Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress - About

Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress
Many toll facilities were built before the establishment of the Interstate Highway System, and
most are owned, operated, and maintained by autonomous public agencies, semi-public agencies,
or private entities. As a result, guidance on national standards for uniform traffic control at toll
facilities does not currently exist. 2 With so many different types of entities managing toll roads
and with so many independent design approaches and no existing national standards, individual
agencies have developed their own innovative approaches and solutions to improve worker and
driver safety while ensuring smooth and efficient operations.
In light of the evolving toll collection methods and operational characteristics at toll plazas, and
in direct response to Section 1403 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation
Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) legislation, a panel of stakeholders undertook
a study of toll facility safety, and this report presents the findings of the study.
1.2 Study Objectives
The study was undertaken to accomplish two main objectives:
(1) To study the incidence of accidents and injuries in the vicinity of highway toll
collection facilities.
(2) To study the safety of toll collection facilities for workers and motorists – and to
document strategies for improving toll plaza safety.
The study was designed to meet the requirements of the SAFETEA-LU legislation, but also to
provide additional detail that was not specifically identified in the legislation. Worker safety is
the main focus of the legislation, but the scope of this study also includes the study of vehicular
safety at toll facilities since this is a matter of national interest and since it is difficult to
completely separate the two.
The goal of the study is not to develop standards, but rather to document the state of the practice
in toll facility safety and to share information on effective practices for improving worker and
motorist safety in the vicinity of toll plazas. As such, this report is intended to serve as the
Report to Congress and also as a set of safety strategies for direct consideration by toll facility
agencies to improve the safety of the plazas that they operate. Key findings from this report have
been summarized in a shorter companion document entitled “Strategies for Improving Safety at
Toll Collection Facilities.”
1.3 Requirements of the SAFETEA-LU Legislation
The legislation behind this study can be found in SAFETEA-LU, and is stated as follows:
2 The current edition of Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) (2003, Revision 1) does not contain
provisions for traffic control devices at toll plazas or toll-managed facilities. However, elements of the manual are
used by some agencies where appropriate. Further, a chapter on tolling is under consideration for future proposed
rulemaking for the MUTCD.
Introduction Page 2