Mackinac Bridge congestion

[JREwing78]

While gazing at the YouTubes, I came across a couple of videos that had me scratching my head.

I'll preface this by stating that I've crossed the Mackinac Bridge quite often in the 30 years I've had a driver's license, though *usually* I have the sense to avoid it during holiday weekends.

This is a video from Sunday, July 7th of the narrator attempting to get in line to cross the bridge:

A subsequent video once through the tollbooths:

Clearly, whatever number of toll attendants they had working on Sunday was insufficient. Further complicating matters is that there's a maximum of 8 lanes that can accept tolls, with a maximum of 5 tollbooths in one direction. It was clear weather in ideal conditions. There was no construction restricting throughput on the bridge.

Peak throughput on the Mackinac Bridge (https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/monthly-traffic-statistics/) was in July 2021, when over 640,000 vehicles passed through the tollbooths. July 2023 nearly hit this same figure. This equates to 20,700 vehicles per day.

Assuming the bridge tollbooths were fully staffed up for the entire month, each tollbooth would have to pass nearly 2600 vehicles per day, or 108 vehicles per hour, every hour. In this abstract, this doesn't sound so terrible - one toll every 33 seconds.

Complicating matters:

- The Bridge routinely leaves one lane open for MacPass holders exclusively. I don't know if they do so in maximum congestion situations like what was shown on Sunday; if so, that takes out at least 2 tollbooths of throughput. Assuming traffic in those lanes is negligible, now it's 3,450 vpd through 6 toll booths - 144 vehicles per hour, or 2.4 vehicles per minute per toll booth.

- The reality is that probably 75% of that traffic hit the road between 8am-8pm. Now we're asking 1,300 vehicles per hour to divvy up 6 or 8 tollbooths - 2.7 to 3.6 vehicles per minute per toll booth.

- The vast majority are paying with a credit card. We're asking for a vehicle to roll up, whip out a card, process the card, take the card back, and pull away in 15 to 25 seconds. That's asking a lot.

- I can't guesstimate the % of trips taken at peak times - but this was all assuming equally heavy traffic every day. That's clearly not the case - those nice summer weekends exhibit spikes in traffic. 

After doing some back-of-the-napkin math, it's clear to see that there's room for improvement. Some thoughts:

- Widening the toll plaza to improve throughput during peak times (assuming the cost of said widening pays itself back through more trips over the bridge). Note that this construction would have only about 30-50 days out of the calendar year to pay for itself - the days where traffic warrants use of the additional tollbooths.

- There's space for maybe 6 additional lanes before it starts encroaching on the parking lot for the State Police post. IF we could squeeze 6 additional lanes of throughput, fully staffed up, my throughput numbers look much better - now on peak days I just have to average one transaction per minute per tollbooth.

- Implementing a pay-by-plate or E-Z Pass style solution that travelers are more likely to have (which the Bridge Authority is not doing). There's still the problem of wasting a lane that can't be fully utilized by passing traffic - the % of users still likely lingering in single-digit territory.

- A temporary tollbooth solution for the very heavy days. Problem here is the booth isn't necessarily the major expense - it's the additional concrete apron and associated traffic control, plus the expense of the toll takers needed. Said tollbooths probably aren't going to be weathertight, either.

- Those glorious, glorious toll funds now have to pay for more infrastructure to maintain, and more people on the payroll.

OK, amateur bridge authority types - what's your solution for 8 mile traffic backups in da U.P., eh? You know, besides traveling another day.

[webny99]

I honestly don't see why EZPass couldn't work here as it does in most of the rest of the country.

Absent that, it might make sense to allow a maximum of 6 lanes in one direction instead of 5, assuming there are strong directional flows of northbound before and southbound after the holiday weekends. Even if having just two lanes creates issues in the non-peak direction, it would still ease things up on average and having the flexibility to do so never hurts.

[Rothman]

At least the construction on the northern end is done, then.

[Great Lakes Roads]

The solution: put up a gantry and accept E-ZPass! BOOM! PROBLEM SOLVED!

[Moose]

The reason I believe they have not gone with an EZ Pass system, is.. there isn't anything else around that uses it. Michigan doesn't have any toll toads.

They have four toll bridges now, if you count the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. (Ambassador and Detroit Tunnel are private)
• Blue Water Bridge
• International Bridge
• Mackinac Bridge
Are the other three.

