Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) are two joint powers authorities formed by the California State Legislature in 1986 to plan, finance, construct, and operate Orange County 's toll roads . TCA consists of two local government agencies:
93-530: FasTrak is the electronic toll collection (ETC) system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads , toll bridges , and high-occupancy toll lanes along the California Freeway and Expressway System . As with other ETC systems, FasTrak is designed to eliminate the need for cars to stop to pay at toll booths, thus decreasing
186-451: A FasTrak Flex tag are given. This is a backup in case a transponder fails to read. Otherwise, for a designated FasTrak-only facility, including most express lanes, a toll violation notice is sent to the registered owner of the vehicle, or in the case of a non-Fastrak-only facility, including all toll bridges, an invoice (with no penalty) is sent to the registered owner. In the case of drivers whose vehicles are company owned or leased, as long as
279-408: A FasTrak transponder can use it to pay tolls on any California toll facility using the system. Each center establishes its own fee and discount structures. Each FasTrak account agency has its own monthly minimums / monthly fees (from lowest to highest) The standard FasTrak transponder tag can be used by most vehicles. Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) also offers a sticker transponder that has
372-506: A carpool (and thus do not have to pay a toll) by covering their FasTrak transponder in a mylar bag. There has been a push to strictly use open road tolling , accepting only payments via a FasTrak transponder, a toll-by-plate account, or one-time payments via online or by phone instead of cash. All of California's HOT lanes only use open road tolling. The Golden Gate Bridge began requiring electronic payments for all tolls in March 2013, and all
465-731: A carpool or a registered CAV (and thus do not have to pay a toll) by removing their transponder from the windshield or covering their tag in the provided mylar bag. Neither the Orange County toll roads operated by the TCA nor the South Bay Expressway toll road in San Diego County offer carpooling or CAV discounts. Some agencies like the Bay Area FasTrak center, Metro ExpressLanes , and SANDAG may offer
558-607: A comprehensive study to evaluate the feasibility of introducing congestion pricing. The charge would be combined with other traffic reduction implementations, allowing money to be raised for public transit improvements and bike and pedestrian enhancements. The various pricing scenarios considered were presented in public meetings in December 2008, with final study results expected in 2009. (see San Francisco congestion pricing ) Taiwan Highway Electronic Toll Collection System (see Electronic Toll Collection (Taiwan) ) In December 2013,
651-507: A declining-balance account, which is debited each time they pass a toll point. Electronic toll lanes may operate alongside conventional toll booths so that drivers who do not have transponders can pay at the booth. Open road tolling is an increasingly popular alternative which eliminates toll booths altogether; electronic readers mounted beside or over the road read the transponders as vehicles pass at highway speeds, eliminating traffic bottlenecks created by vehicles slowing down to go through
744-441: A large amount of information in both directions between the road and the vehicle, but also of providing route information. Thus, ETC 2.0 has far more advanced functions than ETC 8 (which provides only toll collection function on toll roads). The ETC 2.0 system provides a variety of advantages to road users through information provision services, such as congestion avoidance, safe driving support, etc., and route information collected by
837-475: A license plate is called an image toll and can be identified on the customer statement by noticing the license plate number listed instead of the transponder number. If one fails to correctly list license plates on their account, the FasTrak customer will receive toll violation notices as if they were another driver. If a FasTrak customer receives a toll violation notice under these circumstances, they only refer to
930-536: A packaged FasTrak transponder sold over-the-counter at a retail setting, such as nearby Costco locations. Customers must still register their transponders with the issuing agency. A 2008 teardown analysis of the Fastrak transponder and analysis of its security issues was published by Root Labs, finding that they are updated remotely and do not use encryption. Furthermore, FasTrak's basic functionality and specifications are listed under Title 21, Division 2, Chapter 16 of
1023-730: A payment at chain convenient store at third day after vehicle travel, since a subscription to ETC is not mandated by law. Taiwan was the first country to transfer from flat-rate toll stations to a distance-based pay-as-you-go tolling system on all of its freeways. It has the longest ETC freeway mileage in the world. Electronic toll collection systems rely on four major components: automated vehicle identification, automated vehicle classification, transaction processing, and violation enforcement. The four components are somewhat independent, and, in fact, some toll agencies have contracted out functions separately. In some cases, this division of functions has resulted in difficulties. In one notable example,
