August 18, 2011 (CHICAGO RIDGE) (WLS) -- Drivers had a chance to sound off on a proposed capital plan for the Illinois Tollway that would result in higher tolls.
This public hearing in Chicago Ridge was one of four scheduled for Thursday night.
The tollway authority recently unveiled a 15-year, $12 billion capital plan.
It would be funded by toll increases. The tollway authority says I-Pass customers would pay an additional 35 cents at most toll plazas.
"Any increase on tolls on trucks will undoubtedly cause some number of trucks to choose local public streets which are not well designed to handle truck traffic," said Matt Hart of the Illinois Trucking Association.
Most, but not all, speakers seemed to support the plan.
The tollway authority says the project will create thousands of jobs and boost the economy.
(Copyright ©2011 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Ready, set, charge: Fast EV power stations to roll out soon
 Chicago awards contract to install 280 electric vehicle charging stations in city, suburbs by end of this year
 A charging station at Chevrolet's 2011 Volt display at the Chicago Auto Show Media Preview today at McCormick Place. (Michael Tercha/Tribune)
Topics
Hybrid Vehicles
Vehicles
Chicago
By Julie Wernau, Tribune reporter
9:09 a.m. CST, February 10, 2011

By the end of this year, Chicagoans will not only be able to purchase and drive electric vehicles, but also charge those vehicles in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee.
The city of Chicago has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a California firm to install 280 electric vehicle charging stations in Chicago and surrounding suburbs by the end of 2011.

The contract — paid for with equal state and federal dollars though a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — means the city has cleared a major hurdle on the road to widespread electric vehicle adoption.
Electric and plug-in vehicle manufacturers have said they will roll out their vehicles first to cities with an extensive charging infrastructure. Until now, Chicago had been largely overlooked by the nation's auto companies. Only Ford Motor Co. has announced Chicago among its initial rollout cities for electric vehicles, with the introduction of the Ford Focus Electric near the end of 2011.

The stations are important for widespread adoption because they eliminate what the industry terms "range anxiety," or a driver's fear of ending up stranded with nowhere to charge the vehicle.

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"We are very much focused and talking to a number of car manufacturers, telling them that Chicago is going to be EV ready," said Joshua Milberg, first deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Environment. "We are in Ford's first wave of electric vehicles. We're working with Nissan, we're talking with General Motors. We're talking with Mitsubishi."

According to the contract, San Diego-based 350 Green LLC will install, own, operate and maintain 73 plazas where drivers will be able to plug in to either a quick-charging station, which is expected to be able to fully charge electric vehicles in under 30 minutes, or one of two 220-volt Level 2 charging stations, which charge vehicles in 3 to 8 hours.

The contract calls for the stations — branded "CharJit Express Plazas" — to be installed at O'Hare and Midway airports, in grocery store parking lots, Illinois Tollway plazas and in downtown parking garages.

350 Green is responsible for the upfront costs of the $8.77 million project and will be reimbursed $1.9 million from grant funds. The remaining $6.86 million is the company's responsibility. The company did not answer questions about the extent to which funding is in place or who had invested in the project, and the contract did not provide those details.

No revenue will be shared with the city or state. In choosing locations, the company is seeking to partner with businesses, in a model that is similar to that of DVD-vendor Redbox.

David Kolata, executive director of Citizens Utility Board, said the contract will put Chicago on the map as the city with the largest number of quick-charging stations, a technology that only recently became available.

"That's sort of the advantage of being a second mover instead of a first mover," Kolata said, adding: "It's really an exciting opportunity, and if the plan rolls out like it's supposed to, it's really going to jump-start the electric vehicle market here in Illinois."

Approximately 90 percent of Chicago-area commutes are less than 40 miles, which makes it an ideal market for plug-in vehicle adoption. Most fully electric vehicles coming to market can go as far as 100 miles on a full charge.

An additional 61 Level 2 chargers will be installed for I-Go and Zipcar, which previously applied for funding for charging stations as part of the partnership. The car sharing services will get free access to those stations, and their members will have access to public charging stations at a discounted rate.

Several participants in the program, including 350 Green, declined to give further details. In an e-mailed statement, Mariana Gerzanych, CEO and founder of 350 Green, said the company is still working out where the charging stations will be located.

"They will be publicly available and convenient, enabling fast charging for people who don't have a dedicated charger at their home or work. This should expand the pool of potential EV owners and accelerate the adoption of EVs across the city," she said.

