https://www.myncquickpass.com/en/home/index_construction.html

http://www.wral.com/traffic/story/10240894/

Quote :

"Drivers who plan to travel the soon-to-be completed Triangle Expressway in western Wake County can purchase a device to get a discount for every trip on the toll road. Transponders will go on sale Tuesday in Morrisville. They are also available online at ncquickpass.com. When Phase I of the toll road – a stretch of 3.4 miles between Interstate 40 at N.C. Highway 147 in Durham County south to Interstate 540 in Wake County – opens in December, vehicles with transponders will be debited approximately 15 cents per mile as they pass underneath toll readers. A transponder is linked to a credit card, and drivers receive a monthly statement. For vehicles without a transponder, roadside cameras will snap pictures of their license plates as they pass, and the Turnpike Authority will send them a bill in the mail at a rate of 23 to 24 cents a mile. People who ignore the bill will have a hold placed on their annual vehicle registration. When the first phase of the road opens, the existing portion of N.C. 540 between N.C. Highways 54 and 55 will also be converted to a toll road. The 12.6-mile Western Wake Freeway should open in 2012 between N.C. 55 in Cary and N.C. 55 in Holly Springs. NCQuickPass transponders will also work on the E-Z Pass system in the Northeast and on toll roads in Florida."

Who's getting their NC Quick Pass? I'm assuming when I come to visit I can just use my E-Z Pass

10/10/2011 1:09:01 PM

http://www.ncturnpike.org/

I have talked with a few guys with the NCTA, as of a few months ago they were also planning to let you register your license plate with a credit card account online at a rate between the transponder and no account rate. I would do that since I would drive it so infrequently that it wouldn't be worth it to pay for a transponder and wouldn't have to pay the highest rate.

20 cents/mi is about the US average for toll roads.


FWIW, I'm in support of a VMT tax as the DOT is severely underfunded. There are tons of political issues that go into the situation but the only sustainable funding source for transportation is one that will only be used for transportation and paid based on how you use it. So for me, tolls are fine as they are at least trying to accomplish this.

Some info on NC law for toll roads:
-Limited in number by law (must make an amendment to law for any new projects as the law is written now)
-Tolls will only be collected until the principal (Bonds) are repaid in full. After that it will be a free facility. I would change this to allow for a lower rate to cover maintenance for the lifetime of the road
-I think even when tolls are collected they can only be used to pay back the bonds, so NC DOT is still funding maintenance.
-NCTA is basically a semi-autonomous branch of NC DOT, they can perform their own funding and choose bids within the scope of the law
-Federally, no new Interstates can have tolls, some existing ones do but it requires a lot of lobbying. This is why it is NC-540 after the I-40 interchange.




[Edited on October 10, 2011 at 1:35 PM. Reason : <-- nerdy traffic guy]

10/10/2011 1:14:47 PM

this is fucking horse shit.

10/10/2011 1:26:17 PM

how does this work for people with out of state tags?

10/10/2011 1:28:07 PM

i press this here button on my dashboard and, suddenly, HELICOPTER CAR

10/10/2011 1:28:48 PM

There are agreements with individual states on getting addresses from license plate numbers to send bills out of state. Not every state has an agreement (probably never get a bill if you're from Wyoming).

States will be notified of delinquent bills- so if you are in an EZPass state or other tolling system east of the Mississippi, they can use your late NC bills the same way they would your late NY bills or whatever. So if NY puts a hold on your tag for late EZPass bills, then they can do the same with bills from NC (if they want).

10/10/2011 1:32:09 PM

i'm against providing any more funding to NCDOT considering how piss-poor terribly they do their jobs

10/10/2011 1:34:30 PM

i think NCDOT does a great job overall

10/10/2011 1:36:02 PM

It would be nice if they let you register your plate with a CC and have a discounted rate. I wouldn't use this much, so I don't care to pay for the $5; nor do I care to receive random bills from the government that surprise me.

10/10/2011 1:40:16 PM

The bills will go to the address on your car's registration BTW. So all you college kids go drive your heart out, mommy and daddy will worry about it for you.

10/10/2011 1:43:03 PM

Quote :

"Tolls will only be collected until the principal (Bonds) are repaid in full. After that it will be a free facility."

We'll see about that.