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#17327723003381116-655: A prepaid M-TAG account. The European Union issued the EFC-directive, which attempts to standardize European toll collection systems. Systems deployed after January 1, 2007 must support at least one of the following technologies: satellite positioning, mobile communications using the GSM-GPRS standard or 5.8 GHz microwave technology. Furthermore, the European Commission issued the Regulation on
1209-476: A sticker transponder to replace the former plastic transponder. The sticker transponder is similar to the eGo Plus toll sticker introduced by TxTag in 2005, SunPass Mini toll sticker introduced by SunPass in 2008, and the sticker tag introduced by MnPASS in 2015. All eight toll bridges only collect tolls in one direction. All other toll facilities collect tolls in either direction, though some express lanes exist in only one direction of their freeway in parts or
1302-451: A tempting target for toll evasion. Several methods can be used to deter toll violators. Transportation Corridor Agencies The toll roads maintained by TCA are financed with tax-exempt bonds on a stand-alone basis -- taxpayers are not responsible for repaying any debt if toll revenues fall short. Some California lawmakers and toll road advocates favor using similar local agencies to build and maintain future tollways, especially after
1395-478: A timely manner. In 2020, Transportation Corridor Agencies were criticized for trying to convert a non-tolled road into a toll road. Transportation Corridor Agencies also objected to state legislation that forbid them from expanding the toll system in Orange County after TCA was caught using toll money to pay lobbyists. In 2020, the Orange County Grand Jury released a report that stated that
1488-451: A toll booth lane. Vehicles without transponders are either excluded or pay by plate – a license plate reader takes a picture of the license plate to identify the vehicle, and a bill may be mailed to the address where the car's license plate number is registered, or drivers may have a certain amount of time to pay online or by phone. Singapore was the first city in the world to implement an electronic road toll collection system known as
1581-401: A vehicle does not have a transponder, or if a transponder is not detected at the toll plaza, a violation enforcement system triggers cameras that capture photos of the vehicle and its license plate for processing. If the license plate is registered as belonging to a FasTrak user, the account is debited only the toll charge, and no penalty is charged, but no HOV discounts that would have required
1674-551: A vehicle on another operator's tolled road with the tolls incurred charged to the driver's toll-payment account with their home operator. An example is the United States E-ZPass tag, which is accepted on toll roads, bridges and tunnels in fifteen states from Illinois to Maine . In Australia, there are a number or organizations that provide tags known as e-TAG that can be used on toll roads. They include Transport for NSW 's E-Toll and Transurban 's Linkt . A toll
1767-442: Is a truck tolling system in (Germany). This system instead uses Global Positioning System location information to identify when a vehicle is located on a tolled Autobahn . Implementation of this system turned out to be far lengthier and more costly than expected. As smart phone use becomes more commonplace, some toll road management companies have turned to mobile phone apps to inexpensively automate and expedite paying tolls from
1860-507: Is accepted on all toll roads in the country. In Brazil, the Sem Parar/Via-Fácil system allows customers to pass through tolls in more than 1,000 lanes in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Sem Parar/Via-Fácil also allows users to enter and exit more than 100 parking lots. There are also other systems, such as via expressa, onda livre and auto expresso, that are present in
1953-409: Is accomplished by a combination of a camera which takes a picture of the car and a radio frequency keyed computer which searches for a drivers window/bumper mounted transponder to verify and collect payment. The system sends a notice and fine to cars that pass through without having an active account or paying a toll. Factors hindering full-speed electronic collection include: Even if line lengths are
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#17327723003382046-473: Is called (see AutoPASS ). In 1995, Portugal became the first country to apply a single, universal system to all tolls in the country, the Via Verde , which can also be used in parking lots and gas stations. The United States is another country with widespread use of ETC in several states, though many U.S. toll roads maintain the option of manual collection. ETC 2.0 is not only capable of sending and receiving
2139-483: Is debited to the customer's account with their tag provider. Some toll road operators – including Sydney's Sydney Harbour Tunnel , Lane Cove Tunnel and Westlink M7 , Melbourne's CityLink and Eastlink , and Brisbane's Gateway Motorway – encourage use of such tags, and apply an additional vehicle matching fee to vehicles without a tag. A similar device in France, called Liber-T for light vehicles and TIS-PL for HGVs,