Gerzanych is a 32-year-old former ski instructor who speaks seven languages, according to her LinkedIn profile. Most recently, she was a statistical analyst with the U.S. Census Bureau. Her company is 2 years old.

350 Green has also won awards to electrify several other major cities, including San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix/Tucson, Nashville and San Francisco, according to its website.

A spokeswoman for 350 Green LLC said the firm will locate stations at high-traffic, retail locations — a model to be followed nationally.

The Illinois Commerce Commission's Initiative on Plug-In Electric Vehicles hasn't decided how consumers would pay to charge their vehicles. The first stations could be installed by spring.

The contract calls for 350 Green to offer two options: A monthly subscription (not to exceed $75 per month) and per-use pricing.

Oliver Hazimeh, head of the global eMobility practice at PRTM, a global management consulting firm, said charging infrastructure is just one of several barriers to electric vehicle adoption that will need to be addressed if Chicago hopes for widespread electric vehicle adoption.

Seventy percent of electric vehicle users are expected to do most of their charging at home, he said, which means the city will need to adopt a streamlined process to help homeowners install those chargers.

"It requires an integrated, multiprong approach," Hazimeh said, "People were irked that the (automobile manufacturers) didn't choose Chicago for the initial rollouts. But I think Chicago's actually on a good path now. There's a lot of energy behind it and commitment." Jwernau at tribune.com

RFP for toll collection at New Jersey Turnpike planned for early Jan 2011Posted on Wed, 2010-12-15 19:23
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority plans to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for toll collection services early in the new year, a spokesman told TOLLROADSnews today. He said the plan is to eliminate around 300 collectors at the Turnpike proper and 175 at the Garden State Parkway if contracting out proves a significant savings. 

Costs of the 475 fulltimers is currently around $47m, or around $100k each in salary plus benefits. For a 40 hour week the typical toll collector pay is $55k/year, just over $1,000/week and $25/hour in base pay. 

Costs of overtime, pension entitlements and health insurance payments are around $45k/toll collector/year.

Private toll collection services tend to have overall costs about half to two-thirds the $100k/person/year that has become typical for public toll authorities. That suggests the potential savings to the NJ Turnpike in the range of $16m to $24m/year.

These relate to overall toll revenues running at about $700m/year on 640m transactions. There's about a 65/35 split between electronic tolling (E-ZPass) and cash so the $47m annual cost relates to about $245m in revenue and 225m transactions.

On this arithmetic of each dollar in cash tolls collected about 19c goes in toll collector costs. That is potentially reduced to 9c to 14c with contracted-out, or privatized toll collection.

But electronic toll collection is in the 5c to 10c cents/transaction range and going down, so contracting out is not going to make the difference longterm.

Savings most dramatic in benefits area

Usually private contractors can recruit adequate staff for $15 to $20/hour, making annual salary costs $30k to $40k v $55k. 

But the bigger savings are in the benefits area. 

Rather than $45k/yr in benefits costs for unionized workers, private operators can generally get adequate personnel for benefits costs of $15k to $25k/year. 

Contracting out of toll collection is common in Florida, Texas and California. 

Indiana Toll Road has contracted out toll collection and the Chicago Skyway, both private concessionaires.

COMMENT: Technology and unions are pricing workers out of jobs. Electronic toll collection costs are a third to a quarter of cash collection costs. Being lower cost, tollers are increasingly offering lower toll rates to customers to get transponders. That encourages the uptake of transponders and  reduces the number of motorists who pay with cash, and the need for toll collectors.

Few tollers recruit new toll collectors. Rather the jobs disappear as people retire or leave - "by attrition" they say.

Cash toll collection is a doomed job category, but the high labor cost that unions have extracted from public toll agencies is hastening the end of such jobs. 

When your editor was a boy every multi-story building had an elevator operator, a man or woman who sat on a kind of bar stool often bolted to the floor of the elevator car, and "drove" the elevator with a lever on a wheel and a switch that opened and closed the doors.  

There must have been many hundreds of thousands of elevator operators (not many as sexy as the one in the picture.)

With advances in electrical sensing and switching technology, the occupation of elevator operator went extinct in the 1960s.

Cash toll collection, similarly has no future as a job in the 21st century. 

