by J. Alan Beck

Created on: January 07, 2010   Last Updated: March 03, 2010

Long ago, humor magazine National Lampoon published a page of license plates featuring made-up slogans allegedly descriptive of each state. Connecticut's satirical moniker from the time? “The Toll Booth State”.

Oblique references to its tiny geographic size aside, who would seriously advocate for a return of Connecticut's scorned toll booths?

As part of my response, I'd first suggest recalling the movie title “Back to the Future”. It may be a useful background theme for what follows:

Change can be good, but not necessarily in the form of coins that you fumble for at tolls from the last millennium. Mere everyday inconvenience aside, seven people waiting in a Stratford, CT exact change toll booth line died in 1983. (A criminally negligent tractor-trailer driver plowed into them.)

The quarter of a century that has since passed is a long period of time. Let's get a quick “lay of the land” from our current day:

Presently on the shelf here in Connecticut (under further review), is a comprehensive report, entitled the “Connecticut Electronic Tolling and Congestion Pricing Study”. Completed in 2009 by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. at the behest of the state's Transportation Strategy Board (TSB), the report - as designed - did not make any specific proposals.

Instead, the TSB will use the “educational-only” study as a basis for subsequent recommendations to the governor and legislature.

Importantly, Cambridge Systematics was instructed to restrict their study. It looked at only the state's major interstate highways and certain other, limited access roads. Notably, as summarized on pages 1-1 and 1-2 of their final report: “From the outset, this study assumed that any future tolls in Connecticut would be done without traditional toll booths at full highway speeds with no stopping or slowing down. This is sometimes called all-electronic tolling (AET) or cashless tolling.”

The writers also emphasized that, “Tolling has changed a lot since then (i.e., 1983).  All-electronic tolling is a reality in Toronto, Australia, Chile, Israel, Texas, and California.  ‘E-ZPass’ is in use from Virginia to Maine....”

To further quote the aims of the report: “The goal of this study was to prepare a document that lays out as many options as possible with respect to electronic tolling and congestion pricing, sets the context for informed decision-making, and provides a knowledge base

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