[Molandfreak]

Waiting for our resident E-ZPass slammers to come in and tell us we're overreacting to this...

[Great Lakes Roads]

The reason I believe they have not gone with an EZ Pass system, is.. there isn't anything else around that uses it. Michigan doesn't have any toll toads.

They have four toll bridges now, if you count the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. (Ambassador and Detroit Tunnel are private)
• Blue Water Bridge
• International Bridge
• Mackinac Bridge
Are the other three.

Don't forget that Bay City has two former city-owned bridges that are now under the Bay City Bridge Partners, which accepts E-ZPass!

[JREwing78]

LOL... I'm not surprised at the "just use E-ZPass" responses.

In this scenario, the majority of the E-ZPass users are going to come from out-of-state drivers, or from the same locals who have the MacPass system. Is a once or twice-a-year crossing of the Mighty Mac enough to compel Michigan residents that never leave the state to get an E-ZPass? Probably not.

If they implemented E-ZPass, I'd be shocked if they got 10% of fare revenue from it, and that doesn't really do the trick. You'd need to instead go all-electronic tolling, so nobody has to stop at the tollbooths.
 
Except with AET, the Bridge Authority would have to replace toll collectors with folks collecting on the toll-by-plate fares. A lot of folks will bitch and moan about "not knowing" how it works. A lot of collection agencies will get fat, a lot of credit scores will plummet, and the Mackinac Bridge receives a black eye for turning a simple cash transaction into something much more complicated.
 
Maybe some idiot legislator proposes scrapping the tolls altogether. Wait, that happened without AET. Oh well...

Absent that, it might make sense to allow a maximum of 6 lanes in one direction instead of 5, assuming there are strong directional flows of northbound before and southbound after the holiday weekends. Even if having just two lanes creates issues in the non-peak direction, it would still ease things up on average and having the flexibility to do so never hurts.

That's certainly an option. If you watched the videos from Sunday, though, you'll note the 2+ mile NBD backup that complemented the epic SBD backups. At some point, they simply need more lanes.

[Rothman]

E-ZPass or not, the idea thst you should expand the toll plaza in modern times when AET is wholly feasible is ridiculous if backups are the problem you're trying to solve.

One only needs to look at the history of the Williamsville barrier on the Thruway and the Sturbridge toll plaza on the MassPike to see that the evolution to AET should be considered inevitable and investing in the ROW to add lanes and then toll taker salaries/benefits is a long-term waste.  If they were short-staffed in the video, adding lanes won't fix that issue.

[RoadWarrior56]

Why can't they use pay by plate and get rid of the toll attendants altogether?

[Flint1979]

The reason I believe they have not gone with an EZ Pass system, is.. there isn't anything else around that uses it. Michigan doesn't have any toll toads.

They have four toll bridges now, if you count the new Gordie Howe International Bridge. (Ambassador and Detroit Tunnel are private)
• Blue Water Bridge
• International Bridge
• Mackinac Bridge
Are the other three.

Don't forget that Bay City has two former city-owned bridges that are now under the Bay City Bridge Partners, which accepts E-ZPass!

Just the Liberty Bridge is tolled right now and many people avoid it.

[froggie]

How often do these backups actually happen?  If it's a recurring thing, then that's something to consider.  But if it's only happening a handful of holidays a year, then expanding the toll plaza isn't very cost-effective.

[seicer]

Pay-by-plate/EZ-Pass is the best solution for these types of situations. Michigan should already have agreements with surrounding states and provinces to collect tolls from scofflaws.

[Molandfreak]

LOL... I'm not surprised at the "just use E-ZPass" responses.

In this scenario, the majority of the E-ZPass users are going to come from out-of-state drivers, or from the same locals who have the MacPass system. Is a once or twice-a-year crossing of the Mighty Mac enough to compel Michigan residents that never leave the state to get an E-ZPass? Probably not.

So? It improves the lives of some people who may make use of both systems. MNPass is even further away from another E-ZPass location, but I was overjoyed at the prospect of not having to have a separate transponder to travel in the east. Separating toll systems helps no one.

[webny99]

LOL... I'm not surprised at the "just use E-ZPass" responses.

In this scenario, the majority of the E-ZPass users are going to come from out-of-state drivers, or from the same locals who have the MacPass system. Is a once or twice-a-year crossing of the Mighty Mac enough to compel Michigan residents that never leave the state to get an E-ZPass? Probably not.

