What are Express Toll Lanes and their benefits?
The concept of Express Toll Lanes incorporates a range of approaches that can be applied to both existing and new highway facilities to move auto and bus traffic more efficiently in a transportation corridor. Express Toll Lanes would give people the choice of paying a toll to avoid congestion by driving in reserved free-flowing lanes on a given trip. Tolls, which would be collected electronically, would vary by time of day and be based on demand – measured by congestion in both the general purpose and Express Toll Lanes. Much like discount pricing programs offered by utilities, airlines, and transit systems to encourage off-peak use, Express Toll Lanes can be designed and operated to encourage and reward drivers who change the time of their travel from peak to off-peak times when they have the flexibility to do so. Another example familiar to all of us is that of long distance telephone service and cell phones pricing that often is structured to encourage use when overall demand is low
