Dear KTFC Members & Friends:
Reports from northeast Pennsylvania indicate that the Turnpike’s “toll-by-plate” experiment is a success as the toll road moves closer to phasing out human toll collectors by October 2022.
The Turnpike has five interchanges where motorists pay either through E-ZPass or the toll-by-plate method, where license plates are photographed, and vehicle owners receive a bill. At those interchanges, 82 percent of drivers use E-ZPass, and the remainder receive bills.
The drawback with the toll-by-plate system is that 3 percent of the users wind up not paying due to unidentifiable plates or obsolete or out-of-state billing addresses.
On the other hand, E-ZPass is virtually 100 percent and immediate, and users of that system receive considerable discounts. The Turnpike Commission reports that E-ZPass usage has increased to 85 percent of motorists, from only 33 percent in 2003.
For a report on how the toll-by-plate program is working at the two plazas in Lackawanna County, click here.
Be of Good Cheer,
— The Wolff
TRANSPORTATION ISSUE UPDATE
- Speaking of E-ZPass, some states are giving discounts to their own residents, and charging out-of-state drivers higher tolls. It all depends on where you acquired your transponder.
- An impending change in administering Pennsylvania’s medical assistance transportation program has been delayed for six months to study how the change would affect transportation services.
- The Post-Gazette published a feature article on an ambitious interchange project at the Southern Beltway and I-79 in Washington County..
- The head of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association renewed the organization’s call for the federal government to step up to address transportation funding needs. Federal gasoline and diesel fuel taxes have not been increased since 1993.
- Last month, the PA House Transportation Committee advanced a measure that would allow for the installation of parking-protected bicycle lanes across the Commonwealth.