I made a great number of observations about our nation during this Christmas break, which I’ll distill and write about over the coming weeks. Having family and friends scattered across the nation (with the former thankfully concentrated in key geographic locations), and having to travel great distances just to be with them, affords a person a great chance to observe America as a nation.
I am struck by the toll road system in this nation. Particularly bothersome is the way its implementation is evolving. Toll roads are critical to the intrastate commerce infrastructure for many states, providing a critical source of revenue from the people who most use the roads: drivers. I recall many times in my youth hearing adults complain about the frequency and amplitude of tolls, but like all taxes they are a necessary means of producing revenue to fund our republic. Many states will trade-off gas tax for toll rates, and vice versa, trying to offend the fewest payers while balancing their income with their expenses.
What bothers me is not the fact that toll roads exist, but rather how they are growingly implemented: wireless “passes” which allow the driver to coast through the toll plaza without stopping to pay. This reduces the stop-and-go traffic backups, and in principle creates better traffic flow patterns and reduces the congestion on major highways. The final alleged benefit is the “convenience” to the driver: not only do you avoid stopping, you pay for the little radio-frequency dongle and the charges go straight to your bank account or credit card, typically via an intermediate credit allotment deducted as reserves deplete.
In Illinois, the toll roads around Chicago are being revamped so that once-traditional toll plazas – a series of booths sectioned into pass-only and cash-only subgroups – are being replaced by “open-road” tolling. In this new scheme, the toll plaza is broken into three pieces, with the center piece occupying 50% of the available area. The left and right sections are diversion lanes where cars paying cash (manual or automatic, thus forcing a stop) are directed. The large central lanes are for pass-only traffic, creating a non-stop region at the heart of the toll plaza. The availability of cash-only lanes is diminished, promoting the more widespread usage of a pass.
I foresee several problems in such a system, if adopted by other states (I imagine Illinois cannot be unique in this venture). First, to my knowledge (correct me if necessary) the underlying specifications of the pass system are not based on an open standard. An open standard is one agreed upon by a central body representing many industries (for instance, IEEE standards), and companies are then free to adopt the standard and implement it any way they see fit. An open standard nearly guarantees interoperability. Profit is still derived, but only from the product and not the combination of a closed, proprietary standard *and* the product. That allows states to have their own pass (“I-Pass”, etc.) while being compatible with other states’ pass systems. A driver going from Illinois to New Jersey could just pay tolls in all regions from the same pass.
My understanding is that the underlying pass protocol is different in every implementation (in other words, an I-Pass from Illinois will not work in New York). I worry that as states squeeze out the cash lanes and require drivers to adopt their passes, interstate travel via toll roads will not only become increasingly inconvenient, but likely to lead to state-on-state pressures to adopt one system or another.
Perhaps my underlying assumption is wrong. For instance, trailer trucks loaded with goods must routinely travel from NY to IL. The drivers pay tolls, but do they do so manually or via a single pass (or a bunch of passes, one for each region)? It would be very useful to understand how truck drivers handle this situation, for certainly above all others they would be most likely to know whether my underlying assumption is correct.
If my assumption is correct, then my concern is that without a unifying open standard, several companies will vye for market share in the coming decades, pressuring states each to adopt their special pass. Without the unification of an open standard, freeing states from having to side with one company or another, I fear not only a growing inconvenience for the red-blood cells of our nation’s roadway commerce – truck drivers – but also a capitalist war to win states over to one company or another’s standard. In the end, the consumer is screwed: a driver going from Illinois to New Jersey would have to purchase a pass for each (plus all other non-compatible systems in between) just to have the convenience afforded by the open-road tolling system.
**UPDATE:** I did a little hunting, and found out thet “E-ZPASS (New England and mid-atlantic state toll roads) and I-PASS are 100% compatible”:http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_pageid=57,1298961,57_1299022:57_1299094:57_1299122&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL! Good news for travellers of all kinds!