2232-404: Is in the urban context of congested cities, allowing to charge tolls without vehicles having to slow down. This application made feasible to concession to the private sector the construction and operation of urban freeways, as well as the introduction or improvement of congestion pricing , as a policy to restrict auto travel in downtown areas. Between 2004 and 2005, Santiago, Chile , implemented
2325-409: Is replacing toll booths , where vehicles must stop and the driver manually pays the toll with cash or a card. In most systems, vehicles using the system are equipped with an automated radio transponder device. When the vehicle passes a roadside toll reader device, a radio signal from the reader triggers the transponder, which transmits back an identifying number which registers the vehicle's use of
2418-408: Is sufficient to make the no-stop-to-pay savings insignificant compared to time still lost due waiting in line to pass the toll gate. Toll plazas are typically wider than the rest of the highway; reducing the need for them makes it possible to fit toll roads into tight corridors. Despite these limitations, if delay at the toll gate is reduced, the tollbooth can serve more vehicles per hour. The greater
2511-684: Is the South Bay Expressway in San Diego County, but it uses unstaffed toll booths with cash machines that require exact change. Under MAP-21 , passed by the Federal government in 2012, all ETC facilities in the United States must reach some form of interoperability by October 1, 2016. In response, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 493 in 2013, authorizing Caltrans and the state's various toll agencies to help develop compatible systems. However,
2604-575: Is the process of determining the identity of a vehicle subject to tolls. The majority of toll facilities record the passage of vehicles through a limited number of toll gates. At such facilities, the task is then to identify the vehicle in the gate area. Some early AVI systems used barcodes affixed to each vehicle, to be read optically at the toll booth. Optical systems proved to have poor reading reliability, especially when faced with inclement weather and dirty vehicles. Most current AVI systems rely on radio-frequency identification , where an antenna at
2697-606: The California Code of Regulations , and are thus freely accessible to the general public. FasTrak units are also used to generate 5-1-1 traffic data, using sensors and antennae placed across various freeways. In response, the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission stated that they would contact the vendors manufacturing the FasTrak equipment and transponders to "identify potential risks and corrective actions". As
2790-621: The California DMV , the Bay Area FasTrak center and Riverside County HOT express lanes also offer a special "FasTrak CAV" tag for those who qualify for those discounts on applicable toll facilities. Other toll agencies may instead offer a special account for registered clean air vehicles on their HOT express lanes. For the I-15 Express Lanes in San Diego County, SANDAG only offers the standard FasTrak transponder, and instead instructs drivers that they can "declare" that they are
2883-637: The California Highway Patrol to visually check to see if there are more or fewer people in the car than indicated on the transponder. For the convenience of their FasTrak customers in the Greater Los Angeles urban area who may also use the Metro ExpressLanes, TCA began offering switchable transponders in 2013, and the 91 Express Lanes followed suit by 2015. With the switchable transponders, the violation rate on
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2976-672: The California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1523 in 1990, requiring Caltrans to develop a statewide specification that all these toll agencies were required to meet. Three years later, Transportation Corridor Agencies opened the Foothill Toll Road in Orange County , implementing the statewide ETC system for the first time, and naming it FasTrak. The state continues to delegate the responsibility of selling and maintaining FasTrak accounts to
3069-533: The Carquinez Bridge in 1996, it had accuracy problems in dealing with the 18 different toll classifications for different kinds of trucks. After the changes were made and another test run, the Carquinez Bridge became the first California toll bridge to use FasTrak in 1997. However, bureaucratic inaction, technical difficulties, and financial mismanagement delayed the deployment of the system to
3162-711: The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, and at various locations in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Texas, cars can travel through electronic lanes at full speed. Illinois' Open Road Tolling program features 274 contiguous miles of barrier-free roadways, where I-PASS or E-ZPass users continue to travel at highway speeds through toll plazas, while cash payers pull off the main roadway to pay at tollbooths. Currently over 80% of Illinois' 1.4 million daily drivers use an I-PASS. Enforcement
