Page 34 - Flathead Beacon // 5.21.14

34 | MAY 21, 2014
BUSINESS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

BUSINESS IS PERSONAL Mark Rifey

Coming: Toll Roads That

Cost More On Critical Trips

D
EPENDING ON WHERE YOU in-car device to add additional charges
live, you may have paid to drive to the toll based on where you are going

on a toll road.
and how important the trip is to you and
Toll roads have been modernized in your family or business.
recent years to cause fewer traic jams For example, if you’re racing your
while encouraging drivers to sign up for wife to the hospital so she can deliver a
the wireless automated payment sys- baby, or someone is driving you to the
tems they support. Instead of a toll gate doctor due to the allergic reaction to a
that requires drivers to stop and pay bee sting, this would be sensed as an im-
portant trip and thus, the toll would be
with cash, multiple lanes have sensors
that read an in-car device’s wireless sig- higher.
nal that identiies your car.
Another revenue idea is full speed
That device is tied to a credit card or lanes. Motorists on important trips
bank account so that the tolls are collect- pay more to drive in lanes free of inter-
ed without stopping or worrying about ference from speed-control vehicles.
having the right change. Because you Speed-control vehicles drive slowly to
didn’t have to stop to pay, the likelihood moderate speeds in lanes not designed
for “full speed limit service.”
of traic jams at toll booths is sharply re-
duced and makes your trip faster.
Speed’s easy to manage since a road’s
Increasing costs associated with speed limit is regulated by law. Howev-
maintaining roads have prompted toll er, the speed collectively driven above a
road managers to look for ways to in- toll road’s minimum speed limit is not.
crease revenue on their roads. Toll roads In order to manage these slower speeds,
have always charged more for vehicles toll road managers pay frequent drivers
a stipend to drive 10 or 15 mph below the
with more axles. The idea there was that
more axles meant more vehicle weight, speed limit.
which wears down the road more quick- Drivers are paid based on a device
ly. This formula for variable tolls has that monitors the car’s speed while on
been accepted by those driving commer- the toll road. If you meet your commit-
cial trucks for some time.
ment, you get full pay.
So how do toll road managers ind a These cars pull the average speed
way to get more revenue from the same down for lanes that have not qualiied for
“full speed limit road access,” while not
traic, but without raising tolls for ev-
eryone?
violating the law since those speed con-
One of the ideas they’ve come up trolling cars drive at speeds above the
with focuses on eliminating traic neu- road’s minimum speed.
trality.
Traic volume plays into this as well.
As the number of cars paying to drive at
WHAT IS TRAFFIC full speed increases, the demand for fast
lanes increases.
NEUTRALITY?
Traic neutrality is the idea that all When a new lane is needed, a non-
vehicles of the same type pay the same full speed lane is converted to full speed
toll. Whether you drive by yourself in and all remaining cars are funneled into
a rusted out 1962 Ford Fairlane or you the remaining non-full speed lanes. This
drive a $92,000 2014 Mercedes S550 full increases traic on the slower lanes and
of Fortune 50 CEOs, the toll is the same.
motivates more people to buy into full
Tolls for commercial vehicles work speed limit service on the toll road.

similarly, so if you drive a beat up three-
axle commercial dump truck carrying WHAT’S THIS REALLY ABOUT?
grass clippings, you pay the same as the For now, this annoying toll road sto-
driver of a brand new three-axle dump ry is made up. However, it describes ex-
truck carrying nuclear waste.
actly how the Federal Communications
In other words, the toll is the same Commission is conspiring with large in-
and the cost applied without conditions ternet services and content providers to
across traic when you look at vehicles of control internet traic and destroy “net

the same type.
neutrality”, the real world internet ver-
That’s traic neutrality.
sion of traic neutrality.
If this sounds like an idea that will
A NEW IDEA FOR RAISING TOLL hurt your business, call your Senators
ROAD REVENUE
and Representatives and ask them to
A change you might be seeing soon preserve net neutrality.
removes this neutrality and allows the

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or
marketing problem? See Mark’s site, rescuemarketing.com, or contact him via email
at [email protected].