Open Road Tolling
Open Road Tolling (ORT) is the future of toll collection on busy expressways across the country. ORT will give you the freedom to drive straight through a toll collection point without having to stop or slow down. Tolls are collected electronically by a series of overhead gantries along the expressway that automatically deducts your user fee. By using a SunPass transponder, your toll payment is automatically deducted from a pre-paid account so there is no need to stop to pay a toll.
Just imagine:400 cars can pass through a manned toll booth per hour
600 cars can pass through an exact change lane per hour
1200 cars can pass through a SunPass dedicated lane per hour
2200 cars can pass through an Open Road Tolling lane per hour
The first full ORT pilot project for MDX was the SR 836 Extension Project where a new segment of expressway was opened as an electronic only facility. Tolls are collected through an overhead gantry allowing for an open road with no toll plaza.
Presently users of MDX toll roads pay when they go through a plaza regardless of how much of the road they use. In fact only 15 % of the users of SR 836 pay a toll. System wide in all of MDX expressways only 28% pay a toll.
With ORT everyone would pay a partial toll equal to the portion of the road they use. This means that users driving a shorter distance can technically pay less than the one dollar they are paying today. Those not paying anything would pay some portion of the toll depending of the distance they drive.
The concept of ORT would establish a system wide user fee equalizing tolls for all users of the facilities.
MDX has approved an MDX Open Road Tolling Master Plan that is looking at technology and to designing a multi-year community outreach effort to implement this new concept. With ORT your future commute is safer, faster, cleaner and fair for all.
Click on the links below for more information.
- MDX Open Road Tolling Master Plan 2007-2011[.pdf]
- Open Road Tolling - Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee [.pdf]
