The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has announced that it will host an international summit in Boston, Massachusetts, next week on the future of tolling, featuring some of the world’s top transportation and mobility experts who will discuss the latest technological advances in tolling in the USA and around the world.
The IBTTA’s summit, entitled, All-Electronic Tolling (AET), Managed Lanes and Interoperability Summit: Technology and Business of Innovative Tolling, will be held on July 24-26 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The event will be co-hosted by the New England Toll Operators (NETO), which comprises the Maine Turnpike Authority, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT), and the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, with the member agencies supplying several of the speakers.
In the USA, the use of toll roads, bridges and tunnels by drivers increased by 7% between 2014 and 2015, a record-breaking rate of growth, putting tolling usage on pace to double in less than 10 years, according to the National Toll Facilities Usage Analysis published by the IBTTA. The organization’s analysis shows 5 billion trips and transactions in 2015 on a sample of 31 toll-operated facilities across the country, an increase of 328 million in one year. The research shows that toll road usage has increased significantly, with 37 million electronic toll accounts and 55 million active toll transponders currently in use across the country today.
The Keynote Speaker at the summit will be David L Strickland, partner in Venable LLP, and former Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), who will address a range of topics including highway safety, auto safety, and how technology is rapidly changing transit and transportation as we know it during the opening session. Other speakers will include Earl J ‘Buddy’ Croft III, president of the IBTTA and executive director of Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, who commented, “With more than 500 transportation leaders from around the globe gathering in Boston, the summit will showcase the latest and best innovations in tolling and transportation, as well as lessons learned from tolling projects.”
General sessions will focus on the three major topics of the Summit: AET (all electric tolling), managed lanes and interoperability. There are also three traditional sets of concurrent breakouts on the topics of technology, business/operations and communications. For the first time at this event, the IBTTA are presenting an Innovation ‘Tech Talks’ series, which will run as a rolling track concurrently with the breakout sessions. Each ‘Tech Talk’ session includes four, 15-minute presentations on a variety of topics, and will provide a platform for thought leaders and problem solvers to share innovative products, services or ideas.
Patrick D Jones, executive director and CEO of IBTTA, said, “In addition to a robust roster of speakers and interesting workshops, we’re very excited about two new features at the Summit this year: IBTTA’s Innovation ‘Tech Talks’, and a challenge to Northeastern University professional engineering students to solve a Boston transportation issue.”