3255-622: The New Jersey E-ZPass regional consortium's Violation Enforcement contractor did not have access to the Transaction Processing contractor's database of customers. This, together with installation problems in the automated vehicle identification system, led to many customers receiving erroneous violation notices, and a violation system whose net income, after expenses, was negative, as well as customer dissatisfaction. Source: Automated vehicle identification (AVI)
3348-549: The Singapore Area Licensing Scheme for purposes of congestion pricing, in 1974. Since 2005, nationwide GNSS road pricing systems have been deployed in several European countries. With satellite-based tolling solutions, it is not necessary to install electronic readers beside or above the road in order to read transponders since all vehicles are equipped with On Board Units having Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers in order to determine
3441-514: The controlled-access expressways in 2001. By 2019, 92% of drivers are using ETC. ETC was first introduced in Bergen , Norway, in 1986, operating together with traditional tollbooths. In 1991, Trondheim introduced the world's first use of completely unaided full-speed electronic tolling. Norway now has 25 toll roads operating with electronic fee collection (EFC), as the Norwegian technology
3534-626: The traffic congestion traditionally associated with toll roads . Its use of technology to improve transit is in line with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems initiative. California's toll facilities are decentralized and operated by various local public agencies and special-purpose districts instead of having them all directly under the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) or another state government agency. Concerned that they would each introduce different, incompatible ETC systems,
3627-641: The Bay Area FasTrak Customer Center or from Transportation Corridor Agencies can be used at the airport. When the Metro ExpressLanes opened in Los Angeles in late 2012, it introduced FasTrak transponders with a special switch that indicates the number of occupants (1, 2, or 3 or more) in the vehicle. This enables the open road tolling system to automatically compute the carpool or solo driver toll, as well as allow
3720-598: The European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) which must be implemented by all Member States from 19 October 2021. All toll roads in Ireland must support the eToll tag standard. From 2015, the Norwegian government requires commercial trucks above 3.5 tons on its roads to have a transponder and a valid road toll subscription. Before this regulation, two-thirds of foreign trucks failed to pay road tolls. The most revolutionary application of ETC
3813-606: The FasTrak system to the two other toll roads they administer as soon as they opened: the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road in 1996 and the Eastern Toll Road in 1998. Also in 1998, the system was then deployed on the high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes along Interstate 15 in San Diego . However, the system had to be modified so that it could be used on California's toll bridges. After a test run on
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3906-662: The Federal government in 2012, all ETC facilities in the United States were supposed to reach some form of interoperability in 2016. However, neither penalties nor funding was attached to MAP-21, and therefore California did not meet the deadline. State regulators later approved a phase-in of transponder technology using the ISO/IEC 18000 -63 (6C) standard, which began in 2018 and is expected to end in 2024. This would allow compatibility with systems used in nearby states of Washington, Colorado, and Utah; and also Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana, plus NationalPass . If
3999-549: The Metro ExpressLanes fell to 10 percent from the 20 to 25 percent cheating rate in toll lanes that do not require transponders for carpoolers, prompting Alameda County officials to include the system on the then-planned I-580 Express Lanes. The Bay Area FasTrak Customer Center then started to offer switchable transponders, under the name "FasTrak Flex", in summer 2015. For the HOT lanes in San Diego, drivers can "declare" that they are
4092-544: The Orange County toll roads run by TCA likewise did the same in May 2014. A plan to also eliminate toll takers on all seven of the state-owned bridges was approved in 2019. On March 20, 2020, at midnight, due to the COVID-19 pandemic , all-electronic tolling was temporarily placed in effect for those seven state-owned toll bridges, and since 2021, all of them are now permanently cashless. The only toll facility that still accepts cash
4185-594: The San Bernardino County high-occupancy toll lanes. By 2020, Transportation Corridor Agencies had a budget of 400 million per year. By March 2020, Transportation Corridor Agencies officially abandoned plans to extend State Route 241 through San Clemente. In 2021, the city of San Clemente voted to leave the Transportation Corridor Agencies because the city lost faith that the agency would be able to pay off their debt in
4278-569: The State Route 241. The toll roads managed by Transportation Agencies were originally supposed to be free roads by 2033. However, TCA refinanced the debt in 2014, thus extending the agency's authority of the toll roads until 2053. In 2018, Transportation Corridor Agencies signed a cooperative agreement with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority to be the processing partner for
