Everything about Turnpike totally explained
A
toll road, also known as a
tollway,
turnpike,
pike or
tollpike, is a
road for which a driver pays a
toll (that is, a fee) for use. Similarly there are
toll bridges and
toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of
revenue, most typically
gasoline tax or general tax funds. Tolls have been placed on roads at various times in history, often to generate funds for repayment of
toll revenue bonds used to finance constructions and/or operation. The building or facility where a toll is collected may be called a
toll booth,
toll plaza,
toll station, or
toll gate.
Two variations of toll roads exist: barrier (mainline) toll plazas and entry/exit tolls. On a mainline toll system, all vehicles stop at various locations along the highway to pay a toll. While this may save money from the lack of need to construct tolls at every exit, it can cause lots of traffic congestion, and drivers could evade tolls by going around them as the exits don't have them. With entry/exit tolls, vehicles collect a ticket when entering the highway, which displays the fares it'll pay when it exits, increasing in cost for distance traveled. Upon exit, the driver will pay the amount listed for the given exit. Should the ticket indicate a traveling violation or be lost, the driver would typically pay the maximum amount possible for travel on that highway. A variant of the entry/exit toll system exists where mainline barriers are present at the two endpoints of the toll road and each interchange has a ramp toll that's paid upon exit or entry. In this case a motorist would pay a flat fee at the ramp toll and another flat fee at the end of the toll road, thus no ticket is necessary. Modern toll roads often use a combination of the two, with various entry and exit tolls supplemented by occasional mainline tolls.
Early toll roads
Road tolls are at least 2700 years old, as they'd to be paid for using the
Susa-
Babylon highway under the regime of
Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the seventh century BC.
Aristotle and
Pliny refer to tolls in Arabia and other parts of Asia. In
India, before the
4th century BC the
Arthasastra notes the use of tolls. Germanic tribes charged tolls to travellers across
mountain passes. Tolls were used in the
Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century and 15th century.
A
14th century example (though not for a road) would be Castle
Loevestein in the
Netherlands, which was built at a strategic point where 2 rivers met, and charged tolls to boats sailing the river.
Many modern European roads were originally constructed as toll roads in order to recoup the costs of construction. In
14th century England, some of the most heavily used roads were repaired with money raised from tolls by
pavage grants.
Turnpike trusts were established in England beginning in 1706, and were ultimately responsible for the maintenance and improvement of most main roads in
England and
Wales, until they were gradually abolished from the
1870s. Most trusts improved existing roads, but some new ones usually only short stretches of road were also built.
Thomas Telford's
Holyhead road (now the
A5 road) is exceptional as a particularly long new road, built in the early
19th century. See also
Toll roads in the United Kingdom.
National toll-road differences
Toll roads are found in many countries. The way they're funded and operated may differ from country to country. Some of these toll roads are privately owned and operated. Others are owned by the government. Some of the government-owned toll roads are privately operated.
Some toll roads are managed under such systems as the
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system. Private companies build the roads and are given a limited franchise. Ownership is transferred to the government when the franchise expires. Throughout the world, this type of arrangement is prevalent in
Australia,
South Korea,
Japan,
Philippines, and
Canada. The (BOT) system is a fairly new concept that's gaining ground in the
United States, with
Arkansas,
California,
Delaware,
Florida,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Mississippi,
Texas, and
Virginia already building and operating toll roads under this scheme.
Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts,
New Jersey, and
Tennessee are also considering the BOT methodology for future highway projects.
The more traditional means of managing toll roads in the United States is through semi-autonomous
public authorities.
New York,
Massachusetts,
New Hampshire,
New Jersey,
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
Kansas,
Oklahoma, and
West Virginia manage their toll roads in this manner. While most of the toll roads in California, Delaware, Florida, Texas, and Virginia are operating under the BOT arrangement, a few of the older toll roads in these states are still operated by public authorities.
Payment of the road toll may be made in cash, by credit card, by pre-paid card or by an
electronic toll collection system. In some European countries payment is made using stickers which are affixed to the windscreen. Some toll booths are automated. Tolls may vary according to the distance traveled, the building and maintenance costs of the motorway and the type of vehicle.
