Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress - About

Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress
The NYS Thruway Authority contracted with Vollmer Associates in 2000 to perform a Toll Lane
Safety Study Report. This study was undertaken following a fatal pedestrian accident in 1999,
and the purpose of the study was to analyze the issue of toll collector safety operations in light of
the accident and to determine whether any additional measures could be effective and practical in
improving the safety of toll collectors crossing active toll lanes. This study included an industry
review, a summary of practices at other facilities, and a review of measures noted in the citation
issued by the New York State Department of Labor. It also included information about how 8
different toll authorities deal with 16 different safety practices. Six of the eight had safety
programs in place or under development. Seven of the eight had formal lane crossing procedures
with requirements ranging from wearing safety vests, to holding up a hand or stop sign paddle, to
making eye contact with the driver, to verbally asking a vehicle to stop while paying a toll and
notifying them to wait until the toll collector crosses in front of them. Various traffic control
devices are also used to show crosswalks and close toll lanes. These devices include traffic
lights, stop signs, striping, gates, and traffic cones. Agencies primarily use gates for safety as
well as violation deterrence. Five agencies had data available on crashes. Four of the five did
not have any injuries dealing with toll collector/vehicle crashes. One agency had one instance of
a toll collector/vehicle injury crash in which a vehicle with a transponder was at an ETC lane and
then changed lanes to a staffed lane and failed to stop in the staffed lane even though a stop sign
was present.
The NCHRP Synthesis 240 also describes security issues that occur at toll facilities. Access
cards are increasingly being used at toll administration buildings to monitor the individuals who
are entering and leaving the facility as well as to deny access to unapproved individuals. Various
devices have also been used at toll booths, including surveillance cameras, silent alarms,
bulletproof toll booth glass, and bill alarms.
References
Abdel-Aty, M.A. “Analysis of driver injury severity levels at multiple locations using ordered
probit models.” Journal of Safety Research, vol. 34, pp. 597-603, 2003.
Abdel-Aty, M.A. and H.T. Abdelwahab. “Artificial Neural Networks and Logit Models for
Traffic Safety Analysis of Toll Plazas.” Transportation Research Record, No. 1784,
pp. 115-125, 2002.
Chang, J., C. Oh, and M. Chang. “Artificial Neural Networks and Logit Models for Traffic
Safety Analysis of Toll Plazas.” Fourth International Symposium on Highway Capacity.
Transportation Research Circular E-C018, Transportation Research Board, 2000.
Feist, J.P., L. Mongeau, and R.J. Bernhard. “Tollbooth Operators’ Response to Traffic Noise
and the Performance of an Active Noise Control Headset: Survey Results.”
Transportation Research Record, No. 1756, pp. 68-75, 2001.
McDonald, Jr., D.R. and R.E. Stammer, Jr. “Contribution to the Development of Guidelines
for Toll Plaza Design.” Journal of Transportation Engineering, pp. 215-221, May-
June 2001.
Mohamed, A.A., M.A. Abdel-Aty, and J.G. Klodzinski. “Safety Considerations in
Appendix B – Literature Review Page B-7