Defenders of elevator operators said that as well as avoiding the need for expensive new elevator technology, the operators on their barstools provided a useful service in directing people to their wanted floor, providing security, that they were safer, and were a "friendly face" (or see left, a leg) for the enterprise running the building.

All true to a point, but those subsidiary services weren't, in the end, judged to be worth the cost.

We'd bet the same will prove true of cash toll collection, and the demise will just be quicker with unions that insist on $100k+/year when  there are people willing to do the job for half the cost.

"Mayhem" at NJ Turnpike offices

There were reports of noisy protest demonstrations at the Turnpike offices today where the board meeting was held.  They said they were protesting "privatization." People are entitled to express their opinions on this, but we doubt it will affect the course of events.

TOLLROADSnews 2010-12-15

A decision to omit the toll rate schedule from toll tickets to be issued from Jan 2 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike has produced an outpouring of criticism. State auditor-general Jack Wagner says he is "appalled" and has asked the Commission to reverse the move. 

The state's auditor general said: "It seems like we're withdrawing from communicating with the public when it should be doing the opposite." Wagner called it giving motorists the "the mushroom treatment" and the old saw of keeping you in the dark and feeding you manure. The motorist organization AAA is critical, saying motorists will pull up at toll booths not knowing what they owe, and it will cause backups. Reporters and editorial writers have written scathing, often sarcastic, pieces.  

Paul Nussbaum of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Tolls are going up again. You already knew that. The difference this time is that cash tolls will increase three times as much as electronic tolls - and the price won't appear on your ticket…."
Then: "Imagine if this catches on. Supermarkets could let shoppers discover the price of milk at the checkout counter. Gas stations could avoid the hassle of posting new prices every day or two. And the price of a Big Mac could be as secret as the recipe for its sauce…"

Paul Carpenter of The Morning Call in Allentown: "Tis the season to be jolly about the surprises motorists soon will be getting - not under their Christmas trees but when they roll up to Pennsylvania Turnpike toll booths, where the secret of how much they have to pay will be revealed, fa la la la la."

The editorial writer at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review declared: "The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission obviously is trying to hide its Jan 2 toll increases - 10 percent for those who pay cash, but 3 percent for E-ZPass users - by eliminating dollar amounts from toll tickets.
And that stinks. 

"A spokesman claims the turnpike will save money by not printing new tickets for annual toll increases dictated by a 2007 state law. But such supposed cost-consciousness by such a bloated, wasteful agency is too little, too late to be credible."
They ended: "But that's what an inefficient, unpopular agency does about fees that turn off its captive market: It hides them, even though that's wrong - and another reason to do away with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission."

The Turnpike's position emphasizes cost saving

The Turnpike Commission's position has been that with annual adjustments of toll rates they'll have  unacceptably high ticket manufacturing costs with toll rate schedules. That's because usage of tickets cannot be easily forecast, so to prevent any runout of tickets at the interchanges, they always try to have a two-month average supply on hand at each interchange.  

And so they end up trashing large numbers of surplus toll tickets after each annual toll rate change with old toll rates printed on them.

The tickets have a black magnetic data strip. On issue from the ticket dispensing machine that black data strip is encoded with the time and place of entry and axle numbers, and retained on the ticket for computing the toll on exit.

Costs
Tickets cost the Turnpike 0.37 cents each - based on a per roll cost of $11.91 and 3200 tickets per roll of tickets. This year they've used 23,465 rolls or 75m tickets costing $279k. That's down a bit on 2009's 25,070 rolls and 80.2m tickets. 

They ended last year when toll rates went up with 4,114 surplus rolls or 13.2m tickets that had cost $49k. In addition there were special disposal costs to ensure they don't get used to defraud the Turnpike. 

And there are significant costs in setting up for a printing of new rates. Says the Turnpike: "(I)t takes untold hours of employee labor overseeing the six-month ticket production, printing, testing and distribution process."

Eliminating the need to order reprints of tickets each time tolls are changed will allow more economical bulk ordering, and end the mass throwaways of "obsolete" tickets.

