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Video Tolling Shows Potential

JASON BEHNKEN / The Tampa Tribune

Pay-By-Plate provides an option for infrequent toll road users who don't want to pay $25 for a SunPass and cuts the need for toll-takers, the most expensive way to collect tolls.

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2007

Updated: 12/04/2007 08:17 am

BLOGS: Behind The Wheel | Traffic News

A toll system that uses cameras to photograph vehicles on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway's elevated lanes is off to a slow start, but that hasn't stopped transportation officials from moving ahead with plans to expand the system to other toll roads in Florida.

Called Pay-by-Plate, the system has been operating on the expressway's reversible lanes for a year. It attracts about 1,800 customers and averages 1,000 monthly transactions. That's a mere fraction - about one quarter of 1 percent - of the numbers for the SunPass system, which accounts for 400,000 transactions a month on the reversible lanes.

But officials at Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, the agency that operates most of the state's toll roads, says the system provides an option for infrequent toll road users who don't want to spend $25 on a SunPass and cuts down on the need for toll-takers, the most expensive way to collect from drivers.

By calling 1-888-TAG-TOLL, advertised on massive, electronic signs spanning the expressway, drivers can set up an account, and every time they use the road a picture of their license plate is taken by a remote camera and $1.75 is deducted from that account.

Drivers can use credit cards to set up accounts with as little as $5.

Officials point to several reasons for the low number of people using the video tolling system, one of them being that there hasn't been marketing for it other than the electronic signs.

But they think it works well enough to consider expansion, including possibly to the Suncoast Parkway.

When, or if, the system will be expanded will depend on a two-month study set to start next month to see how well it has worked on the expressway.

"We don't think we can necessarily look at the volumes on one system to judge ridership," said Evelio Suarez, executive director for toll operations at Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. "The road basically goes from Brandon to downtown. It doesn't even go west of downtown. It's more important to know: Does the technology perform properly?"

Turnpike officials say they're pleased so far. They concede the technology isn't perfect and admit an investment in computers and personnel will be needed to expand it to other roads.

The biggest cost is on the computer side. Because the photo images are stored digitally, the transactions eat up more memory on computers than SunPass transactions, meaning the agency will need to add computer storage if the system is expanded.

Officials aren't sure exactly how much that would cost, but they say the per-unit costs are less than those to man a toll booth 24 hours a day, year-round.

Another drawback is that video technology requires more human intervention than SunPass. At the turnpike's backroom operations in Boca Raton, clerks cross-check still video images one-by-one against a database of accounts to ensure each transaction is legitimate.

If the technology is spread to other roads in the agency's 460-mile toll-road system, most of that work will be handled by computers so cross-checking is used only when the computer cannot decipher details in a picture, for example between a capital B and an 8.

The computers are accurate about 80 percent to 90 percent of the time, meaning that even after that the agency's investment clerks will be needed to cross-check some transactions.

Despite those drawbacks, video tolling makes sense, officials say.

It won't replace SunPass, which accounts for about 70 percent of toll transactions now. However, it can attract occasional toll road users who don't want to spring for a $25 transponder, including out-of-state motorists, rental car users and local residents who rarely take toll roads.

Lower Administrative Costs

Video tolling also costs less to administer than manned toll collections. And unlike SunPass, video tolling doesn't provide a discount, meaning the state collects more in tolls. On the expressway, it costs users the same as cash, $1.75.

On average, SunPass costs Turnpike Enterprise about 10 cents for every transaction.

A manned toll collection runs 24 to 26 cents per transaction. Suarez said he won't know exactly how much the video technology costs until the study is complete, but "my guess it's somewhere between the two."

Among the roads talked about for video tolling, possibly next year or the year after, are the Suncoast Parkway, Western Beltway in Orlando and two Miami-area toll roads, Suarez said.

Video tolling has been around in North America about 10 years. A handful of U.S. cities use it today, including Houston and Dallas.

The North Texas Tollway Authority in north Dallas started supplementing its transponder system with video tolling in January. Unlike on the Selmon Expressway, the Texas tollway authority doesn't set up accounts. Users are billed by mail after they take the road.

This has helped attract users because they don't have to worry about credit cards or setting up accounts, said Clayton Howe, assistant executive director in charge of operations. About 15 percent of motorists on the North Texas system use the video toll option.

"The biggest impact is that it gives us an opportunity to reach out to folks and do direct marketing to get them to use the Toll Tag transponder system. We've seen a 20 percent increase in accounts opening," Howe said.

Goal: Add Users

The idea, he said, is to add customers and steer them toward transponders to keep overhead down. With those savings, the agency is hoping to invest in new roads.

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise plans to follow the same path. For now, said Suarez, the focus is cutting costs, but the agency will look to create cashless, electronic toll roads.

"This is a way to use those roads without having to add manual toll services. This will eventually allow us to operate a road without a toll collection booth," he said.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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