Following the release of a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments report that pushes a region wide system that would place tolls on most existing area highways, the nation’s leading advocate for tolling and road pricing released two studies that show toll roads are much safer than non-tolled roads and the public overwhelmingly supports both tolling and road pricing.
The first study compares the safety record of toll roads, tunnels and bridges to that of non-tolled facilities in the U.S. This study, based on the most complete compilation of statistics available about the toll industry, concludes that toll facilities in the United States have a much lower fatality rate than do U.S. roads overall and lower fatality rates than both urban and rural interstate highways.
“The new research shows that toll roads actually have a lower fatality rate than non-tolled roads. This is true for even the safest type of roads in the U.S., the interstate highways,” said Patrick D. Jones, Executive Director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.
The second study summarizes the findings from 110 different surveys that look at public attitudes toward tolling. The study shows that there is clear majority support for tolling and road pricing. Among all surveys, 56% showed support for tolling while opposition was found in only 31% of the surveys.
Johanna Zmud, PhD, author of the public attitudes study, said, “We have now reached a threshold where the major constraint on the successful implementation of tolling and road pricing relates largely to public policy rather than to technical or administrative barriers.”
More information about the safety study follows:
- Toll facilities in the U.S. have lower fatality rates than U.S. roads overall. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis reports that in 2005 the overall road fatality rate for the U.S. was 1.47 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The fatality rates for urban and rural interstate highways in 2004 (the last year for which data was readily available) were .55 and 1.21 respectively. The fatality rate for toll facilities was slightly lower than the rate for urban interstate highways and significantly lower than the rate for rural interstates. Of the toll facilities, toll roads had the highest fatality rate, at 0.52 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The fatality rates for toll bridges and tunnels were significantly lower, at 0.27 and 0.14 fatalities, respectively.
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Innovations in toll technology help to reduce fatality and accident rates. Traffic management information services, annual budgets, types of toll configurations and types of managed lanes contribute to fatality and accident rates. The survey shows that as the percentage of electronic toll collection (ETC) users during peak operating times goes up, accident rates go down.