How to get toll info
Cash paying customers (38% of the total) can still find their toll rates by four methods the Turnpike points out:

- a toll-rate telephone number 866 976 TRIP which uses voice recognition asking the caller for the entry and exit by name or number, and responds with the toll (if it handles your accent)

- www.paturnpike.com, then Toll Info and it gives you a calculator where you insert entry, exit, toll class, payment mode, and get the toll, or

- download a printable tolls schedule and print from the Turnpike website
- ask for a printed toll schedule from a toll collector next time you drive the Turnpike and pay cash

Misguided criticism (COMMENT)

Most of the criticism of the Turnpike Commission is silly - thoughtlessly imitative, with everyone 'piling on' the Turnpike. Most of the critics are repeating the same largely invalid points in different ways. 
Far from "hiding" the increase in toll rates the Turnpike's decision to end to the printed schedule has highlighted the toll increases, and their planned greater frequency. It has publicized the increases, not hidden them - as if that were ever possible. 

Printed schedule not a price tag

The toll schedule on the toll ticket is NOT at all like a price tag on a product in a store, allowing you to see the price of the product before you buy, and to decide whether or not to buy, as the critics claim. The toll rate schedule on the toll ticket is only made available on entry to the Turnpike, AFTER the driver has committed to purchase of a trip. So it doesn't assist the motorist in deciding whether the Turnpike provides value for money - like a product price tag. Product price tags provide price information BEFORE the decision to buy the product at a point where the customer can buy or not buy.

The two thirds of drivers with an E-ZPass transponder never even get a toll ticket so printing toll schedules on tickets only potentially provides information to a minority of drivers - and when they are already on the Turnpike.

But there's a bigger issue.Do we really want drivers studying a complicated toll rate schedule while driving? Do we really want drivers assembling their toll with the right bills and coins while driving?

Unsafe distraction
The toll schedule on the toll ticket could well be viewed as a thoroughly unsafe distraction from driving. Most vehicles have a solo driver. It is a dangerous for the driver to be studying the toll schedule on the ticket while sailing down the Turnpike, or when approaching the toll plaza. 

Most drivers never give the toll schedule a glance. Most probably don't even know the toll schedule is there on the toll ticket. They just take the toll ticket, place it in a convenient place nearby, drive, and hand it over to the toll collector at the other end of their trip. 

The first they know about the amount of the toll is when it pops up on the patron display in the exit toll lane. At that point the driver finds cash to cover the toll, and hands it to the toll collector. The toll rate schedule might as well not be there on the ticket for most trips.

True, some vehicles have people traveling with the driver - a spouse, family or a friend - who could read the toll ticket. True, some solo drivers will stop off at a service plaza to get fuel, a meal etc and they could safely study the toll rates on the ticket there at the service plaza.

True they could study the toll rate schedule, but do they? Our guess is they have other things on their mind at the service plaza - fuel, food, drink, bathroom matters.
The number of motorists who actually use that ticket toll rate schedule is probably quite tiny. The critics, we think, are making a great fuss out of almost nothing.

In our opinion, drivers will be better off without the toll schedule printed on the toll ticket. The toll ticket shouldn't even have the Turnpike exits printed on it. That's a distraction too. The toll ticket should simply say "Pennsylvania Turnpike Toll Ticket" with the Penn Pike logo to remind the absent-minded what the darned thing is, so it doesn't get thrown in a  trash can at the service plaza, or confused with a parking garage ticket. The important information is magnetically stored in that black strip.

Better ways to price tag
There are better ways of "price-tagging" the Turnpike:
- the four existing methods cited by the Turnpike above, plus 
(5) signs with the toll schedules on approach roads BEFORE the driver has committed to the Turnpike
(6) traveler information radio
(7) route-planning software applications, Orbitz or Expedia-like
All these are of value to the two thirds of drivers who never even get toll tickets, with or without toll schedules printed on them.

AET will end the need for tickets
Finally, this is an argument without legs. Cash payment of tolls won't be around very much longer, or toll tickets, with or without price schedules. Tollers are moving inexorably toward all-electronic tolling (AET) in which payment is by transponder (E-ZPass) account or license plate recognition. The Turnpike is engaging consultants to plan the transition to cashless, ticketless tolling.

Our criticism of the Turnpike would be: what's taken you so long? 407ETR, a trip toll system of comparable size, complexity and revenues to the Penn Pike has been around for a decade now - up in Toronto Canada - without the tickets, without cash, and much more efficient and providing better service to motorists, and better return to investors.
Cash payment on the road is a dying payment mode, and deservedly. It is unnecessary, inefficient, expensive, inconvenient, and delays motorists. We say: good riddance to the toll schedules on the tickets. And to toll tickets themselves. 
TOLLROADSnews 2010-12-19

A reader comments: "What is printed on the toll ticket is a non-issue now that the Turnpike provides an online toll calculator that can compute tolls due for any part of the East-West Mainline and the NE Extension, and that calculator works with standard Web browsers (it works with Firefox) and with smartphones (and it does - I just tested it with my Blackberry, and it seems to work correctly). I don't see what the problem is. 

