Highlights Focus

Funding is an ever-present challenge for those who are responsible for building, maintaining, and operating our nation’s public works infrastructure. Creative financing strategies are the order of the day, with user-financed roads becoming an increasingly popular solution in the transportation arena.

This issue of PBS&J Highlights spotlights the toll road industry for those who are not typically involved in the day-to-day operations of toll agencies. Kicking off this issue is A Fresh Look At Tolls, which shares how several states have approached the use of tolled highways as a way to address both mobility and financing needs.

Tolled lanes on traditional highways? HOT Lanes, A Strategy with Sizzle looks at this innovative approach to better using designated high-occupancy vehicle lanes and enhancing mobility on public transportation systems.

Electronic toll collection is reducing delays at toll plazas and helping agencies streamline their operations. Is it possible that there will ever be a single system that can operate on the different toll facilities throughout the nation? Patrick Jones, executive director of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, discusses this in this issue’s Expert’s View.

The next generation in electronic toll collection is the subject of the article, Open Road Tolling: Keeping Traffic on the Move. An even broader perspective of the future is presented in an excerpt from a recent PBS&J ITS Vision Paper, Electronic Payment Systems in Transportation: What Will the Future Bring?.

Having served as a consultant to toll agencies for more than two decades, PBS&J has experienced and helped implement the tremendous changes that have occurred within the industry. Interestingly, we have learned with our client partners that the real products offered by today’s tolled highways are not simply the ribbons of asphalt that get travelers from point A to point B. Rather the products they deliver are something with much greater intrinsic value: service, safety, and convenience to the customers that use their systems. And we are proud to be helping our toll agency clients deliver those products on a daily basis.