4371-412: The Transportation Corridor Agencies has completely fulfilled its original mandate, while criticizing them for trying to involve itself in future toll planning by claiming that, "much of the planning is being performed by consultants and TCA staff, who have a financial interest in seeing the TCA continue beyond its original mandate, and out of view of many of the TCA board members and the public thus creating
4464-420: The accounts, and handling customer inquiries. The transaction processing component of some systems is referred to as a "customer service center". In many respects, the transaction processing function resembles banking, and several toll agencies have contracted out transaction processing to a bank. Customer accounts may be postpaid, where toll transactions are periodically billed to the customer, or prepaid, where
4557-669: The brand name of the ETC belonging to Autostrade S.p.A. now Autostrade per l'Italia , was designed by Dr. Eng Pierluigi Ceseri and Dr. Eng. Mario Alvisi and included a full operational real time Classification of Vehicles and Enforcement via cameras interconnected with the PRA (Public Register of Automobiles) via a network of more than 3.000 Km. optical fibers. Telepass introduced the concept of ETC Interoperability because interconnected 24 different Italian motorway operators allowing users to travel between different concession areas and paying only at
4650-502: The car passed through an intersection, and then relayed to a central computer which would calculate the charge according to the intersection and the time of day and add it to the car's bill." In the 1960s and the 1970s, free flow tolling was tested with fixed transponders at the undersides of the vehicles and readers, which were located under the surface of the highway. Plans were however scrapped and it never came into actual implementation. Modern toll transponders are typically mounted under
4743-542: The charge permanent in 2007 (see Stockholm congestion tax ); and in Valletta , the capital city of Malta, since May 2007. In January 2008, Milan began a one-year trial program called Ecopass , a pollution pricing program in which low-emission-standard vehicles pay a user fee; alternative fuel vehicles and vehicles using conventional fuels but compliant with the Euro IV emission standard are exempted. The program
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#17327723003384836-545: The controversy of authorizing a private company to run the 91 Express Lanes . Others oppose them, arguing that new toll roads will just facilitate and perpetuate sprawl. The Transportation Corridor Agency funded studies which argued that the California gnatcatcher was not a distinct species, in order to argue for delisting of the species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and enable extension of
4929-473: The customer funds a balance in the account which is then depleted as toll transactions occur. The prepaid system is more common, as the small amounts of most tolls makes pursuit of uncollected debts uneconomic. Most postpaid accounts deal with this issue by requiring a security deposit , effectively rendering the account a prepaid one. Source: A violation enforcement system (VES) is useful in reducing unpaid tolls, as an unmanned toll gate otherwise represents
5022-478: The deadline, which had neither penalty nor funding attached, was not met. California regulators later approved a phase-in of transponder technology using the ISO/IEC 18000 -63 (6C) standard, released in 2004, which began in 2018 and is expected to end in 2024. This would allow compatibility with systems used in nearby states of Washington, Colorado, and Utah; and also Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana, plus NationalPass . In 2019, TCA introduced
5115-433: The different toll agencies. Under California law, Caltrans was given the mandate to develop and maintain an open, statewide ETC specification. This specification became known in the transportation industry as "Title 21" after it was added to Title 21 of the California Code of Regulations . It uses RFID technology near 915 MHz to read data from a transponder placed in a vehicle (usually mounted by Velcro strips to
5208-520: The distance traveled on the tolled road network - without the use of any roadside infrastructure. US Nobel Economics Prize winner William Vickrey was the first to propose a system of electronic tolling for the Washington Metropolitan Area in 1959. In the 1960s and the 1970s, the first prototype systems were tested. Norway has been a world pioneer in the widespread implementation of this technology, beginning in 1986. Italy
5301-461: The end of the journey. Dr. Eng. Mario Alvisi is considered the father of ETC in motorways because not only co-designed Telepass but was able to make it the first standardized operating ETC system in the world as European standard in 1996. He acted as a consultant for deployment of ETC in many countries including Japan, United States, Brazil. In Japan, only the ETC System was constructed in all of
