183A toll north of Austin, Texas, to go cashless
183A presently has cashless at a smaller mainline plaza and at ramp plazas but the announcement will eliminate cash collection at their major mainline toll plaza at Park Street.
The Trucker News Services
6/30/2008
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board has voted to eliminate cash toll collection on their 183A toll road northwest of Austin by the end of 2008, according to TOLLROADSnews. The decision is expected to save the agency more than $1 million annually in operating costs.
"With roughly 80 percent of our customers paying with TxTag [transponder], it no longer makes economic sense to operate cash toll booths," Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Mobility Authority is quoted in a press statement, according to a story posted on the group’s Web site. "With so few people paying cash, we are spending almost as much money to collect cash as we are collecting. By eliminating cash collection we can save money and shift those savings to other priorities such as the future expansion of 183A."
183A presently has cashless at a smaller mainline plaza and at ramp plazas but the announcement will eliminate cash collection at their major mainline toll plaza at Park Street.
To accommodate drivers who do not have a transponder the toller has video tolling which they call "Pay-By-Mail." The Mobility Authority sends a Toll Bill by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle.
TxTag transponder customers save 25 percent off the Pay-By-Mail toll rate.
TX183A will be the fourth toll road in Texas to go cashless. The Westpark Tollway in Houston was the first cashless toll road in the state, opening in 2004. Operated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority however it only allows access by cars with transponders. It does no video tolling.
The first cashless toll roads in Texas to allow vehicles without transponders — to do video tolls as well as transponder tolls — were Loop 49 in Tyler and SH121 in Dallas.
North Texas Tollway Authority in Dallas has been doing cashless transponder and video tolling at their southern mainline plaza for over a year, and are converting all their toll plazas to cashless by 2010 - the biggest conversion to date in North America.
Heiligenstein of CTRMA says that cashless toll collection improves mobility and safety while reducing fuel consumption and vehicle emissions by eliminating stop-to-pay.
The Authority plans to implement cashless toll collection on all its future toll roads including the Manor Expressway, which will be constructed along US290 east of Austin. Construction is due to begin 2009.