![]() ![]() Unlike the northeast United States and even the Dallas area, out of state trips are not as common in the Houston area, so local and national officials said use of interoperability is expected to be lower in places like Houston. The vast majority of trips in the Houston area, however, are taken by local commuters and drivers. Thirty-eight different agencies are part of the consortium, which allows for interstate toll use. Already 16 states from Illinois to Maine are part of E-ZPass, which is different the HCTRA's EZ Tag. Regional agreements such as the Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas pact will be the starting point for rapid agreement nationwide, officials said. Jones told lawmakers there are 45 million vehicles or drivers registered with tolling agencies, paying a combined $13 billion annually. "It requires a huge effort to make sure that back office systems and business rules work together so that all of the tolling entities involved not only recognize a transponder but can also recognize a financial transaction." "Achieving nationwide interoperability is not as simple as flipping a switch or getting all toll facilities to use the same transponder," Patrick Jones, executive director of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, told a Congressional committee in September. Merging the various public toll agencies into a seamless system for drivers entails agreements spread across 35 states - some, such as Texas, with three or more agencies. "That date is not going to be met, but I think there will be a start of national interoperability by then," said Sharon Adair, director of member services for the Alliance for Toll Interoperability. As part of a 2012 multiyear transportation bill, Washington lawmakers required agencies to be seamless by Oct. 1. The agreements are a step in a long-sought federal process to make all toll systems interchangeable for drivers. The Dallas-based tollway authority will handle the hub, which manages the technical details of trading toll collections between the various agencies. North Texas Tollway Authority also had an agreement with Oklahoma's tollway system. Various toll agencies in Texas already had arrangements to let tags issued by others pay for tolls. The new agreement expands the reach of local toll tags, such as the EZ Tag sold by HCTRA. The agreement would cover all types of toll tags in the state, including the state's TxTAG. Harris County commissioners last week approved a revised agreement with other agencies in Texas, extending their Lone Star pact to the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and Kansas Turnpike Authority. Castaneda said HCTRA's cost for cooperation is minimal, as the bulk of any non-HCTRA toll accounting is related to EZ Tag users driving on the Grand Parkway - managed by the Texas Department of Transportation - or TxTAG users driving on county toll roads. Kansas and Oklahoma drivers, in turn, could do the same thing on Harris County toll roads. The payment would then come from their HCTRA EZ Tag account, with the agencies settling up. When the regional agreements are finalized next year, someone from the Houston area could hop on the Will Rogers Turnpike in northeast Oklahoma and pay for tolls using the lanes that electronically record use. The agreements would apply to vehicles outfitted with various transponders from tolling agencies and operate for all members of the agreement. The efforts are part of what's expected to be a nationwide, seamless electronic tolling system, though that day is months if not years away. "Everybody is tentatively committing to the third quarter of 2017," said Lisa Castaneda, deputy director of the Harris County Toll Road Authority. ![]()
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