One curiosity though. According to the PTC Web site, the 'discount' for paying with E-ZPass to drive from the Ohio line to Breezewood which I have done many times is exactly $0.06 (6 cents).  Not much of an economic incentive to go cashless!"
Editor: this may be a mistake. I'll check. 2010-12-20 9:15
UPDATE: The Turnpike Commission subsequently decided (Dec 22) to put the pritned toll schdule back on the tickets, see:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5047

TOLLROADSnews UPDATE 2010-12-22 18:45

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) have dedicated a $200,000 boat ramp constructed as part of repairs to the nearby Washington Crossing Toll Supported Bridge. A ramp was helpful to the bridgeworks, but in discussion with local groups it developed into being constructed to be a permanent facility. 

Bridge works themselves cost $2.37m.  

In a ceremony on completion of the boat ramp project, DRJTBC's chief Frank McCartney this week presented a large golden key to Joan Hauger, administrator for the Washington Crossing Historic Park with other local officials on hand. At the ceremony was  John Godzieba, 2009's and this year's "General George Washington" and president of the Friends of Washington Crossing Park, also a Bristol PA police lieutenant.

Boat ramp replaces large crane

The boat ramp is 153ft long and 16ft wide (46m x 4.8m) and uses a flow resistant system called cellular concrete mat (CCM) which consists of of precast concrete blocks held down by anchors underground in the river bed, the blocks strung together with a horizontal grid of polyester cable. 

The ramp will not be for public use, but will be made available to approved users - most important perhaps emergency services needing to do river rescues of boaters or swimmers in trouble. By one estimate the ramp could get rescue craft to people in trouble five minutes faster than possible from alternate ramps. 

Most publicized use will be in the annual reenactments of the famous crossing of the icy Delaware River by George Washington's forces which enabled them to surprise and rout the British/Hessian troops 9 miles, 15km downstream in Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776.

In the night between 11pm Dec 25 and 3am Dec 26, 1776 2400 men from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York plus 18 artillery pieces and  horses and ammunition were gotten across the fast flowing river in Durham row boats and ferries. Conditions were perilous with ice floes in the rapidly flowing river, sleet and snow.

In the following battle of Trenton the Hessian forces were forced to surrender after fierce fighting in which they suffered 22 dead, and 83 serious injuries.  896 were captured. The Americans suffered only two deaths and five injuries from war wounds, but they suffered much larger losses from exposure, exhaustion and disease.

It was a relatively small but a brilliant battlefield victory that is thought to have been crucial to reviving the morale of United States forces, gaining crucial Jan 1st, 1777 reenlistments, plus French naval support. These allowed the Americans to eventually carry through to victory, and secure independence.

The annual reenactors of the famous river crossing have in recent years been deploying a large diesel-powered crane that costs $6,000 to rent - used to hoist the reenactors' boats smoothly over riverside rocks into the river. A benefit of the DRJTBC bloat ramp will be that the reenactors won't need to rent that crane. 

We can't find any reports that the real Gen Washington and his men needed either a $200k boat ramp or a $6k/day diesel crane to get their boats into the Delaware River 234 years ago. But we suppose there are limits to authenticity in historic reenactment. 

We're assured the boats they use for the reenactment don't have outboard motors.

The boats make use of the river flow and a steering oar to get across the river, landing well downstream of their takeoff point. 

Unlike the real event, they do the annul reenactment in daytime hours and several years have cancelled the crossing because of dangerous conditions in the river - whitewater here, not tidal as in Philadelphia. About 100 reenactors represent the 2400 who actually crossed in 1776. 

Frank G. McCartney, the Commission's executive director is quoted in a statement: "This boat ramp is a testament to how we try to partner with other governmental agencies and community organizations when planning and carrying out a bridge project. It's very satisfying to know that this boat launch will play a role in helping to promote the public's appreciation of Revolutionary War history and that it could one day facilitate life-saving river rescues."

