The Carquinez Bridge ETC project is a pilot project of a state-wide toll bridge improvement project undertaken by Caltrans. Caltrans owns and operates nine toll bridges state-wide. Over the last five years, traffic on all area bridges has increased from 129 million vehicle crossings in Fiscal year (FY) 1992-93 to 140 million in FY 1996-97, with an average annual rate of 2 percent as indicated in Figure 1. However, the toll facilities are antiquated. The bridges use a toll collection system known as Toll Registration, Audit and Collection (TRAC) installed in the early 1980s, and tolls have been collected manually by toll collectors in toll booths. With the significant growth in traffic volume in the bridges and deterioration of the facilities, Caltrans decided to replace the TRAC system with the ETC system on all bridges. The objectives of introducing ETC are to (i) reduce the overall toll collection cost; (ii) provide an acceptable level of service for toll patrons; (iii) increase the quality of data collection and provide information currently not available; and (iv) reduce traffic congestion on toll bridges and reduce air pollution and fuel consumption. The entire project is scheduled in three major phases. Phase I is research and development including laboratory prototype testing, on-site prototype testing, and pilot implementation at Carquinez Bridge. Phases II and III include installations of the ETC systems at the other eight bridges, with four bridges in each phase. The Carquinez Bridge was selected as the site for ETC pilot implementation because it has sufficient capacity to handle peak traffic demand with a couple of booths out of service for ETC demonstration. Currently, Caltrans is still in the process of testing and installing the ETC system at the bridge. A dedicated lane has been opened to users who have established an ETC account with Caltrans since August 21, 1997. In addition, two lanes are opened for the use of both manual toll collection and ETC. The ETC system at the bridge is to be completed in 1998. the data and the analytical approach for the study. The lists of benefits and costs, the assumptions, and the calculation steps are shown in the fourth section. Section five presents evaluation results. The final section summarises our findings and discusses their implications. With the objectives of the ETC project, it is important to examine the trade-offs facing the toll agency, meaning Caltrans, as well as those of users and society. The baseline for the comparison is the existing manual toll collection system, namely the TRAC system. The time frame covered by this study is between FY 1995/96 to FY 2005/06 since the economic lives of many ETC components are about eight to ten years. The spatial effects of the ETC system are limited to the bridge itself since the nearest bridge -- Benicia Martinez Bridge is about 9 miles away and will be equipped with the ETC system right after the completion of the project at Carquinez Bridge. The installation of ETC system in the bridge may not attract or reduce traffic from Benicia Martinez Bridge. Basic information for the study includes costs of both existing toll service and ETC project, as well as historical data for traffic, toll transactions, and accidents on the Carquinez Bridge. These data are gathered from the Carquinez Bridge and various divisions of Caltrans. For example, the operating costs of the toll plaza at the Carquinez Bridge and traffic data are obtained from the "Annual Financial Reports on State-Owned Toll Bridges" produced by Caltrans Accounting Service Centre. Cash flows of the ETC system are derived from data shown in the "Advanced Toll Collection and Accounting System (ATCAS) Feasibility Study Report" and those provided by Carquinez Bridge. Accident data are extracted from the California State highway accident database. The following steps were undertaken to complete the study: (1) identify the categories of benefits and costs of the ETC project; (2) establish assumptions to provide bases for estimations; (3) quantify the benefits and costs of the toll agency, users, and society separately and estimated their values; (4) analyse the total trade-offs using net present value method; (5) examine the distribution of benefits and costs among the toll agency, users, and society; and finally, conduct a sensitivity analysis to investigate the possible effects of changing assumptions on net benefit and distribution of benefits and costs. (A)
Samenvatting