Safety Benefits from Deployment of Open Road Tolling for Main-Line Toll Plazas in Florida

Abstract

Research conducted by the authors shows that upgrading from conventional toll lanes to open road tolling (ORT) has resulted in measured improvements in traffic operations at toll plazas and reduced driver exposure to potential crashes, thereby benefiting driver safety. A previous 2007 analysis of crash data from an ORT plaza in Orlando, Florida, found a 22% drop in total crashes at an ORT plaza and a 26% drop in the plaza's area of influence. To evaluate ORT further with electronic toll collection (ETC) benefits, additional crash data were collected from six toll plazas recently converted to ORT within the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) system of toll roads. A before-and-after study was conducted to analyze frequency, crash rate, and crash severity. The results, showing a significant reduction in the number of crashes, supported the previous study. The evaluation analyzed crash data over 3 years (2007 to 2009) and found a decrease in the total number of crashes, crashes in the non-ORT lanes, total number of injuries, and total injury crashes. The calculated crash rate at all the ORT plazas reviewed was reduced by as much as 70%. To quantify the benefits, the average cost of a crash was obtained; when the ORT lanes were compared with the conventional toll lanes, a savings of $1 million was found. ETC is now moving to all-electronic tolling, and if the statistics for crash reductions hold true, the benefits for toll road users could be very significant.