Transportation Troubleshooting: Gaining Traction: National Tolling Interoperability Advances

This fall, motorists travelling on Puget Sound’s recently completed State Route 509 Expressway will gain another opportunity to seamlessly pay tolls using the Good to Go! Pass—Washington state’s electronic toll collection system implemented in 2008.

Since its introduction, there have been a growing number of successful implementations of all-electronic toll systems across the United States. However, my home state is one of several states and regions that remains geographically limited. While Washington doesn’t currently border tolling states, anyone driving beyond those boundaries must use alternative means to pay their tolls.

And why is that? Although most drivers embrace electronic tolling, persuading regional toll agencies to enhance service collaboration beyond state boundary lines has been a bumpy journey in many cases.

Gaining Traction

Yet despite decades of fragmented regional tolling systems and industry standoffs, the push for widespread national tolling interoperability, coupled with all-electronic tolling, is finally gaining traction, evolving into a more unified—though still complex—network of electronic tolling technologies.

My colleague, Stephen Haag, senior vice president and national toll market leader at WSP in the U.S., has been at the forefront of this transformation. His insights reveal both the progress made and challenges that remain in achieving a seamless network across state lines.

“Tolling interoperability has come a very long way,” notes Haag. “But for the past 25 years, interoperability among states has proven to be a very challenging endeavor.”

While E-ZPass is widely used across several eastern states, differences in business rules—such as transponder fees and violation penalties—and technologies means true interoperability remains elusive.

The breakthrough is coming not only from the development of capable technology, but from a shift in mindset. Multi-protocol readers and transponders allow different systems to communicate, but agencies still have to agree on how to manage and enforce toll collection and customer service.

Complicating progress, transponder vendors have long been embroiled in legal challenges over patents. Some feared interoperability efforts might erode their market share or force them to open up proprietary technologies. When one vendor attempted to open-source its reader in a limited capacity, it didn’t provide enough information for competitors to build compatible systems.

Haag is encouraged that once-frustrating conversations have evolved into “a continuing effort to refine and perfect the ability to operate toll systems across state lines without the need for similar technologies and the ability to manage a multitude of business rules.”

 

 

Regional Success

One reason for growing optimism is the emergence of successful regional interoperability.

When I was secretary of transportation at the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), we often partnered with our neighbors to the south and east, Oregon and Idaho, on transportation initiatives. It makes perfect sense that this relationship could extend to tolling technology and, in fact, is currently being coordinated between WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation for the upcoming Interstate 5 bridge tolls.

Today, regional hubs are creating templates for a national framework. “Each region will have a hub that will eventually feed into a larger national system, enabling broader interoperability,” adds Haag.

Revenue Reciprocity

However, interoperability is only part of the equation. Reciprocity—agreements among states to enforce toll violations—is equally critical.

“We’ve made it possible for you to travel seamlessly, but we also have to make sure agencies can collect that revenue,” he says. Florida, for example, is part of a southeastern U.S. hub with Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and has reciprocal agreements allowing for enforcement across state lines.

For states introducing or transitioning to all-electronic tolling, the role of consultants with extensive experience collaborating with tolling companies and transportation agencies becomes increasingly vital. The stakes are high for states such as Tennessee preparing to introduce tolling for the first time.

“If you fail the first time, you won’t get a second chance,” warns Haag. “Having someone who has lived it to provide guidance—and who understands the back-office, financial and technical operations—helps ensure that toll systems are implemented and managed successfully. It will be critical that we get the requirements right. Projects often suffer from technical advice that is out-of-step with modern technology architecture best practices.”

This not only builds public trust but sets the stage for future expansion.

“Tolling isn’t going anywhere,” adds Haag. “It may look different in the coming years, but everything we are doing today aims to simplify the collection of user fees for agencies and the traveling public for the future.”

 

 

Paula Hammond Transportation Troubleshooting