Bridge

There has been a bridge of some kind at the site since 1831. The present 6-span light steel truss bridge is vintage 1904 superstructure, built on stone abutments going well back into the 19th century. the bridge is strictly cars only, with a deck width of only 15ft, 4.5m. It has a 6,000pd, 2.7t weight limit, 8ft, 2.4m height limit, speed 15mph. An average 6,900 vehicles/day use the flimsy bridge. 

The Washington Crossing Bridge is the fifth DRJTBC bridge counting upriver from the Trenton-Morrisville Toll  Bridge (CORRECTED.) The Commission has seven toll bridges that generate sufficient profit to support 13 untolled bridges, of which the Washington Crossing Bridge is one. 

The Commission is a bistate authority of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Washington Crossing Bridge is 877ft, 263m long - indicative of the distance Washington's forces had to boat that rough Xmas night two and a third centuries ago. 

http://www.ushistory.org/washingtoncrossing/reenactment/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trenton

CREDITS: The project was designed by Dewberry-Goodkind and contractor was James J Anderson Construction. Construction management was by Hill International with a DRJTBC team of chief engineer George Alexandridis and project manager Chris Harney and Roy Little

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has overturned a staff decision to save money by leaving toll rates off their toll tickets. At their monthly meeting yesterday the Commissioners told staff to get the toll rates back on tickets as soon as possible.

CEO Joe Brimmeier: "Our staff made the decision not to print (tolls) on tickets to cut costs, in particular as more people sign up for E-ZPass and fewer people take tickets. However, we heard loud and clear from our customers that we got ahead of ourselves on the decision, so the commissioners directed us to order a new batch of toll tickets with (tolls) shown."

(The Turnpike Commission uses the transit word 'fares', we render it 'tolls.' - editor)

Staff estimates are the agency would have saved up to $100,000 annually by printing tickets without listing toll rates, so they would not have to trash a surplus each year as new toll rates made the tickets obsolete. Turnpike tolls are set to rise each year now under state Act 44 of 2007, which uses the Turnpike to generate some $500m/year for non-Turnpike purposes.

The main function of tickets is to carry information on the point of entry of a vehicle on a magnetic strip which gets handed to a collector at the end of the trip in order to compute the toll. Printing of toll schedules on the ticket has been quite incidental to their function.

However the change upset a few people and drew savage press and political comment.

Following the commissioners order the Turnpike is asking its ticket supplier Electronic Data Magnetics of Highpoint NC to cut in half the normal delivery time for new tickets and have them available by March or April 2011.

The tickets without any toll schedule on them will be issued as planned from Jan 1 on. They are already being shipped to the Turnpike's interchanges, and will be used until the replacement tickets-cum-tollrates are manufactured.

Turnpike officials note that the discount for using a transponder on the Penn Pike increases under the toll rates going into effect Jan 1, and urge users of the Turnpike to sign up for a transponder account, eliminating the need to take a ticket, and stop to hand it back at trip's end. 

A Virginia couple involved in a nasty crash on the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) late November got their lost dog back by lucky coincidence. Driving home with his wife and dog to northern Virginia from Wisconsin after a Thanksgiving holiday, Brad Tetting swerved to avoid another car, lost control of his own, and "fishtailed" into oncoming ITR traffic. The car was completely wrecked. 

Brad Tetting suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung, and his wife Jessika had concussion, a broken finger and lacerations. Their white west highland terrier named Wesley went missing.

In nearby Elkhart General Hospital the Tettings were treated by several nurses but it turned out the son of one of those nurses Mike Kuykendall had been driving the Toll Road not long after the crash. And saw a white dog by the side of the pike.

"I could see he'd get hit, or he'd freeze to death," he said of the dog.

Kuykendall stopped his pickup truck and: "I opened my door and he jumped right in."

Mike Kuylendall looked after the dog at his home, telling his mother, Angie Kuykendall, the Tettings' nurse, of the dog he'd found on the Toll Road.

The nurse on hearing her patients had lost a dog in the crash suddenly realized that was one problem she could fix quickly.

Local TV is reporting it as a Christmas "miracle" and Ms Kuykendall suggests some kind of "divine" intervention.  

At least it was a lucky break. 

