Toll Plazas & Toll Roads

[Brandon]

I've noticed a few different ways of collecting tolls on toll roads.  Ive seen the following here on AA Roads, and in real life:

1. Collection of tolls at points along the mainline and at ramp plazas.  Sometimes this is done with ORT lanes and electronic-only lanes at ramp plazas.  Illinois, parts of Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, and many other places use this method.

Illinois (ISTHA) mainline:


Illinois (ISTHA) ramp:


2. Collection of tolls at an interchange, typically under a bridge.  Kentucky and Oklahoma seem to use/have used this method.

3. Collection of tolls at a point on the mainline with a refund at exits after the toll plaza.  I've only heard of this from Oklahoma.

4. Collection of tolls at the ends of the toll road and each exit.  The older turnpikes and some electronic toll roads use this method.

5. Collection of tolls only along the mainline.  West Virginia uses this from what I've heard.

Any other methods out there?  Along with photographs, if you've got them. 

[NE2]

WV has ramp tolls at US 19 north of Beckley. But otherwise it's only mainline tolls, like the old Connecticut Turnpike. A variant of this is when a toll road with many interchanges has only one barrier and no ramp tolls (I-95 in Maryland, Delaware, New York). Another variant that combines this and the ramp-toll case is I-895 in Maryland, where ramps only point towards the toll booth.

[Brandon]

WV has ramp tolls at US 19 north of Beckley. But otherwise it's only mainline tolls, like the old Connecticut Turnpike. A variant of this is when a toll road with many interchanges has only one barrier and no ramp tolls (I-95 in Maryland, Delaware, New York). Another variant that combines this and the ramp-toll case is I-895 in Maryland, where ramps only point towards the toll booth.

The last one is sort of like the Chicago Skyway in that regard.

[hbelkins]

I saw an old publication yesterday that had a photo of the old toll booth at the Bluegrass Parkway and US 127 included -- including the exit signage. If I had known that I was going to encounter that, I would have taken my USB-powered scanner and laptop and captured the image.

This is the old tollbooth at the Cumberland Parkway interchange with US 68/KY 80 near Edmonton, looking east. Only the rightmost booth is staffed; the center booth was not staffed at this time. The sign could be changed to indicate if it accepted anything besides exact change only.

[Alex]

Having driven to Hernando County three times over the last ten days and taking the Suncoast Parkway, I was reminded of the older ORT concept where the ETC lanes took drivers at high speeds outside the toll plaza and where cash paying drivers stayed to the left. This was pioneered (IMO) by Oklahoma with its PikePass concept that started in the 1990s. The Suncoast Parkway uses this style of configuration, and nowadays its already outdated, as the cash paying lanes are defaulted to the right on just about every new toll plaza in Florida that uses Sunpass.

The Suncoast Parkway configuration:



Split of the cash lanes from the Sunpass lanes.



Toll schedule sign and ETC gantry.

OOCEA's configuration:



SR 408 east where the ORT lanes stay to the left and cash paying drivers veer away to the right.



ETC collection structure on SR 429 north. This is one of a few that include the Sunpass logo and some aesthetics. Many of the ones used throughout the state are rudimentary consisting of a sign bridge with transponder readers and nothing more.

===
And all ETC with toll by plate options, which what the Veterans Expressway will be later this year, joining the recently opened Crosstown Connector in Tampa and Mid-Bay Connector in Niceville, and previously the Crosstown Express lanes opened in 2007.



The Crosstown Connector northbound, where one ETC structure passes over all lanes.

[roadman65]

No one mentioned about entering the NYS Thruway from NY 17 in Harriman to go North on I-87.  It is most unusual, and similar to Oklahoma's method of refund.  You pay a fixed cash rate to get on at first, then grab a ticket after you enter the Thruway proper, but get the cash toll discounted at whatever exit you choose from there to Williamsville, NY.

Then you have NE Extension of the Penn Turnpike that to avoid ramp tolls on the coin drop section near Scranton, they just strategically place the main line toll plazas that they're between each individual exit so that the same toll applies to locals as it does for straight through.

[agentsteel53]

This is the old tollbooth at the Cumberland Parkway interchange with US 68/KY 80 near Edmonton, looking east. Only the rightmost booth is staffed; the center booth was not staffed at this time. The sign could be changed to indicate if it accepted anything besides exact change only.

is that button copy?

[Brandon]

This is the old tollbooth at the Cumberland Parkway interchange with US 68/KY 80 near Edmonton, looking east. Only the rightmost booth is staffed; the center booth was not staffed at this time. The sign could be changed to indicate if it accepted anything besides exact change only.

is that button copy?

No clue, but the whole gantry behind my Joliet Rd Plaza 37 photograph is.  The only non-button copy parts are the I-55 shields and the "East" placard.  And yes, it is still there.

[agentsteel53]

No clue, but the whole gantry behind my Joliet Rd Plaza 37 photograph is.  The only non-button copy parts are the I-55 shields and the "East" placard.  And yes, it is still there.

Kentucky button copy is significantly harder to find, which is why that one got my attention.

[1995hoo]

The high-occupancy/toll lanes in Virginia are exclusively ORT, with the added wrinkle that the four lanes immediately to the right are non-tolled. So the E-ZPass reading points are designed more like a small sign gantry supported by a pole to the left of the roadway. I say "E-ZPass reading points" because the system operates more in the nature of a ticket-system toll road–your toll is determined by the first and last gantries you pass, such that from a functional standpoint the intermediate ones merely verify that you're still on the tolled facility by reading your E-ZPass as you go by. There are no toll gantries over the exit or entrance ramps, just over those two lanes of the highway.

In this video, which is sped up to four times actual speed, you can see the gantries at about 0:23, 1:00, 1:17, and 1:24.

[Brandon]

No clue, but the whole gantry behind my Joliet Rd Plaza 37 photograph is.  The only non-button copy parts are the I-55 shields and the "East" placard.  And yes, it is still there.

Kentucky button copy is significantly harder to find, which is why that one got my attention.

Illinois Tollway button copy has been disappearing at an alarming speed.  That's the last of it on the Tri-State Tollway (I-294).  There's one sign on I-355 that's been forgotten (ISTHA sign on IDOT territory) and some left between Elgin and O'Hare on I-90.  IDOT now has more button copy than ISTHA (which was not the case just 5 to 8 years ago).

[hbelkins]

This is the old tollbooth at the Cumberland Parkway interchange with US 68/KY 80 near Edmonton, looking east. Only the rightmost booth is staffed; the center booth was not staffed at this time. The sign could be changed to indicate if it accepted anything besides exact change only.

is that button copy?

Unfortunately, no. That photo was taken sometime between 1995 and 2000.

[roadman]

The high-occupancy/toll lanes in Virginia are exclusively ORT, with the added wrinkle that the four lanes immediately to the right are non-tolled. So the E-ZPass reading points are designed more like a small sign gantry supported by a pole to the left of the roadway. I say "E-ZPass reading points" because the system operates more in the nature of a ticket-system toll road—your toll is determined by the first and last gantries you pass, such that from a functional standpoint the intermediate ones merely verify that you're still on the tolled facility by reading your E-ZPass as you go by. There are no toll gantries over the exit or entrance ramps, just over those two lanes of the highway.

In this video, which is sped up to four times actual speed, you can see the gantries at about 0:23, 1:00, 1:17, and 1:24.

And I see by the video that VDOT hasn't done much to improve the advance signing warning drivers that the left two lanes become tolled.  Having the toll rate information on the same panels as "Toll Lanes 1 Mile" is a huge distraction (and techincally not MUTCD compliant either).