Safety Evaluation of Hybrid Main-Line Toll Plazas

Abstract

Traditional main-line toll plazas on expressways may have both safety and operational challenges. Although many studies have demonstrated the operational and environmental impacts of conversion from traditional toll plazas to a barrier-free system (open road tolling), research that quantifies the safety benefits of new tolling systems is lacking. This study evaluated the safety effectiveness of the conversion from a traditional main-line toll plaza design to a hybrid main-line toll plaza (HMTP) system. An HMTP system combines both open road tolling on the main line and separate traditional toll collection to the side. Various observational before–after studies were applied on 98 main-line toll plazas (two directions) located on approximately 750 mi of toll roads in Florida; 30 of these were upgraded to the HMTP system. The multivariate empirical Bayes method produced the best crash modification factors with low standard errors, and its results indicated that the conversion from traditional main-line toll plaza to HMTP showed an average crash reduction of 47%, 46%, and 54% for total crashes, fatal and injury crashes, and property-damage-only crashes, respectively. The use of an HMTP system also significantly reduced rear-end crashes and lane-change–related crashes by an average of 65% and 55%, respectively. The use of the HMTP system was proved to be an excellent solution to several traffic operations, environmental, and economic problems. The results of this study proved that the safety effectiveness was significantly improved across all locations that were upgraded to an HMTP system.