TV of the story shows the dog Wesley is a little charmer.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=165978

TOLLROADSnews 2010-12-26

NJ-PA/I-80 bridge attracts motorists to open road electronic toll lanePosted on Tue, 2010-12-28 18:04 

They call it the Express E-ZPass lane - what we call generically open road tolling (ORT). It's a single highway speed electronic toll lane on I-80 at the toll point for the Delaware Water Gap Bridge over the upper Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg PA. They opened it in a provisional configuration November 22 alongside five stop-to-pay cash lanes that also accept an E-ZPass transponder. (Tolling here is westbound only.)

The toll system upgrade replaces an eight lane stop-to-pay or roll-through speed E-ZPass transponder setup. 

Already the single highspeed toll lane has greatly improved traffic flow and attracted a good proportion of motorists. In its first two weeks it was taking 42 percent of vehicles and more reticently there have been a series of days with usage over 50%.

They don't expect construction work to be finished before the late spring, when the Express Lane will be restriped for greater width and get shoulders to the sides, plus the five cash/roll-through transponder lanes but they think the Express Lane will handle 2,000 vehicles/hour vs a maximum 400/hr in cash/roll-through transponder lanes.

(There's space at the toll point itself for a second highway speed toll lane but this would require rebuild of an overbridge further along to move bridge columns from its path.)

Executive director of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission Frank McCartney is quoted in a  statement as saying the new highway speed lane "is proving to be a very effective technological solution for reducing traffic congestion at the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge."

He urges cash customers who have been procrastinating on getting E-ZPass transponders for their vehicles should sign up for the service at www.ezpassdrjtbc.org or call 1 800 872 5061.  

They have also set up a line for comment on how the ORT lane is working: 1 866 651 6250.

Transponder accounts entitle motorists to frequent user discounts - 20 trips within a 35-day cycle generate an automatic 40 percent rebated discounts on their tolls, paying a 45c/toll vs the normal 75c toll for cars.

Owners of vehicles using the Express E-ZPass lanes without an E-ZPass transponder are mailed notices for payment of any tolls as well as fees - $25 per incident for a first notice and $35 per incident for a second notice.  

First time mistake can get waiver of penalty

Motorists who enter the Express E-ZPass zone without a transponder are levied a $25 penalty fee for the first notice and $35 for the second but they can get a one-time waiver of the penalty fee by responding promptly and paying the toll. 

If they don't they risk being pursed by the debt collectors.

Average daily traffic at the I-80 bridge last year was 53.9k, a slight improvement on 2008 but below the 55.9k high of 2006. The I-78 toll bridge downstream has overtaken the I-80 as DRJTBC's most traveled toll bridge.

see http://www.drjtbc.org

TOLLROADSnews 2010-12-28

Indiana DOT reckon they'll save about half operating costs and motorists will save time and hassle with the conversion of a small Indiana-Illinois cash toll bridge to all-electronic toll (AET) collection. The last cash tolls were collected December 27, 2010 at the Wabash Toll Bridge, a small 2-lane 1950s steel truss span in the far southwest corner of Indiana on Indiana state route 62 (IN62) and connecting over the river with Illinois state route 141 (IL141). These 2-lane roads in among farmland (see map at bottom.)
Unlike many bistate bridges this one though located partially in both states is fully owned and operated by Indiana.

December 28 the single two-directional 2-person road center toll booth with its wide centrally supported canopy was removed by a demolition crew.  The bridge closed for a couple of days while the demolition was done and reader equipment and cameras were installed and adjusted.

Readers are mounted on a small gantry spanning both lanes close to the beginning of the bridge. Cameras are pole mounted. (see picture nearby) 

Started tolling Jan 1 2011

Jan 1, 2012 they began electronic toll collection using ISO 18000 6C sticker tag transponders from Federal Signal/Sirit.
Sirit is also supplying the readers. Cameras were from Transport Data Systems.
The new toll system was designed for INDOT by TRMI out of  New York, a company with a large portfolio of bridge toll system work around the country.

First trip OK without transponder but must pay

The signage both directions says "Automated Tolling DO NOT STOP" plus "No transponder, go to www.wabashbridge.com".
Motorists who drive the bridge without a transponder will be tolled by license plate image, contrary to what we we initially wrote, and contrary to local reports. (CORRECTION)

Cher Goodwin of Indiana DOT's regional office says Indiana state police are in charge of enforcement and collecting camera based tolls on behalf of the DOT. Indiana police have arrangements, she says, with the Illinois state police and so have access to the motor registry databases of both states.