If they implemented E-ZPass, I'd be shocked if they got 10% of fare revenue from it, and that doesn't really do the trick. You'd need to instead go all-electronic tolling, so nobody has to stop at the tollbooths.
 
Except with AET, the Bridge Authority would have to replace toll collectors with folks collecting on the toll-by-plate fares. A lot of folks will bitch and moan about "not knowing" how it works. A lot of collection agencies will get fat, a lot of credit scores will plummet, and the Mackinac Bridge receives a black eye for turning a simple cash transaction into something much more complicated.

I have to push back a bit that EZPass wouldn't make a difference and that hardly anyone would use it. If the once or twice a year travelers are the ones that wouldn't get it, remember they're also the ones that all travel on the same weekends and cause the backups. If EZPass was accepted, their options would be:
(a) get EZPass if they want to avoid the backups,
(b) let the regulars, out-of-staters, and enough others get EZPass that it helps reduce congestion and deal with the lessened delays, or
(c) travel on a different day or at a different time of day, which is also an option currently.

That sounds to me like a much better array of options than what exists currently, which is to just expect backups at peak times and deal with it... and that's just for the people who cross infrequently. More frequent users, like locals or weekend travelers, would find EZPass to be a major time and hassle saver for all of their crossings, even when there's no backups. And I think it would end up being significantly higher than 10% of people that use it, even if it took some time to get there. Granted, I know Michigan doesn't have a state toll road, but the Thruway processes almost 90% of their transactions through EZPass, and that's largely through marketing and drivers eventually realizing the convenience and time savings.

It's also worth mentioning that EZPass would help reduce the "snowball effect" of existing delays piling up by allowing for more efficient clearing of the toll booth, which in turn allows traffic behind them to reach the toll booth faster and prevent backups from spiraling out of control.

[Molandfreak]

LOL... I'm not surprised at the "just use E-ZPass" responses.

In this scenario, the majority of the E-ZPass users are going to come from out-of-state drivers, or from the same locals who have the MacPass system. Is a once or twice-a-year crossing of the Mighty Mac enough to compel Michigan residents that never leave the state to get an E-ZPass? Probably not.

If they implemented E-ZPass, I'd be shocked if they got 10% of fare revenue from it, and that doesn't really do the trick. You'd need to instead go all-electronic tolling, so nobody has to stop at the tollbooths.
 
Except with AET, the Bridge Authority would have to replace toll collectors with folks collecting on the toll-by-plate fares. A lot of folks will bitch and moan about "not knowing" how it works. A lot of collection agencies will get fat, a lot of credit scores will plummet, and the Mackinac Bridge receives a black eye for turning a simple cash transaction into something much more complicated.

I have to push back a bit that EZPass wouldn't make a difference and that hardly anyone would use it. If the once or twice a year travelers are the ones that wouldn't get it, remember they're also the ones that all travel on the same weekends and cause the backups. If EZPass was accepted, their options would be:
(a) get EZPass if they want to avoid the backups,
(b) let the regulars, out-of-staters, and enough others get EZPass that it helps reduce congestion and deal with the lessened delays, or
(c) travel on a different day or at a different time of day, which is also an option currently.

That sounds to me like a much better array of options than what exists currently, which is to just expect backups at peak times and deal with it... and that's just for the people who cross infrequently. More frequent users, like locals or weekend travelers, would find EZPass to be a major time and hassle saver for all of their crossings, even when there's no backups. And I think it would end up being significantly higher than 10% of people that use it, even if it took some time to get there. Granted, I know Michigan doesn't have a state toll road, but the Thruway processes almost 90% of their transactions through EZPass, and that's largely through marketing and drivers eventually realizing the convenience and time savings.

It's also worth mentioning that EZPass would help reduce the "snowball effect" of existing delays piling up by allowing for more efficient clearing of the toll booth, which in turn allows traffic behind them to reach the toll booth faster and prevent backups from spiraling out of control.

Exactly. Plus the added utility would likely result in a much greater amount of MacPass/EZPass users. And 10% of users still means the line will be 10% shorter.

