A case study of Champlain toll station

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study the impacts and quantify the various losses due to the presence of toll stations. For this purpose a survey was conducted on the Champlain toll bridge which connects Montreal Island and the suburban South Shore area. The presence of toll stations imposes restrictions on the free movement of traffic and leads to speed-change cycles, idling, queuing, and excess travel time with direct increase in user costs. The impact of the geometric design of the toll station is also studied with respect to the various losses.The quantification of the various losses is achieved by using queuing theory and simple mathematical relations. The losses are to be considered for two very important reasons; first the losses are incurred by the commuters and second the additional user cost sometimes exceeds the actual toll fee. The results of this study indicates that substantial energy savings could be achieved along with better environmental conditions by either eliminating existing tolls or improving (redesigning) them. In constructing new transportation structures where above losses are likely to occur, the additional user cost due to the losses should be taken into consideration during economic analysis. Key words: fuel consumption, fuel emission, geometric design, idling, queuing, toll station, toll fee, travel time, user cost.