Trips without a transponder will - on the first trip - generate a toll bill in the mail to the registered owner of the vehicle plus a request that they get a transponder for future use, and the warning that if they don't they face a violation charge plus toll in future. The same vehicle recognized on second or subsequent trips without a transponder will generate a demand for the toll plus the standard violation charge.

Transponders have been available online, or over-the-counter at the bridge office near the toll point. That office will be closed around the end of the month to make it a fully unstaffed facility. Transponders are free to local motorists. 
Cost of the conversion to cashless overall is $900k for Indiana DOT.

Economics of conversion
The economics of the project are explained by Indiana DOT officials this way.
At an average daily traffic of 4,000 vehicles paying 50c to cross the bridge they make about $730k/year in tolls (4,000 x $0.5 x 365). Staffing the toll booth 24/7 is 21 x 8hr shifts and with benefits and overtime was costing about $60/hour that's $520k/year, leaving just over $200k for maintenance. (NOTE:These are our back of the envelop estimates, not INDOT's -editor)
Eight toll collectors - some part-timers are out of work.
One of those Linda King was quoted in the local Courier & Press newspaper as saying it was an emotional sight for her to see the toll booth being removed because she'd worked in there for 15 years:

"It's progress..."

"I hate for it to happen, but it's progress, and it will be better for the commuters that come back and forth every day."
And for the bridge.

COMMENT: Spending 30.5c out of 50c tolls on cash toll collection costs didn't make much sense.
Revenue after toll collection is likely to increase to about $450k from the present $200k, after electronic collection and other project costs are factored in.
They have a bridge maintenance fund from toll profits, so there will be more money to look after the bridge.
Plus $250k/year savings on a $900k investment is a good rate of return.

BACKGROUND: Built in 1956 the Wabash Toll Bridge is of steel truss construction with  total length of 2400ft (732m), longest span 427ft (130m), deck width 25.75ft (7.85m, overhead clearance through the truss is 16.5ft (5.03m). 
Used almost exclusively by local residents - long-distance travelers Louisville KY, Evansville IN, St Louis MO use I-64 and cross the Wabash River untolled 20 miles (32km) to the north of the IN62-IL141 route the Toll Bridge is the southern-most crossing before its confluence with the Ohio River. The Wabash is a muddy meandering river that flows southwest across Indiana until its southern portion where it forms the border with southern Illinois.

see: http://www.wabashbridge.com

Current Production Capability is 2,000 per week.

I firmly believe that future people are going to regard the level of traffic congestion tolerated by the people of the early 21st century as slightly bizarre. I only rarely drive, so it’s not a big issue in my life, but perhaps that makes the persistence of this solvable problem more salient to me. At any rate, further evidence that it’s a hugely underrated issue is provided by Janet Currie’s paper “Traffic Congestion and Infant Health: Evidence from EZ Pass”

This paper provides evidence of the significant negative health externalities of traffic congestion. We exploit the introduction of electronic toll collection, or E-ZPass, which greatly reduced traffic congestion and emissions from motor vehicles in the vicinity of highway toll plazas. Specifically, we compare infants born to mothers living near toll plazas to infants born to mothers living near busy roadways but away from toll plazas with the idea that mothers living away from toll plazas did not experience significant reductions in local traffic congestion. We also examine differences in the health of infants born to the same mother, but who differ in terms of whether or not they were “exposed” to E-ZPass. We find that reductions in traffic congestion generated by E-ZPass reduced the incidence of prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2km of a toll plaza by 6.7-9.1% and 8.5-11.3% respectively, with larger effects for African-Americans, smokers, and those very close to toll plazas. There were no immediate changes in the characteristics of mothers or in housing prices in the vicinity of toll plazas that could explain these changes, and the results are robust to many changes in specification. The results suggest that traffic congestion is a significant contributor to poor health in affected infants. Estimates of the costs of traffic congestion should account for these important health externalities.

The small issue here is that public policy should more strongly encourage people to get EZ Pass. Indeed, I would say that the use of some form of electronic toll-paying system should probably be made mandatory and other options phased out. That’s in part because universal use of EZ-Pass would make it much easier to tackle the large issue here which is that taking up space on a crowded road at a crowded time imposes large costs on other people. People should be charged for the right to do so, which could massively reduce traffic congestion with large economic and public health benefits.