highways at a point where they are less than a mile - 1400m or 4570ft (0.86 miles) apart, measuring them from the centerline of each roadway reservation.

The political battle over the design of Maine's southern toll plaza has seen the town of York hire their own toll system consultant to combat HNTB and the Maine Turnpike Authority. York mayor Michael Estes announced the hiring of Atlanta Georgia based eTrans at a large public meeting on the contentious issue Thursday night in York.

America's largest toller MTAB&T in New York City is moving to convert its toll collection at the Henry Hudson Bridge to all-electronic or cashless.

The last toll collector in Colorado handed in their coin tray for the last time 10pm Dec 31 as the Northwest Parkway went cashless with all-electronic tolling. The parkway's big sister E470 went cashless in the first half of 2009, and the last cash was collected July 3. I-25 HOT Lanes operated by Colorado DOT have always been cashless.

At last Delaware is moving to break the worst traffic bottleneck on the east coast - the Newark DE toll plaza on the I-95 Turnpike.

Maryland authorities are proposing toll rates for cars of 25c to 35c/mile peak hours (6 to 9am, 4 to 7pm workdays) and 20c to 30c/mile offpeak - metric: 16c to 22c/km peak and 12c to 19c/km off-peak.

Port Authority New York New Jersey could abandon cash toll collection in 2012 on present planning. They would be the first big bridge and tunnel authority to implement all-electronic tolling (AET) in the US and one of the first in the world after the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia which went all-electronic in January this year. (CORRECTION SEE END) So far most of the cashless tolling has been on toll roads.

HEFT, the busiest tollroad in Florida with an average 460k transactions/day and point flows of up to 175k AADT is going cashless in the spring of 2011. The first construction contracts for toll equipment gantries and other civil works have just been let - $33m worth.

Tolls are now being collected by the latest all-electronic toll system (AET) - at the Golden Ears Bridge over the Fraser River, metro-Vancouver, British Columbia. CS' American subsidiary InTranSGroup began testing their AET system when the bridge opened for traffic June 16.

North Texas Tollway Authority on the President George Bush Turnpike and E470 Public Highway Authority in Denver CO will cease all cash toll collection this week. The conversions to all-electronic tolling (AET) will be very differently conducted.

North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) have issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an electronic toll collection (ETC) system with heavy emphasis on interoperabillity.

Miami Dade Expressway Authority are negotiating contracts with Electronic Transaction Consultants (ETC) for a radical conversion to all electronic tolling (AET).