Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress - About

Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress
conditions. To address this, the NYS Thruway designed a new pop-up delineator in-house that
operates off of air compression and survives the winters.
Safety can be further compromised when truck traffic is introduced to the plaza – so much so
that one agency solicited feedback from truck drivers on the best configuration for one of their
plazas (particularly on what would make the most sense for the location of the truck-only lanes
in relation to the rest of the plaza). A common issue is that trucks are prohibited from traveling
in the left lane on many roadways, which poses a weaving problem since the dedicated-ETC
lanes – and in many cases the truck-only lanes – are located to the left side of the plaza.
Speeding
The introduction of electronic toll collection – and particularly of high-speed ETC lanes – has
introduced a new concern at plazas: speeding. Prior to the advent of ETC, every customer was
required to come to a complete stop in order to collect a ticket or pay a toll. Now a good portion
of customers are not required to stop at all, and in many cases, are able to maintain near highway
speeds while passing through a plaza. Vehicles speeding through plazas present an obvious
safety concern for workers, and as a result many agencies have implemented strategies
specifically targeted at combating speeding.
Of the facilities visited by the team, those that reported having the lowest incidence of speeding
were the NYS Thruway and the PANY/NJ. Although there is no hard data to substantiate this
observation, it seems plausible that their extensive automated speed enforcement program may
be the main success factor in keeping speeds under control. Through their automated
enforcement program, cameras record violators and letters are mailed out to provide notification
of the violation. The ETC tags are suspended for a period of time for those who are repeat or
excessive violators. The agencies involved have found this practice to be particularly effective
with trucking firms.
Another measure that many agencies felt played a role in successfully controlling speeds was
gates. Where they are used, all customers - including those with electronic payment - must wait
for a gate to lift before proceeding through the plaza. Typically the gates lift automatically as an
ETC vehicle approaches, so ETC customers can proceed safely through the plaza without
stopping as long as they maintain a reasonable speed (typically below 15 miles per hour).
Excessive speeds also affect first responders and maintenance workers, and many agencies
expressed concern about this. The PANY/NJ has combated this by equipping their maintenance
vehicles with red lights (i.e., amber on front, red on back) to give motorists the impression of
enforcement presence, and they feel that this has successfully lowered speeds.
Other speed mitigation strategies observed by the team on the site visits included:
Using rumble strips in the area just upstream of the plaza to draw motorist’s attention
to their speed.
Using pavement markings to lower speeds (e.g., transverse yellow pavement
markings with spacing gives the illusion that you are speeding)
Painting the speed limit on the pavement to reinforce the speed limit.
Using regulatory speed limit signs rather than advisory to encourage motorist to obey
the speed limit.
Appendix D – Agency Site Visits Page D-2