High-speed toll collection continues to develop. The region saw these developments in recent weeks.

Governor McGreevey is making "Express E-ZPass," the high-speed lanes now in operation at five sites on the NJ Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway, a keystone of his claim to have fixed New Jersey’s long-troubled E-ZPass system. Radio ads and other official communiqués feature the benefits of Express E-ZPass.

The NJ Turnpike recently delayed the opening of high-speed tolls at Exits 16E-18E from May 2005 until 2006 or 2007. Volume and complexity at the plaza apparently require construction of additional standard toll booths while the high-speed lanes are under construction. Meanwhile, the dismantling of two Garden State Parkway plazas and their replacement by one-way/double toll plazas with high-speed lanes will be completed this summer.

Three weeks after a Journal News editorial urged the Thruway Authority to increase speed limits at the Tappan Zee toll plaza, Thruway officials announced speed limits would be hiked from 20 to 35 miles per hour starting today. Authority engineers studied the mid-speed lanes and determined the faster speed would be safe.

The Port Authority is expected to approve plans for high speed toll collection at the Outerbridge Crossing in the near future, allowing implementation of that project by 2007.

The MTA’s draft capital program devotes funding for rebuilding Whitestone and Verrazano bridge toll plazas, and the agency’s 2005 budget calls for 50-cent toll hikes at major bridges, but has no plan for higher speed toll plaza operation.

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