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Type of Scheme
- Tolled motorway lanes with variable charging.
Date of Introduction
Background
- The 91 Freeway suffered from congestion problems but no public funds were available to solve the problem.
- A private company - the California Private Transportation Company (CPTC) - originally owned and operated the Express Lanes under a 35-year franchise granted by the State of California. However, in January 2003 the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) took public ownership of the 91 Express Lanes from the CPTC. Under OCTA ownership, Orange and Riverside county public officials work together on toll road policies and related improvement plans for the 91 Express Lanes.
Aims
- The principal aim is to reduce congestion on the 91 Freeway.
- Other toll policy goals are to:
- Provide customers a safe, reliable, predictable commute;
- Optimize throughput at free-flow speeds;
- Increase average vehicle occupancy;
- Balance capacity and demand, thereby serving both full-pay customers and carpoolers with three or more people who are offered discounted tolls; and
- Generate sufficient revenue to sustain the financial viability of the 91 Express Lanes.
How it Works
Charges:
- Toll policy is based on concept of congestion management pricing designed to optimise traffic flow at free-flow speeds.
- Hourly traffic volumes are continually monitored and once hourly volumes become consistently too heavy and there is the potential for traffic congestion, the toll fee is adjusted.
- Only cars, motorhomes and buses can use the Express Lanes.
- Vehicles with three or more persons ("Three ride free"), zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), motorcycles, disabled plates and disabled veterans are permitted to travel free in the 91 Express Lanes during most hours. (Exception is Monday through Friday 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in eastbound direction when these users pay 50 percent of the toll).
- Charge is collected from pre-paid toll account which driver must set up.
- Each time account falls below minimum required balance, prepaid toll account is automatically replenished by debiting driver's credit card with amount specified on their application, or the average of their monthly toll usage; whichever is greater.
- Minimum required balance is equal to average toll usage for a ten day period as calculated by the 91 Express Lanes, or $10, whichever is greater.
- Toll schedules, effective from February 27 2006, are as follows:
Technology:
- Tolls are paid by means of an electronic tag (FasTrak) - a small battery-powered radio device - mounted inside the vehicle on the windscreen. The tag identifies the customer's prepaid toll account.
- When traveling through toll zone, the tag is read by an overhead antenna, and the toll charge automatically deducted from the customer's account.
- The tag eliminates the need to stop and pay tolls at traditional tollbooths, thus ensuring the free flow of traffic on the 91 Express Lanes.
Enforcement:
- California state law requires all vehicles be equipped with a properly mounted FasTrak tag allowing tolls to be collected electronically.
- This is enforced by the California Highway Patrol.
- Travelling on the 91 Express Lanes without a tag properly mounted on a vehicle can result in toll-evasion fees from $100 for the first violation; $250 for the second violation, to $500 for each additional violation within one year.
- Toll evasions carry a $20 processing fee in addition to the amount of the toll.
- Failure to respond to the first Notice of Toll Evasion results in a second Notice being mailed to the offender with an additional $35 processing fee.
- Failure to respond to these notices can result in a hold being placed on a vehicle registration.
Revenue
- Annual Totals:
| Fiscal Year |
Actual Average Daily Transactions |
Projected* Average Daily Transactions |
Percent of Projections |
Actual Toll Revenues** |
Projected* Toll Revenues** |
| 2005 |
|
32,100 |
|
|
$29.100m |
| 2004 |
30,600 |
30,300 |
101% |
$26.972m |
$26.400m |
| 2003 |
28,400 |
N/A |
N/A |
$26.560m |
N/A |
| 2002 |
23,850 |
N/A |
N/A |
$23.320m |
N/A |
- Effect of toll policy pursued by OCTA has been an increase in customer usage with sufficient revenue to pay all expenses and also provide seed funding for general freeway improvements.
- Revenues generated by the toll lanes are solely used to fund improvements on the State Route 91 corridor - a significant departure from past practices
Benefits/Results
- More people used 91 Express Lanes during OCTA's first fiscal year of ownership than any year when it was under private ownership over the last decade.
- More than a million additional trips occurred on the toll road than in the previous year, yet drivers were able to get where they wanted to go faster and easier.
- This was achieved by OCTA implementing an innovative congestion management policy, which encouraged commuters to carpool to reduce the number of vehicles in the lanes, and to commute when there is less traffic.
- OCTA's "three-ride-free" programme boosted carpooling by 43 percent over fiscal year 2003 levels.
- Average number of riders per vehicle increased to 1.49 from 1.36 during the morning rush hour, and increased to 1.42 from 1.38 during the evening rush hour.
- OCTA also eased the rush-hour crunch by offering lower tolls to entice motorists to drive during lighter traffic periods.
- In summer 2004, eastbound rush-hour traffic increased only 3 to 4 percent, while travel during non-peak hours swelled up to 14 percent.
- As a result, traffic has spread out and speeded up even though amount of overall traffic jumped more than 12 percent during the past year.
- According to a 2004 Customer Satisfaction Survey, users reported saving about 36 minutes per trip in the afternoon by using the toll road.
Public Opinion
- The Chairman's introduction in the OCTA Annual Report stated that toll road users are highly satisfied due to time savings.
Next Steps
- OCTA has joined other transportation agencies to explore alternatives for improving travel between Orange and Riverside counties and commissioned a $3.3 million Major Investment Study to create a balanced, long-term transportation plan.
- Plan will evaluate Riverside Freeway improvements, along with additional highway, mass transit and other options.
Website
91 Express Lanes:
www.91expresslanes.com.
Office of Transportation Policy Studies - Value Pricing Pilot Programme:
www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tolling_pricing/value_pricing/index.htm.
Reference
Orange County Transportation Authority
www.octa.net/91_default.aspx.
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