5394-421: The first California toll facility to use an ETC system. Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), the local agency in charge of the toll road, named the system "FasTrak". To this day, TCA still holds the trademark to the "FasTrak" name and logo. When TCA first introduced the FasTrak system, the electronic transponders consisted of a gadget about the size of a Walkman in which a smart card was inserted. However,
5487-610: The first ETC system in North America was installed on the Dallas North Tollway in 1989, many California toll facilities started to express interest in the technology. Because the state's toll roads and bridges are run by different government agencies, there was the possibility that a number of different incompatible ETC systems would be instituted throughout California. Therefore, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1523 in 1990, requiring Caltrans ,
5580-420: The gaps between vehicles, to provide basic information on the presence of a vehicle. With clever software processing of the inductive data a wide range of vehicle classes can be derived by careful analysis of the inductive profile. Treadles permit counting the number of axles as a vehicle passes over them and, with offset-treadle installations, also detect dual-tire vehicles. Light-curtain laser profilers record
5673-435: The highway into segments, each having a price value determined by distance to the next gate (interchange). A daily gate count is calculated at midnight, and the total charge is deducted in 48 hours. Each vehicle receives a further discount after the first 200 kilometers, and eTag subscribers with prepaid accounts get a further 10% reduction. Non-subscribers are billed by license plate recognition and mail statements, or can make
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#17327723003385766-519: The lanes. One such example application is Alabama Freedom Pass mobile, used to link customer accounts at sites operated by American Roads LLC. The app communicates in real time with the facility transaction processing system to identify and debit customer accounts or bill a major credit card. Source: Automated vehicle classification is closely related to automated vehicle identification (AVI). Most toll facilities charge different rates for different types of vehicles, making it necessary to distinguish
5859-450: The long term, the greater the relative advantage that registering and turning one's vehicle into an electronic-toll one provides, the faster cars will be converted from manual-toll use to electronic-toll use, and therefore the fewer manual-toll cars will drag down average speed and thus capacity. In some countries, some toll agencies that use similar technology have set up (or are setting up) reciprocity arrangements, which permit one to drive
5952-561: The need for transponders, some systems, notably the 407 ETR (Express Toll Route) near Toronto and the A282 ( M25 ) Dartford Crossing in the United Kingdom, use automatic number plate recognition. Here, a system of cameras captures images of vehicles passing through tolled areas, and the image of the number plate is extracted and used to identify the vehicle. This allows customers to use the facility without any advance interaction with
6045-399: The old toll stations were replaced by distance-based pay-as-you-go all-electronic toll collection on all of Taiwan's major freeways. All tolls are collected electronically by overhead gantries with multi-lane free flow, not at traditional toll booths. Taiwan was the first country to switch from manual tolling to all-electronic, multi-lane free-flow tolling on all of its freeways. To simulate
6138-451: The open road tolling system to automatically compute the carpool or solo driver toll. The Bay Area toll bridges and the 91 Express Lanes instead have designated carpool lanes , so any tag type can be used (although both the 91 Express Lanes and TCA agencies also offer the switchable FasTrak Flex tags to its users if they want to use the Los Angeles or Riverside County express lanes too). For eligible clean air vehicles (CAVs) registered with
6231-677: The other six state-run toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area until October 2000. Meanwhile, the Golden Gate Bridge , run by the independent Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District , installed their system a few months earlier in July of that year. The FasTrak system was also briefly used on the state-owned San Diego-Coronado Bridge until tolls were discontinued on that structure in 2002. The Bay Area FasTrak Customer Center then opened in 2005, merging
6324-444: The previous model, where a vehicle would not pass toll collection over short-distance travel, each vehicle receives 20 kilometers per diem of free travel and is billed NT$ 1.2 per kilometer thereafter. Buses and trailers are subject to heavy vehicle surcharges. The highway administration may alter fares (e.g. remove the per diem ) during peak travel seasons to facilitate distribution of congestion to midnight hours. The toll gates divide
6417-539: The reverse side of the Toll Violation notice and complete the section at the bottom of the notice that will add the new vehicle to their account. Conversely, a license plate should be removed from an account after a change in ownership, otherwise resulting in paying for another driver's tolls via the Image Toll process. The California Toll Operators Committee (CTOC) helps coordinates the interoperability among