The
Sydney Harbour Tunnel in
Sydney,
Australia, became the first tollroad in the world to fully convert from cash to
electronic toll collection only when it converted in
July 2007 (as distinct from tollroads that opened originally as electronic only).
Critics of toll roads
According to
Gabriel Roth toll roads have been criticized as being inefficient in three ways:
- It required vehicle to stop or slow down, manual toll collection wastes time and raises vehicle operating costs
- Collection costs can absorb up to third of revenues, and revenue theft is considered to be comparatively easy.
- Where the tolled road are less congested than the parallel 'free' roads, the traffic diversion resulting from the tolls increases congestion on the road system and reduces its usefulness.
Toll collection technology
The term turnpike refers to the
pike or long stick that was held across the road, and only raised or turned aside when the traveler paid the toll.
Travelers have disliked toll roads not only for the cost of the toll, but also for the delays at toll booths.
An adaptation of military "
identification friend or foe" or
RFID technology, called
electronic toll collection, is lessening the delay incurred in toll collection, and may eliminate it entirely in the future. The electronic system determines whether a passing car is enrolled in the program, alerts enforcers if it's not. The accounts of registered cars are debited automatically without stopping or even opening a window. Currently,
DSRC is used as a wireless protocol. Other systems are based on
GPRS/
GSM and
GPS technology. Such a system (for trucks only) in
Germany launched successfully in January 2005 and by the end of its first year of operation will have charged tolls for around 22 billion driven kilometres. One of the advantages of GPS-based systems is their ability to adapt easily and quickly to changes in charge parameters (road classes, vehicle types, emission levels, time slots, etc.). Another advantage is the systems' ability to support other value-added services on the same technology platform. These services might include fleet and vehicle engine management systems, emergency response services, pay-as-you-drive insurance services and navigation capabilities.
The first major deployment of an
RFID electronic toll collection system was on the
Dallas North Tollway in 1989 by
Amtech (see
TollTag). The Amtech
RFID technology used on the Dallas North Tollway was originally developed at Sandia Labs for use in tagging and tracking livestock.
Highway 407 in the province of
Ontario,
Canada has absolutely no toll booths and instead, the rear license plates of all vehicles are photographed when they enter and exit the highway. This makes the highway the first all automated highway in the world. A bill is mailed monthly for usage of the 407. Lower charges are levied on frequent 407 users who carry electronic transponders in their vehicles. The approach hasn't been without controversy: In 2002 the 407 ETR a class action with a refund to users. The same method is used on
Highway 6 in
Israel.
In
Illinois, coins and
I-Pass are used in every toll plaza instead of toll tickets. On the East Coast, similar systems include
E-ZPass,
Smart Tag,
FastLane or
SunPass.
FasTrak is used in
California. The systems use a small radio
transponder mounted in or on a customer's vehicle to deduct toll fares from a pre-paid account as the vehicle passes through the toll barrier. This reduces manpower at toll booths and increases traffic flow and fuel efficiency by reducing the need for complete stops to pay tolls at these locations.
By designing a tollgate specifically for electronic collection, it's possible to carry out open-road tolling, where the customer doesn't need to slow at all when passing through the tollgate. The state of Texas is testing a system on a stretch of Texas 121 that has no toll booths. Drivers without a TollTag have their license plate photographed automatically and the registered owner will receive a monthly bill, at a higher rate than those vehicles with TollTags
(External Link
).
Another feature of many electronic toll collection systems is interagency interoperability, where the same transponder is accepted at many toll agencies. For instance, the
E-ZPass tag is accepted at most toll facilities from
Virginia to
Maine and west to the
Peace Bridge spanning the
Niagara River as well as
Indiana and
Illinois.
Ohio has signalled intention to join E-ZPass for the
Ohio Turnpike, but hasn't officially done so. The
TxTAG system allows interoperability throughout the state of Texas, but isn't compatible with systems used outside of
Texas.
