Operational Benefits of Electronic Toll Collection: Case Study

Abstract

This paper reports the improvements in traffic operations at the electronic toll collection plazas of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. Service time, vehicle arrival times, and departure times, as well as vehicle counts were collected “before” and “after” the installation of automatic vehicle identification technology known as E-PASS. The findings indicate that, for the dedicated E-PASS lane, the measured capacity has tripled, the service time has decreased by five seconds per vehicle, the average queuing delay has decreased by one minute per vehicle, the maximum queuing delay has decreased by 2.5–3 minutes per vehicle, and the total queuing delay has decreased by 8.5–9.5 vehicle-hours per morning peak hour for that lane. Also, variability in the headway has been reduced significantly in the dedicated E-PASS lane. Capacity, headway, and service times of the mixed (manual/E-PASS or automatic/E-PASS) lanes did not change significantly. However, arrivals have shifted to the dedicated E-PASS lanes, thus reducing delays at the mixed lanes and improving traffic operations for the entire toll plaza.