Barrier toll system

The Garden State Parkway northbound approaching the Cape May barrier toll plaza in New Jersey. At the time of the photograph, the toll plaza had a 70-cent toll for cars.

A barrier toll system (also known as an open toll system) is a method of collecting tolls on highways using toll barriers at regularly spaced intervals on the toll road's mainline. Motorists are typically charged a flat-rate toll, unlike toll roads with a ticket system where the toll rate is determined by the distance traveled or number of exits passed. Some highways use coin-drop machines on toll plazas. For toll roads whose ramps have no toll plazas, it is possible to exit the toll road before the mainline toll plaza, use local streets to bypass it, then re-enter the highway via an interchange on the other side of the toll plaza. Thus it is possible to drive on some barrier toll roads while paying less or not paying at all.

The barrier toll system can create more congestion than the ticket system, since it forces all motorists to stop for several toll plazas each time they travel down the highway. Open road tolling can alleviate this issue by allowing most users to proceed through the barrier at full speed.

Highways that use the barrier toll system

The barrier toll system is the most common toll collection system on most toll roads in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The following is a list of some toll roads that use the barrier system.

• Maine Turnpike — entire length
• Spaulding Turnpike — entire length
• Everett Turnpike — entire length
• New England Thruway — entire length (only one barrier exists for northbound traffic in New Rochelle)
• Garden State Parkway — entire length
• Delaware Turnpike — entire length (only one barrier exists for both directions of traffic in Newark)
• Atlantic City Expressway — entire length
• West Virginia Turnpike — entire length
• Polk Parkway — entire length
• Florida’s Turnpike — between Interstate 595 and Lantana Toll Plaza and between Three Lakes Toll Plaza and northern terminus

Highways that formerly used the barrier system

• Dallas North Tollway — entire length (replaced by open road rolling on December 11, 2010)
• President George Bush Turnpike — entire length (replaced by open road tolling on July 1, 2009)