Electronic toll collection (ETC) systems also have drawbacks. A computer glitch can result in delays several miles long. Some state turnpike commissions such as the
Ohio Turnpike have debated implementing E-ZPass but have found that such a system would be ineffective because most of the people who use the turnpike are not commuters, are from states that have no ETS on turnpikes, or are from states that don't have a turnpike at all. The toll plazas of some turnpikes are antiquated because they were originally built for traffic that stops to pay the toll or get a ticket.
The technology does have its limits. For instance, the Highway 407
automatic number plate recognition technology has a reputation for the occasional misread plate, leading to bills being sent to motorists in remote parts of Ontario who have never been near the tollway.
Closed system
For toll roads, a "closed system" refers to a road where a motorist obtains a ticket upon entering the toll road, then pays to toll upon exiting the expressway. The toll is calculated by the distance traveled on the toll road. In contrast, a toll road using an 'open system' consists of mainline toll plazas (a.k.a., toll barriers) at set intervals; it's possible for motorists to get on an 'open toll road' after one toll barrier and exit before the next one, thus traveling on the toll road toll-free. Most open toll roads have ramp tolls or limited access junctions to prevent that.
Toll road gallery
Image:SR 417 University Toll Plaza.jpg|A high-speed toll booth on SR 417 near Orlando, Florida
Image:Sayama Loop toll road-2005-6-5.jpg|On the Sayama bypass (Saitama prefectural road 397) in Japan
Image:Toll-gates.jpg|On the Dom Pedro I Highway near the city of Itatiba, Brazil
Image:New Jersey Turnpike toll gate.jpg|A New Jersey Turnpike Toll Gate for Exit 8A in Monroe Township, NJ
Image:Caseta San Marcos (Mexico-Puebla).jpg|Toll gate San Marcos, at the México-Puebla highway.
Image:P7080169.JPG|Suita TOLL GATE on Chūgoku Expressway near Osaka, Japan
Image:AirportExpresswayTollStation.jpg|A toll gate on the Airport Expressway in Beijing.
Image:P1010280.JPG|Toll Plaza of Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Hong Kong.
Image:Nse-kl-toll.JPG|Sungai Besi toll plaza, North-South Expressway, Malaysia.
Image:Toll plaza with Smart Tag and Touch & Go lanes.jpg|Malaysian toll plaza near Skudai, Johor with Touch 'n Go and Smart TAG electronic payment system (EPS)
Image:ERPBugis.JPG|ERP gantry at North Bridge Road. Singapore
Image:College-Road-Dulwich-London-SE21-Tollgate.JPG|The tollgate on College Road, Dulwich, London SE21 - a slice of medieval life still very much 'alive and kicking' in south London.
Image:Paying-the-toll-College-Road-London-SE21.jpg|Paying the toll at the College Road, Dulwich, London SE21 tollgate, which dates back to 1789.
Image:Table-of-tolls-College-Road-London-SE21-Tollgate.jpg|A table of tolls in pre-decimal currency for the College Road, Dulwich, London SE21 tollgate.
Image:BomstasjonSvinesund.jpg|A toll booth at the Svinesund Bridge at the Swedish-Norwegian border.
Image:Balintawak Toll Barrier.jpg|The Balintawak Toll Barrier of the North Luzon Expressway located in Caloocan City, Philippines.
Image:407ETR.jpg|Ontario's Highway 407 doesn't use toll booths, but rather cameras and transponders to toll users.
Image:Mass_Pike_Toll_Ticket.jpg|Toll ticket for travel on the Massachusetts Turnpike. This ticket indicates the point of entry onto the Turnpike, and lists tolls charged at each exit point.
Image:Ohio_Turnpike_Service_Area_Dscn7189.jpg|Service areas provide food, fuel, and travel information on the Ohio Turnpike, in the United States.
Image:City-link-tulla-toll-gantries.jpg| The Tullamarine Freeway in Melbourne, Australia showing electronic e-TAG toll gantries.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Turnpike'.
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