Selmon-Crosstown Expressway Discussion

[HARTride 2012]

THCEA 2007 Traffic & Revenue Report
http://www.tampa-xway.com/Final%2020...%20Website.pdf

[HARTride 2012]

There are several documents on the THCEA website regarding maintenence proposals or whatever for the lower level lighting system. I have no clue what these documents are for. Can anyone interpret this, please?

http://www.tampa-xway.com/home.html

Look under "Maintenance Management Program Request for Proposals" on the homepage.

[HARTride 2012]

The Selmon Expressway will be using Open Road Tolling on the entire expressway beginning July 2010.

What is Open Road Tolling?

*

No toll plazas or booths - Tolls will be collected electronically at highway speeds solely by overhead gantries with no traditional toll plazas.
*

Account Registration - In order to use the system all users will be required to pay a toll electronically by either using SunPass or by video tolling using their License Plate for an additional fee.
*

Drivers that do not have a SunPass or Video account will be billed for their use of the Selmon Expressway.

What does that mean to Selmon Expressway Customers?

*

SAFE – eliminates toll plaza incidents
*

FAIR – everyone pays their fair share
*

FAST– reduces congestion – saves money, gas & time
*

CLEAN– reduces emissions
*

FUTURE– funds future projects

Why Open Road Tolling on the Selmon Expressway

*

Current conventional methods of tolling with toll plazas and cash are not only inefficient and costly to operate and maintain and they negatively impact the environment.
*

Less ‘traditional’ transportation funding is available each year, at the
same time costs continue to rise. By implementing Open Road Tolling,
we able to reduce our expenses and at the same time provide an additional benefit to our customers.

Contact www.sunpass.com or 888.865.5352 to purchase a SunPass transponder, also available at Publix and CVS.

http://www.tampa-xway.com/ORTComingSoon.html


This is how the Suncoast Parkway Open Road Tolling System is...

I assume that that both plazas will be reconfigured similar to what is already taking place on the 408 and other Orlando toll roads, where the ORT lanes are in the center of the mainline, while the traditional lanes are off to the side.

Oh, and I wish the THCEA good luck on reconfiguring that Willow toll plaza. That will be a huge nightmare being that the plaza is elevated.
======================================

On a side note, the Reversible Express Lanes will remain in the eastbound direction from Wednesday, November 26, 2008 through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Normal operation will resume at 4am on Monday, December 1, 2008.

[I-275westcoastfl]

So let me get this straight if you don't have a Sunpass or an account you can still use it, they will just mail the bill to you? If so that is easy!

[HARTride 2012]

Okay, I misread the article. They are doing away with the plazas altogether, not like the hybrid system that is on some of the Orlando toll roads.

BTW: The I-4/Selmon connector will also be ORT only.

Actually, doing away with the plazas, especially at the 22nd St exit will do wonders, for the 22nd St exit will have to be expanded to accommodate traffic going to/from IKEA.

[JBrisco]

WOW thats freaking sick!!!

[HARTride 2012]

Uh...what?

[JBrisco]

I'm just sayin that's tight dude. I hate toll booths.

[HARTride 2012]

Oh...

[HARTride 2012]

Dug up some of my old photos. These are from 2006.

[smiley]

So, it is cheaper to mail bills to a bunch of people - most of whom who are out of state will never bother to pay (and in state too) and then take them to court to get a judgment or ticket - than it is to pay one person to collect the damn toll?

[HARTride 2012]

In that sense....yes. But traditional toll plazas are a headache anyway.


When my stepmom had her business in Sarasota, I enticed her and my dad to get a SunPass cause they had to travel each day from South Tampa to Sarasota and back, often taking I-275 via the Skyway. Having a SunPass does wonders; not having to stop at a toll plaza, no digging for change. It's wonderful.

For those who don't, yeah good ol' snail mail. Cameras go "click", and there's the statement a week or two later. License plate photo and all.

[JBrisco]

I think its safer to have no toll booths.

[smiley]

I think it is BS in the name of saving money. SunPass is great and should be the main toll paying system but the state will lose money on mailing bills to people. . . reminds me of automated parking systems in garages - always sounds great, almost never works right but they keep trying it . . .

[JBrisco]

Why don't they just have the overhead gantries to bill people with sunpass and just do a better job of policing people who don't pay for their tolls. Like actual CHARGES not just oh pay this.

[swaugh3]

Originally Posted by HARTride 2012

Uh...what?

Similar to Highway 407 in Toronto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_407_(Ontario)

http://www.407etr.com/

[HARTride 2012]

Yeah. Supposedly the Sawgrass Exwy in Miami will be the first toll road in FL with no plazas. It will all be gantries.

[HARTride 2012]

Reversible Crosstown lanes one way for holidays
Wednesday, December 24, 2008

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- The elevated lanes of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway will have extended holiday hours beginning today at 1 p.m.

The lanes, usually westbound only for morning traffic headed from Brandon into downtown and eastbound only in the afternoons, will remain eastbound only until Monday, December 29th.

The roadway will return to normal traffic operations after that but switch back to the holiday format from 1 p.m. on New Years Eve until Jan. 5.

The reversible lanes first opened to westbound traffic in July 2006. A month later, the highway began its current westbound (morning)/eastbound (afternoon) traffic pattern.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2...y+for+holidays

[HARTride 2012]

2010 May See The End Of Selmon's Cash Tolls

By RICH SHOPES

rshopes@tampatrib.com

Published: January 2, 2009

TAMPA - Drivers on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway who pay tolls with cash will get a warning this spring that their days are numbered.

By the summer of 2010, there will be no more cash tolls on the 15-mile highway, making it the first in the state to eliminate every cash toll booth from its system.