6510-487: The road side devices and greatly contribute to ITS promotion. As of March 2018, in Japan, a total of approximately 2.61 million vehicles are equipped with devices compliant with the ETC 2.0. In some urban settings, automated gates are in use in electronic-toll lanes, with 5 mph (8 km/h) legal limits on speed; in other settings, 20 mph (35 km/h) legal limits are not uncommon. However, in other areas such as
6603-565: The road, and an electronic payment system charges the user the toll. A major advantage is the driver does not have to stop, reducing traffic delays. Electronic tolling is cheaper than a staffed toll booth, reducing transaction costs for government or private road owners. The ease of varying the amount of the toll makes it easy to implement road congestion pricing , including for high-occupancy lanes, toll lanes that bypass congestion, and city-wide congestion charges. The payment system usually requires users to sign up in advance and load money into
6696-659: The same functionality as a standard one. For those traveling on the HOT express lanes in the Bay Area, in Riverside County, in San Bernardino County, or the Los Angeles Metro ExpressLanes and want the carpooling discounts, they will need a switchable "FasTrak Flex" transponder. These devices include a switch that indicates the number of occupants (1, 2, or 3 or more) in the vehicle. This enables
6789-409: The same in electronic lanes as in manual ones, electronic tolls save registered cars time: eliminating the stop at a window or toll machine, between successive cars passing the collection machine, means a fixed-length stretch of their journey past it is traveled at a higher average speed, and in a lower time. This is at least a psychological improvement, even if the length of the lines in automated lanes
6882-618: The service center for the state's Bay Area bridges with the one that was being operated separately by the Golden Gate Bridge District. Since then, several other new toll facilities around California have either opened, are under construction, or are in the planning stages. They are all required to accept FasTrak as per the aforementioned state law. In 2009, San Francisco International Airport began accepting FasTrak in all of its parking garages, including long-term parking. Currently only FasTrak accounts opened from either
6975-421: The shape of the vehicle, which can help distinguish trucks and trailers. In modern systems simple laser light curtains are being replaced with more technically advanced Lidar systems. These safety critical systems, used in autonomous vehicles, are less sensitive to environmental conditions. Source: Transaction processing deals with maintaining customer accounts, posting toll transactions and customer payments to
7068-405: The smart cards were unpopular with both tollway officials and users because they cost more, offered little advantage, and customers were charged with a $ 10 annual fee (which has since been discontinued). By the time the 91 Express Lanes opened in 1995, the FasTrak transponders were redesigned to be the size of a coaster that could be mounted by Velcro strips to the windshield. TCA later deployed
7161-423: The solo and 3+ rates The following is a partial list of toll facilities that are either in the planning or proposal stages (sorted by highway number): Electronic toll collection Electronic toll collection ( ETC ) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads , HOV lanes , toll bridges , and toll tunnels . It is a faster alternative which
7254-514: The state's Department of Transportation, to develop a statewide technical specification which all systems would be required to meet. As a result, California was the first in the nation to require all of its toll bridges and roads to use the same ETC system. This technical specification was later codified in Title 21, Division 2, Chapter 16 of the California Code of Regulations . When the Foothill Toll Road in Orange County opened in 1993, it became
7347-660: The state's toll agencies and facilities. The CTOC's members include: All toll facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area share the same billing, customer service center, and web site. In 2018, Transportation Corridor Agencies , operator of the Orange County toll roads, signed a long term agreement to be the processing partner for the San Bernardino County high-occupancy toll lanes. All the other toll agencies in Southern California have separate billing, customer service centers, and web sites. Anybody with
7440-422: The states of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana and Minas Gerais. Since 2016, National Highway Authority of Pakistan implemented electronic toll collection on its motorway network using a RFID -based tag called the "M-TAG". The tag is attached to the windscreen of vehicles and is automatically scanned at toll plazas on entry and exit, meanwhile debiting the calculated toll tax from
7533-423: The throughput of any toll lane, the fewer lanes required, so construction costs can be reduced. Specifically, the toll-collecting authorities have incentives to resist pressure to limit the fraction of electronic lanes in order to limit the length of manual-lane lines. In the short term, the greater the fraction of automated lanes, the lower the cost of operation (once the capital costs of automating are amortized). In
