BOSTON – State transportation officials are looking for the public to weigh in on proposals to switch to an all-electronic tolling system on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Under the system, drivers will no longer be able to stop at a tollbooth and pay cash.
Instead, tolls will be collected electronically through a driver’s E-ZPass transponder or by a new system that allows a camera to record a license plate number and send the registered owner of the car a bill through the mail.
The proposed system, which will cost in the ballpark of $100 million, would seek to eliminate all of the state’s tollbooths, along with 400 jobs for toll operators.
According to Mass. Department of Transportation (MassDOT) spokesman Michael Verseckes, the measure would come at a good time for Bay State drivers.
“We’re at around 70 percent, so we’re almost there,” he said, referencing the amount of drivers who utilize the E-ZPass system.
Under the new system, tolls and toll operators will be replaced with overhead cameras on 18 gantries on I-90 , as well as Boston’s tunnels and Tobin Bridge.
Regarding the new system’s ability to snare toll fees from out-of-state drivers, the new cameras would read transponders and photograph license plates, sending invoices to drivers without transponders in a prospective system tentatively titled “Pay-by-Plate”.
Verseckes said that MassDOT is “still in the discussion phase” regarding to what extent the fees for non-responder users would increase.
Department of Transportation officials claim that the new system would save anywhere from 200,000 to 875,000 gallons of fuel per year from West Stockbridge to the Route 128/Interstate 95 interchange in Weston, a stretch of about 125 miles.
Carbon emissions would also be reduced by 1,800 to 7,800 tons per year, according to MassDOT.
Westfield City Engineer Mark Cressotti deemed the proposed system-change a good thing.
“I think it will help,” he said. “I’d heard tolls were going to be (reinstituted) for western Mass., but I haven’t heard of this.”
Cressotti believes that the major issue for Exit 3 is its current toll setup, with only one booth for E-ZPass users, and a shift to transponder-centric technology would be huge.
“The Turnpike has problems processing the cash tolls, with only one E-ZPass booth,” he said. “A free flow of traffic would certainly help with (traffic) build up. In the morning, everyone’s coming on and off – it would be an easier flow.”
Cressotti does not believe that the prospective changes would help the interchange of Route 10 and the Turnpike, however.
Data received from MassDOT supports Cressotti’s claims.
Of the 4,050,027 exit transactions recorded in the fiscal year 2013, 55 percent of Exit 3’s total exit transactions were done through automatic vehicle identification, or E-ZPass.
Those four million exit transactions placed Exit 3 eighth out of the 15 exits on the Turnpike for total traffic counts.
Exit 3 ranked tenth out of 15 in entry transactions with 4,018,464, ahead of only Exit 2 (Lee), 5 (Chicopee), 7 (Ludlow), 8 (Palmer) and 11 (Millbury/Route 122). In addition, Westfield’s exit was only 890 entries behind Exit 1 (West Stockbridge).
The Westfield exit hauled in $2,054,742 in total revenue for the 2013 fiscal year, placing it twelfth out of 15 exits, ahead of only Chicopee, Lee, and Ludlow.
The discrepancy between Exit 3’s traffic and revenue can be attributed to the lack of a toll fee when travelling between Exits 4 through 1, as the majority of Westfield’s Turnpike traffic is made up of students and residents of communities serviced by the other four western-most exits on Interstate 90.
“Exit 3 has a lot of assets that attract people to Westfield within the general vicinity of several exits,” Verseckes said, referencing the draw of Westfield State University specifically.
94 percent of the University’s student body is from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with over half of those in-state students coming from east of Worcester, a fact that Verseckes believes contributes to Exit 3’s total.
“I can’t tell based on this data,” Verseckes said. “But it’s a reasonable assumption.”
Michael Widmer, President of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, believes the proposed system would be a great asset to Bay State residents.
“We’ve been generally supportive,” Widmer said of proposed changes to the toll system. “Modernizing the tolls has been long overdue. Other states are ahead of us.”
Widmer believes that the notion of the tollbooth gate and operator is “arcane” and that those jobs will be largely, if not completely, eliminated.
“The tolls will be more convenient to the motorist,” Widmer said of the benefits to taxpaying drivers. “It’s easier to have electronic tolling. Secondly, is public safety. And third, in the end, the system will pay for itself.”
Teamsters Local 127, the Quincy-based union that represents the Commonwealth’s 400 tollbooth operators, was unavailable for comment.
Verseckes downplays the notion that this system overhaul will eliminate jobs as widely as Widmer thinks it will.
“There is a transition plan,” he said. “There’s always a need for people behind the scenes. Some may retire, some may decide to be retrained for the new system. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
The new system is slated to be operational in 2015. There will be a public hearing Thursday on the proposal at Springfield City Hall, 32 Court Street, Room 220,from 6-8 p.m.
