Car transport drivers traveling north on SR 874 that pass through the exisiting toll plaza will still have to pay the current toll rate (SunPass), if they need to travel the entire distance north to the Palmetto Expressway or east to U.S. 1. Car hauling professionals that plan on exiting on Killian Parkway or Kendall Drive, though, will now pay a reduced fare, due to the benefits of Open Road Tolling along this route, according to sources. Apparently, Open Road Tolling has resulted in a redistribution of tolls throughout the entire length of the roadway, and the designers of this idea are so happy that they plan on implementing more Open Road Tolling on other roads in Miami in the days ahead in the future of the environment.
Today, Saturday July 17, 2010, Open Road Tolling will start on the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority’s (MDX) SR 874/Don Shula Expressway and SR 878/Snapper Creek Expressway in Florida. Overhead gantries will now automatically collect a toll based on the distance car movers travel, which eliminates the need for car transporters to use toll plazas, and simplifies the process of paying tolls. This idea appears o be catching on in Miami as plans for the future include implementing Open Road Tolling on the five expressways operated and maintained by MDX by the time we reach 2013. This means that overhead gantries will soon be replacing traditional toll plazas and tolls will be automatically calculated based on the portion of the road traveled. According to the implementers of Open Road Tolling this idea might even reduce traffic congestion, make the roadways safer, and reduce the total carbon wheel-print of the vehicles traveling along the expressways in question. In addition to only making users pay for the distance they travel along the expressways and helping to fund the infrastructure investment needed to keep the expressways in operation in the years ahead in the century of the environment in the United States of America.