10/10/2011 1:56:34 PM

Quote :

" I'm assuming when I come to visit I can just use my E-Z Pass "

I'm actually curious about this because I'm planning a trip to NYC soon and if I could use this Quick Pass I'd apply for one just for that

10/10/2011 1:57:46 PM

Quote :

"receive random bills from the government"

it wouldn't be random at all

the bill would correspond to your usage of the toll road

how is that random

if you don't want to get a bill don't use the road

you have the power

10/10/2011 2:03:01 PM

people in nova are getting charged for multiple axles from quickpass b/c people are following too close under the censor

10/10/2011 2:04:42 PM

random in the sense that I don't regularly drive this road. random in that I don't regularly receive bills from the government. random in that by the time the bill arrives, i would have already forgotten about driving the toll road, thus making the bill seem random.

10/10/2011 2:04:47 PM

^4 Since NC was late to the toll game and between two large systems (EZPass and Florida's Sun Pass), they decided it was time to get everyone working together. I don't know if the relationships are all set by now but they are all moving toward working across at least all three of these systems. So you can in the future use Quick Pass in FL and EZPass here and so on.

You can track Toll Interoperability at : http://www.tollinterop.org/

^^ I'm not sure how the system works there but the classification of the vehicle for NC will come from the registration I believe.

[Edited on October 10, 2011 at 2:07 PM. Reason : .]

10/10/2011 2:05:22 PM

^^Are you trying to say that tollroads confuse southerners?

^interesting. I already have EZ-Pass so I don't think I'll be signing up for this.

[Edited on October 10, 2011 at 2:08 PM. Reason : k]

10/10/2011 2:08:18 PM

Oh nice. Probably won't help me with my upcoming trip but good to know for the future.

10/10/2011 2:11:40 PM

Quote :

"Federally, no new Interstates can have tolls, some existing ones do but it requires a lot of lobbying. This is why it is NC-540 after the I-40 interchange."

I can almost guarantee some federal fund went into NC-540

Quote :

"Tolls will only be collected until the principal (Bonds) are repaid in full. After that it will be a free facility. "

This is what they all say, however, they continually add bonds which keeps the tolls in place. Prime Example is the toll road around Richmond VA.

Quote :

"the bill would correspond to your usage of the toll road how is that random if you don't want to get a bill don't use the road"

Im sure all of us have paid enough already we should be able to use a public funded road for free.

The tax on fuel, inspections, and general highway use tax

10/10/2011 3:28:47 PM

As someone that hates taxes I'd disagree with your statement. NC has an insane amount of roads and there's no way we pay enough to cover the construction and maintenance of all of them.

10/10/2011 3:31:42 PM

i (currently) have neither reason nor desire to drive on the upcoming toll roads, so...meh

10/10/2011 5:03:48 PM

Quote :

"For vehicles without a transponder, roadside cameras will snap pictures of their license plates as they pass, and the Turnpike Authority will send them a bill in the mail at a rate of 23 to 24 cents a mile. People who ignore the bill will have a hold placed on their annual vehicle registration."

I've always wanted a James Bond type thing that will cover your license plate when you push a button

10/10/2011 5:08:05 PM

Quote :

"As someone that hates taxes I'd disagree with your statement. NC has an insane amount of roads and there's no way we pay enough to cover the construction and maintenance of all of them."

NC - the highway state?

I don't know how having a higher than average fuel tax 8th highest out of 50 doesn't help pay for the highways? Stop paying 5 guys to watch one guy using a shovel and stop buying heavy equipment that isn't necessary and they would have a decent budget.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8322571/

10/10/2011 7:01:47 PM

get piece of cardboard

write lost tag on it

place in window

remove actual plate

profit

10/10/2011 7:49:52 PM

I can think of nothing I'd rather do than put a government transponder in my vehicle.

10/10/2011 7:51:42 PM

I mean when you say it like that and all...

10/10/2011 7:57:40 PM

Quote :

"As someone that hates taxes I'd disagree with your statement. NC has an insane amount of roads and there's no way we pay enough to cover the construction and maintenance of all of them."

10/10/2011 9:46:28 PM

^ 3 because they can't track you from your cell phone or car's gps. And you can't remove the pass when not in use.

10/10/2011 10:21:35 PM

Yeah. Check it. I'm a quick pass.