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, the agency that operates the Selmon, is planning to replace the booths with cashless, electronic toll collection equipment.

The expressway's upper lanes have the equipment, which is tailored to work with drivers' SunPass units. With the conversion, the rest of the highway, including all entrance and exit ramps, will also go electronic.

The change is expected in July 2010 and mirrors similar conversions across the country.

"You can expect to see a lot more of this in the future," said Christa Deason, a spokeswoman for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, which operates most of the state's toll roads. "It's less expensive to build interchanges and less expensive for maintenance, upkeep and staffing."

Turnpike Enterprise's last two interchanges in Osceola and Orange counties were constructed exclusively for electronic tolling. Its new interchange on the Polk Parkway at USF Polytechnic will also be electronic. In December, northbound I-95 debuted electronic-only toll lanes.

Agency officials plan to launch an education campaign this spring to alert the road's 40,000 daily users.

Sue Chrzan, spokeswoman for the expressway authority, said some who prefer paying tolls in cash will complain, but most motorists will be supportive because they won't have to slow down at booths.

More than 70 percent of Selmon customers use SunPass or have prepaid video-tolling accounts.

To deduct the tolls, the authority will erect overhead gantries outfitted with cameras and electronic readers at every toll location.

Drivers can maintain their speed as they pass under the gantry and the toll is recorded. Chrzan hailed the technology as safe for drivers because it will eliminate the weaving between lanes that now occurs as cars approach the booths.

The change will cost the agency about $12 million. At this point, there are no plans for a toll increase.

Groups, such as AAA, are skeptical. AAA Auto Club South opposes toll roads because of the cost to drivers. Removing the cash option will burden motorists who don't own transponders or live outside the area, and that could cause road hazards.

"You don't want drivers panicking because all of sudden they realize they can't pay with cash, and they're backing up and making U-turns," said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South.

"They're going to need to have very effective and clear communication," he said, referring to the expressway's entrances and exits.

Drivers like Sean Petit, a plumber from Brandon, said the cashless system will complicate how he gets reimbursed for travel expenses. Currently, he submits his toll receipts from the attendants.

Now he figures he'll have no choice but to buy a SunPass, which he resents. Two options are available: $5 for the SunPass sticker or $25 for the larger transponder unit. SunPass users pay 25 cents less for each toll and in doing so can recoup the cost of the transponder over time.

That doesn't comfort Petit.

"Basically, they're forcing people like me who use cash to go out and buy one of these," he said.

The authority says customers who don't want a transponder can set up a video-tolling account.

Chrzan said more than 90 percent of Selmon users are daily commuters, making it ideal for electronic tolling.

"As people get more comfortable with technology, it's a natural evolution," she said. "I just think it's the wave of the future."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan...ls/news-metro/

[smiley]

An object lesson from a place much more accustomed . . . I am sure the lesson will not be learned.

Linton Besser Transport Reporter
January 14, 2009



Heavy tolls to be extracted from drivers for decades to come
Advertisement
THOUSANDS of motorists have fled the Sydney Harbour Bridge after its cash booths were removed last weekend in a trend likely to worsen when peak-period tolling comes into force in two weeks.

During Monday morning's peak hour about 2000 motorists chose to find alternative routes into the city after the Harbour Bridge moved to fully electronic tolling on Sunday, Roads and Traffic Authority figures reveal.

Almost all of them diverted to the heavily congested Victoria Road, already the slowest in the state, and used the Gladesville Bridge to cross the harbour.

There were 2149 extra cars using the Gladesville Bridge during Monday's morning peak compared with the same day a year ago. At the same time, the number of motorists using the Harbour Bridge to get into the city dropped by 1998.

Road experts say it is because many motorists have refused to buy an electronic tag, and, in the short term, the trend is likely to worsen.

On January 27 the RTA begins a toll system under which drivers will be charged more to cross the harbour between 6.30am and 9.30am.

Commuters will be charged $4 in both the morning and afternoon rush hours, whereas those who travel between 9.30am and 4pm will pay $3. Between 7pm and 6.30am using either the Harbour Bridge or the Harbour Tunnel will cost $2.50.

The higher charge is expected to drive more people onto the Gladesville Bridge, but Victoria Road is ill equipped to cope.

The State Government's $162 million upgrade of the corridor is not designed to ease conditions for motorists - increases in traffic are predicted in the planning documents - but it will shorten the travel time for buses into the city by up to five minutes.

The road is consistently the slowest of Sydney's arterials, with speeds in the morning peak averaging 23 kmh last year, down from 29 kmh in 2004.

An RTA spokesman, Mark Henderson, said it was too early to analyse the causes of Monday's shift in traffic.

"Traffic volumes during the summer holiday period are not an accurate indicator because holiday patterns vary from year to year," he said.

But a former RTA executive, Ken Dobinson, said the numbers clearly indicated a shift by those unwilling to buy tags.

"You could attribute it almost 100 per cent to the fact [the Harbour Bridge] has gone cashless. They are the people that don't want to buy tags."

He said more commuters would shift to the Gladesville Bridge when the congestion charges began.

"The peak tolling will cause another 2 to 3 per cent to divert."

Mr Henderson said the road network would adjust to the changes. "When the Sydney Harbour Bridge toll went from $2.20 to $3 in 2002 traffic increased in the short term on other main roads like Victoria Road.

"But traffic settled after the first few weeks and returned to normal during the peak."

The new tolling system has been criticised as a revenue-raising measure, rather than a tool to reduce congestion in the CBD. The Harbour Tunnel, for example, was designed to divert motorists around the city, yet still attracts the congestion tax.

The problem is exacerbated because there is no consistency in the city's toll prices.

"On the Sydney Harbour Bridge it will make bugger-all difference except make them extra revenue," Mr Dobinson said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...608708274.html