7626-479: The toll agency. The disadvantage is that fully automatic recognition has a significant error rate, leading to billing errors and the cost of transaction processing (which requires locating and corresponding with the customer) can be significant. Systems that incorporate a manual review stage have much lower error rates, but require a continuing staffing expense. A few toll facilities cover a very wide area, making fixed toll gates impractical. The most notable of these
7719-416: The toll gate communicates with a transponder on the vehicle via Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC). RFID tags have proved to have excellent accuracy, and can be read at highway speeds. The major disadvantage is the cost of equipping each vehicle with a transponder, which can be a major start-up expense, if paid by the toll agency, or a strong customer deterrent, if paid by the customer. To avoid
7812-550: The vehicle license plates are properly listed, the violations will be sent to the registered owner and not the employee driver. It is for this reason that the License Agreement mandates that customers list all vehicles, including motorcycles, motor homes, and trailers of all types on their accounts so that when transponders fail to read the toll can be debited based upon the vehicle's license plate. A license plate may be listed only on one account. A toll collected based on
7905-453: The vehicles passing through the toll facility. The simplest method is to store the vehicle class in the customer record, and use the AVI data to look up the vehicle class. This is low-cost, but limits user flexibility, in such cases as the automobile owner who occasionally tows a trailer. More complex systems use a variety of sensors. Inductive sensors embedded in the road surface can determine
7998-406: The whole of their length. ^ indicates that carpools require the switchable "FasTrak Flex" transponder. HOV 2+ indicates that carpools require two or more persons. HOV 3+ indicates that carpools require three or more persons. † indicates that two-person carpools are tolled differently than solo drivers or carpools with three or more, typically at a rate intermediate between
8091-423: The windshield) moving at speeds that may exceed 70 mph (112 km/h). The RFID transponder in each vehicle is associated with a prepaid debit account; each time the vehicle passes underneath a toll collection site, the account is debited to pay the toll. FasTrak transponders using the Title 21 specifications are not compatible with E-ZPass and other ETC systems used in other states. Under MAP-21 , passed by
8184-444: The windshield, with readers located in overhead gantries. After tests in 1974, in 1975, Singapore became the first country in the world to implement an electronic road toll collection system known as the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme for purposes of congestion pricing on its more urbanized roads. It was refined in 1998 as Electronic Road Pricing (ERP). Italy deployed a full ETC in motorways at national scale in 1989. Telepass ,
8277-471: The world's first 100% full speed electronic tolling with transponders crossing through the city's core (CBD) in a system of several concessioned urban freeways ( Autopista Central and Autopista ). The United Arab Emirates implemented in 2007 a similar road toll collection in Dubai , called Salik . Similar schemes were previously implemented but only on bypass or outer ring urban freeways in several cities around
8370-485: The world's first successful congestion pricing scheme implemented with manual control (see also Singapore's Area Licensing Scheme ), and was refined in 1998 (see Singapore's Electronic Road Pricing ), Bergen (1986), Oslo (1990), and Trondheim (1991) (see Trondheim Toll Scheme ); Rome in 2001 as an upgrade to the manual zone control system implemented in 1998; London in 2003 and extended in 2007 (see London congestion charge ); Stockholm , tested in 2006 and made
8463-509: The world: Toronto in 1997 ( Highway 407 ), several roads in Norway (AutoPASS), Melbourne in 2000 ( CityLink ), and Tel Aviv also in 2000 ( Highway 6 ). Congestion pricing or urban toll schemes were implemented to enter the downtown area using ETC technology and/or cameras and video recognition technology to get the plate numbers in several cities around the world: urban tolling in Norway's three major cities: Singapore in 1974 introduced
8556-562: Was extended through December 2011 and in January 2012 was replaced by a congestion pricing scheme called Area C . New York City considered the implementation of a congestion pricing scheme. New York City Council approved such a plan in 2008, but it was not implemented because the New York State Assembly did not approve it. (see New York congestion pricing ) In 2006, San Francisco transport authorities began
8649-403: Was the first country to deploy a full electronic toll collection system in motorways at national scale in 1989. In 1959, Nobel Economics Prize winner William Vickrey was the first to propose a similar system of electronic tolling for the Washington Metropolitan Area . He proposed that each car would be equipped with a transponder: "The transponder's personalized signal would be picked up when
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