10/10/2011 10:23:25 PM

Quote :

"i think NCDOT does a great job overall"

Compared to....? Compared to VA - yes. To MI - no.

10/10/2011 10:33:04 PM

Quote :

"this is fucking horse shit."

I think he said it best.

10/10/2011 10:40:18 PM

This shit is right by my house. I don't know why I thought this would start on 12-2012 . If it came a little later my job was going to relocate back to main campus and I could get there lickety split from Kit Creek.

10/10/2011 11:26:21 PM

I won't comment on how well the NCDOT uses their money but NC has the largest state-owned highway system in the US.

http://www.google.com/m/url?ei=S1mUTpCgOYaPsgeBvwE&q=http://www.city-data.com/states/North-Carolina-Transportation.html&ved=0CBgQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNGvzmum4rtYwRbHkfl-vgu_g3LRuw

A paper from 2008 estimated a 25 billion shortfall in transportation funding through 2018. That's in contrast to the 10 billion/yr budget for the entire state government.

[Edited on October 11, 2011 at 11:03 AM. Reason : .]

10/11/2011 11:03:15 AM

^thank you. So yeah, Kiljadn...I was serious.

[Edited on October 11, 2011 at 11:13 AM. Reason : but thanks for that pic, it makes me lol every time]

10/11/2011 11:13:28 AM

Big news

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/10281956/

Toll road transponder sales surpass 1,000

RALEIGH, N.C. — In just a little over a week, the North Carolina Turnpike Authority has sold more than 1,000 electronic devices to help collect payments on the state's first toll road, officials said Thursday.

The N.C. Quick Pass transponders went on sale at a customer service center in Morrisville and online on Oct. 11 in advance of the 3.4-mile Triangle Parkway – running from N.C. Highway 147 in Durham to N.C. Highway 540 in Morrisville -- opening at the end of the year.

Tolls will begin in January 2012.

N.C. Quick Pass is a pre-paid account that is one way of paying for tolls. Drivers can open an account and use the transponder to have a toll payment automatically deducted from their account.

The Turnpike Authority said it had only anticipated selling 450 transponders in the first month, but as of Wednesday, 157 had been sold at the N.C. Quick Pass Customer Service Center and 892 had been purchased on the Quick Pass website.

Tolls will be collected electronically, eliminating the need for toll booths. Drivers can either use the N.C. Quick Pass at about 15 cents per mile or be billed 20 cents per-mile.

Overhead, high-speed cameras will capture the license plate information of drivers without transponders, and the Turnpike Authority will bill them by mail.

The Triangle Parkway is one of three sections of the larger Triangle Expressway, an 18.8-mile roadway extending from N.C. Highway 54 in Morrisville to N.C. Highway 55 in Holly Springs.

The Northern Wake Expressway, a 2.8-mile section extending from N.C. 54 to N.C. 55 near Research Triangle Park, opened in July 2007.

The third section, the 12.6-mile Western Wake Freeway, is expected to be complete by the end of 2012. It runs from N.C. 55 near RTP to N.C. 55 between Holly Springs and Apex.

Tolling on the Northern Wake Expressway and the Western Wake Freeway will begin once the project is complete.

10/20/2011 7:26:21 PM

we should really look at a Yankee tax, tax differently based on how long you have lived here........

10/20/2011 7:33:47 PM

^

10/20/2011 7:47:58 PM

I have a hard time believing we have more roads to maintain than CA, TX, FL, and a few other states. That article was referencing the 1920's and 1930's.

Also, anyone that thinks these tolls will ever stop is delusional. All you have to do is look at other states. Laws can and will be changed once the politicials realize the revenue potential.

What's really bullshit is that all the folks in N. Raleigh have had free reign of 540 for several years and will never have to pay shit. Folks in Apex, Holly Spring, and Fuquay are screwed.

10/20/2011 7:55:38 PM

^we have more state maintained roads than other states (actually, last I heard, we were 2nd to Texas, but I guess that could have changed). In NC, we only have City & state roads; while most other states have city, county, and state roads. Thus, looking at state maintained roads, we're 1st or 2nd, depending on the source.

10/20/2011 7:59:42 PM

I auditioned to be the voice-over spokesperson for this system.

/random

10/20/2011 10:33:18 PM