- Op-Ed: Pennsylvania Turnpike's New ORT System Will Enhance Access, Mobility And Safety
- UCLA Project Will Expand Transit Fleet Inductive And Wireless Charging
- These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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Op-Ed: Pennsylvania Turnpike's New ORT System Will Enhance Access, Mobility And Safety
The benefits of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s network-wide transition to barrier-free, open-road tolling (ORT) are manifested in a proposed interchange project, writes turnpike chief executive Mark Compton in a TribLIVE op ed column. The SR 130 interchange in suburban Pittsburgh will be built after the collection system transition makes “costly, concrete-laden toll plazas and tollbooth choke points” obsolete. With toll-reading equipment mounted on roadway-spanning gantries, new connections like SR 130 are feasible,” Compton notes. Increased direct access to the turnpike often stimulates economic activity, as well as improving local mobility.
Compton observes that the “new configuration [also] brings added safety benefits, on and off our system. Data collected at three locations that previously implemented ORT” — the Delaware River Bridge, the Warrendale interchange, and the Gateway in Lawrence County — “show significant crash rate reductions.”
The turnpike commission recently showcased preliminary designs for the SR 130 interchange at a public meeting.
A new ORT system will go live on January 5 on the turnpike’s eastern segment and Northeast Extension. Western interchanges will convert to ORT by 2027. Demolition and removal of obsolete toll plazas begins next year.
AET (All-Electronic Tolling) Highway-Tunnel-Bridge Safety (Includes COVID-19 Impacts) Open-Road Tolling Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC)UCLA Project Will Expand Transit Fleet Inductive And Wireless Charging
“Government Technology” reports, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is engaged in two projects to facilitate electric bus charging. It is installing sub-surface inductive charging equipment over about a mile of campus roads and building a new transit hub where buses can charge up without the need for electric cables and wires. The new facilities are scheduled to be operational by 2028, when Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympic Games.
“The project is ultimately viewed as serving more than just buses from the UCLA transit fleet. More than a half-dozen transit operators from Southern California interact with the UCLA campus, opening up an opportunity for these vehicles to top off their charge while visiting the campus. ‘We are hoping that it won’t just be our buses that are able to use these inductive chargers in the future,’” said Clinton Bench, a university fleet and transit manager.
UCLA received $19.85 million in project grant funding from the California State Transportation Agency’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. The grant was obtained in collaboration with CALSTART — a clean transportation nonprofit — and technology provider Electreon. Electron also is working with Michigan DOT to develop an inductive charging pilot on a one-mile stretch of road in Detroit.
A subsequent project phase would extend inductive charging infrastructure beyond the campus.
California California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) Electreon Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Environmental Protection Policies Procedures And Initiatives Los Angeles (CA) Metro Region Transportation and Infrastructure Research & DevelopmentThese are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.
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