[GaryV]

let the regulars, out-of-staters, and enough others get EZPass that it helps reduce congestion and deal with the lessened delays

But the 2 lanes on the bridge don't widen out into the multiple toll booth lanes until you're actually on land. Maybe 1/10 or 1/8 of a mile from the bridge itself to the plaza. Unless you get a significant number of cars using an EZPass system, you'll still have a large number of vehicles backing up onto the bridge.

[vdeane]

The real power of E-ZPass is that it's used all over the place.  While it would be nice to have MacPass become interoperable, Michigan wouldn't get the full utility of it unless the international bridges join up too.  IMO they should; it's silly that all of these toll facilities in the same state have transponders, but none of them are interoperable with each other.  And every bordering jurisdiction that has toll facilities has at least one that takes E-ZPass, even Ontario (Peace Bridge, Niagara Falls bridges, and the Thousand Islands Bridge - the latter of which can be crossed from the mainland to Hill Island without leaving Canada).

Don't forget that Bay City has two former city-owned bridges that are now under the Bay City Bridge Partners, which accepts E-ZPass!

Interesting... that's a bit of irony, with the two bridges in Michigan that accept E-ZPass also being the two that people with E-ZPass are the least likely to use!

[TheHighwayMan3561]

How often do these backups actually happen?  If it's a recurring thing, then that's something to consider.  But if it's only happening a handful of holidays a year, then expanding the toll plaza isn't very cost-effective.

With this thought, also keep in mind southbound from the toll plaza you're trying to rapidly funnel a bunch of traffic onto a nearly 60-year old non-Interstate standard bridge.

[Flint1979]

How often do these backups actually happen?  If it's a recurring thing, then that's something to consider.  But if it's only happening a handful of holidays a year, then expanding the toll plaza isn't very cost-effective.

With this thought, also keep in mind southbound from the toll plaza you're trying to rapidly funnel a bunch of traffic onto a nearly 60-year old non-Interstate standard bridge.

You mean nearly 70? It celebrated it's 60th birthday in 2017.

[webny99]

let the regulars, out-of-staters, and enough others get EZPass that it helps reduce congestion and deal with the lessened delays

But the 2 lanes on the bridge don't widen out into the multiple toll booth lanes until you're actually on land. Maybe 1/10 or 1/8 of a mile from the bridge itself to the plaza. Unless you get a significant number of cars using an EZPass system, you'll still have a large number of vehicles backing up onto the bridge.

From my experience with the old Thruway toll booths which were pretty similar configuration-wise, backups may still occur but they tend to move faster when they do occur, since anyone with EZPass can shift into the designated lane(s) and keep moving at ~20 mph as soon as it widens out. At the major toll barriers the Thruway would often have an EZPass lane on both sides with the cash lanes in the center, but either side would work as long as it was well signed in advance.

But of course there's no way around the fact that the improvement in traffic flow is still relative to how many people use it. Interestingly enough, by the end of the physical toll barrier era in NY, so many people had EZPass that you could often get ahead by using an open cash lane. Even though you had to come to a stop that way, it was still faster if there was a long lineup forming for the EZPass lane. Of course, I don't foresee that happening at the Mackinac Bridge anytime soon - at that point, miles-long backups are no longer even a concern.

[Joe The Dragon]

Pay-by-plate/EZ-Pass is the best solution for these types of situations. Michigan should already have agreements with surrounding states and provinces to collect tolls from scofflaws.

And if they go to Pay-by-plate without EZ-Pass.
You going to get people who get an bill in the mail calling the local EZ-pass agency about the bill and if that says don't pay it's an error then what about the late and other fees?

[SectorZ]

Pay-by-plate/EZ-Pass is the best solution for these types of situations. Michigan should already have agreements with surrounding states and provinces to collect tolls from scofflaws.

How is someone a scofflaw when the only way to avoid the tolled bridge involves a 500 mile detour? They supposed to ford the Mackinac Strait or something?

Really don't think calling people deadbeats when this is literally the only transportation choice they have makes a ton of sense.

[seicer]

You've not driven on open-road tolled facilities before? You either pay with EZ-Pass or with a pay-by-plate model. If you obscure your plates, or if you fail to pay your bill, you are a scofflaw. A deadbeat.

[CtrlAltDel]

With this thought, also keep in mind southbound from the toll plaza you're trying to rapidly funnel a bunch of traffic onto a nearly 60-year old non-Interstate standard bridge.

You mean nearly 70? It celebrated it's 60th birthday in 2017.

Well, 66 is near both 60 and 70.