IBTTA’s Top Ten Blog Posts for 2015: Transportation Idol, Visualizing Tolling, and How to Tell the Story
2015 was an incredibly busy year in the tolling industry, with process and progress toward making the nation interoperable, to the passage of a five-year transportation bill in the United States, to a constant torrent of policy and technology developments across North America and around the world.
Tolling Points was there to tell the story, and we listened closely to what you found most interesting. Here’s your Top Ten list for the last year and a bit.
#10: Tolling Backlash in Texas
Tolling agencies in Texas had a tough year facing down a sustained attack on user financing. But Waco Tribune Editor Steve Boggs was a voice of reason, captured in this April 7 blog post. “I recently discovered SH 130 and, I promise you, it’s worth every penny in tolls to avoid downtown Austin traffic,” he wrote. “When I have to drive in the Metroplex, I seek out toll roads just to keep moving.”
#9: The Creativity of Electronic Tolling
IBTTA held its 2015 Summit on All-Electronic Tolling, Managed Lanes and Interoperability in Miami July 12-14. Our pre-summit interview with Chief Meeting Organizers Bob Redding and Greg LeFrois was one of our most popular blog posts of the year.
“With IBTTA’s assistance, the last year has seen a surge of work on interoperability, including development of technology requirements, back office business rules, and interface formats, selection of a testing organization, and ongoing work on the governance and branding needed to make interoperability feasible over the long term,” Redding said.
“As managed lane projects have multiplied and matured, the benefits have been proven,” LeFrois added. “We now have solid evidence that pricing specific lanes on a freeway (or a toll road) can help manage demand.”
#8: A Peek Into the Future
In August, Joe Averkamp of Xerox gave us a peek into the future of connected vehicles with an exposé on Mcity, a 32-acre test facility at the University of Michigan. “Mcity provides a controlled test environment to collaborate in trying out new concepts before they are ready for the public roads,” he wrote, adding that Xerox participates in the wider Mobility Transformation Center “because we want to help shape the future of transportation.”
#7: Retail Payment Apps for Toll Interoperability
Xerox takes the #7 spot, as well, with Rich Bastan’s November, 2014 post on the connection between retail payment systems and toll interoperability. “Mobile payment capabilities will be a key factor in moving seamless interoperability forward,” he predicted. “Tolling with this kind of interoperability is likely more than two short years away, but eventually the same kind of process will happen.”
#6: Problem: A $3.3 Trillion Gas Tax Shortfall
In January, Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic’s CityLab picked up on a provocative piece of analysis from University of California Davis, pointing to a staggering, $3.3-trillion shortfall in annual gas tax funding in the U.S. “Any gas tax that fully corrected for the social costs of car reliance would upend life as Americans know it,” Jaffe wrote. But in the U.S., the second-lowest gas taxes in an index of 30 countries lead to “all sorts of negative social impacts that aren't being compensated for: personal time and work productivity lost to traffic congestion, lives lost to car crashes, and health risks created by air pollution, to name just a few.”
#5: Solution: DRIVE Act Pointed to Changes in Federal Tolling Programs
In July, IBTTA Government Affairs Director Neil Gray pointed to a new legislative proposal in the U.S. that would free up slots in the Interstate Highway Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program. “This is all rather low-key, but it’s something we’ve been trying to do for years,” he said. “It means a slot can be made available if you have somebody, preferably a governor, who’s willing to run with it.”
#4: The Long-Term Vision: Road User Charging
In early January, we caught up with two advocates for road user charging as a long-term solution to the highway infrastructure funding crisis. “In the short run, I think a lot of projects need to be built with tolling,” said the Reason Foundation’s Adrian Moore. “Our vision for paying for the highway system in the long run is…about a user fee based on miles that will replace the fuel tax.”
“Citizens require choices,” added RUC pioneer Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. “They don’t want the government to choose any kind of box for their car.”
#3: Visual Storytelling Helps Deliver the Message
Sarah Swensson King of the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) in California walked away with top honors at IBTTA’s first-ever Transportation Idol contest. Afterwards, she told us about her approach to customer outreach through visual storytelling. “Every agency, no matter its size, has a unique story to share with the public and its customers,” she said. “Through visual storytelling, or a fun parody music video, we can remind people of the benefits of choosing to drive The Toll Roads.”
#2: Visualizing the Benefits of Tolling
More visualizing: In February, the Washington Post published two maps produced by Eric Fischer of Mapbox, one showing every road in the United States, the other one showing every bridge. “What would a set of U.S. maps look like if they represented the benefits of tolling? Would one of them compare traffic flows, congestion, and air quality on interstate highways that had been maintained and upgraded strictly with gas tax funding, compared to the same roads with access to a steady, reliable stream of toll revenue?” we asked.
“Would a mapmaker choose crosses, skulls, or some equally macabre device to show the human impacts on a state highway network where poor road conditions cause more accidental injuries and deaths than drugs and alcohol combined?”
#1: Everyone Loves a Good Contest
And more Idol: Our call for entries for the Transportation Idol contest was our most popular post of the year.
“IBTTA is searching the globe to find individuals talented enough to explain to the public the importance, rationale, and benefits of tolling or road usage charging,” we wrote April 1, just weeks before the 2015 Transportation Finance & Road User Charging Conference in Portland, OR. “Be as creative as you wish—sing a song, perform a skit, write a poem, create a jingle, entertain with a circus act, or any other performance art you see fit, as long as you convey the positive benefits of tolling or RUC/VMT.” And the winner…. drum roll please, Sarah Swensson King.
We look forward to seeing you back here for an exciting 2016. Happy New Year’s!