2 Turnpike interchanges to go cashless; results will decide collectors' fate

Turnpike officials have put the brakes on a plan set in motion during former Gov. Tom Corbett's administration to convert the cross-state highway to a cashless, all-electronic tolling system.

The jobs of more than 600 unionized toll collectors would be eliminated as a result of the proposal made in 2013. At that time, state officials said the goal was to cut costs — more than $60 million in salary and benefits for the workers — by making the road cashless by 2018.

Instead, the commission will start a pilot program next year in which two busy interchanges on opposite ends of the state — the Beaver Valley Expressway and the Delaware River Bridge in Bucks County — are converted to the cashless system.

Drivers must use E-ZPass or have their license plates scanned by interchange cameras and pay a monthly bill mailed to them.

Turnpike Commission Chairman Sean Logan, a former Democratic state senator from Monroeville, said he's not sure that eliminating the toll collectors' jobs will lead to sustainable savings.

He said the cashless system will require upgrades to interchanges, technology and safeguards to protect drivers' data.

Logan added that accounting work could be necessary to generate and collect bills for those who don't use the E-ZPass system.

On average, 75 percent of turnpike transactions involve E-ZPass, ranging from a low of 63 percent on the rural stretch of highway from Somerset County to Cumberland County to a high of 81 percent at interchanges near Philadelphia, where heavy commuter usage boosts that number.

Because E-ZPass lanes can process hundreds more cars per hour than toll collectors, cash lanes sometimes appear to be busier.

E-ZPass use in Pennsylvania is slightly lower than in neighboring New Jersey, where an average of 81.5 percent of transactions on the state's turnpike and 78.6 percent of the transactions on the Garden State Parkway — commuter paths to Philadelphia and New York City — involve E-ZPass, state officials said.

“You're just not saying, ‘OK, we're going to eliminate toll collectors, and there's no other cost associated with it,' ” Logan said. “At this point, I can't tell you what all those other costs are.”

The turnpike's toll collectors, earning between $19.76 to $22.69 an hour, are represented by Teamsters locals 77 and 250. Union officials refused to comment about the issue.

Despite Logan's doubts, industry officials say cashless systems are functioning efficiently throughout the nation and are popular with motorists.

“People do not like to stop and wait in lines to pay cash,” said Bill Cramer, spokesman for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. “They want to keep moving, and cashless or all-electronic tolling allows for the reduction of congestion, freer flow of traffic and less pollution on highways.”

“No one is building a new toll road, bridge or tunnel and putting in toll plazas and collecting cash,” Cramer added.

Logan questions the loss of customer service that will occur if the interchanges are unmanned.

“I'm one that believes that people travel the Pennsylvania Turnpike because it's a convenience road,” Logan said. “People pay a premium. I like there to be human interaction in case somebody's lost, in case somebody's having an issue.”

From his toll booth at the Monroeville interchange, Jimmy Puc dispenses directions to Kennywood and Monroeville Mall while making change for $20 bills.

“In 2015, you'd think most people have a GPS. That's not the case,” said Puc, 52, of White Oak.

Puc said he's seen it all in his almost 31 years there — from cars bursting into flames to pregnant women rushing to the nearest hospital to deliver their babies. And when help was needed, he and his co-workers pitched in.

“If there's nobody here, you can't do that,” said Michelle Prestopine, district manager of fare collection, stationed in Monroeville.

Logan said the pilot program will tell the true story of whether this system is a good fit for Pennsylvania.

“The Beaver Valley Expressway will really give us a good read on whether this will work,” Logan said. “I can't say, ‘Hey, let's go spend all this money buying cameras, taking down toll booths, laying off employees' ... if I'm not convinced we can do it.”

Logan said he has concerns about the technology — making sure cameras accurately capture a license plate through dirt or glaring sun — and the cost of interchange upgrades that may be needed to enable cars to safely exit the highway at higher speeds.

And because the Turnpike Commission can't add points to a driver's license for unpaid bills, Logan said, the agency has to ensure it has sufficient enforcement power to collect fares before going cashless.

When parts of the Florida Turnpike were converted to a cashless system — including a congested, 50-mile stretch around Miami — safety improved overnight, a state official said.

Rear-end collisions at toll plazas dropped dramatically, and congestion eased, spokesman Chad Huff said.

Officials in Colorado had a slightly different experience.

When the E-470, which runs along the eastern perimeter of the Denver metropolitan area, became the first highway in the nation to go cashless, officials there assumed they'd maintain their 99 percent toll collection rate, said Jessica Carson, spokeswoman for the E-470 Public Highway Authority.

“Our assumption was that people would pay on the first bill,” Carson said. “Although a very high percentage do, some take a second nudge.”

Of course, there are added costs associated with giving that extra nudge.

Carson said the authority's overall collection rate is 91 percent.

She said the agency assumed its operating costs would decrease by moving to all-electronic tolling, but officials soon realized they needed a lot more digital storage than anticipated to store multiple photos of each license plate as vehicles exit the 47-mile toll road.

Many of the former toll collectors were hired into other areas of the agency, including an image-processing department established to ensure the cameras were translating license plates correctly and billing the right vehicle owners, Carson said.

Kari Andren is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.