Toll Excellence Awards

Supporting Recovery, Sustaining Service: Illinois Tollway’s Transitional Duty Program

Launched in 2022, the Illinois Tollway’s Transitional Duty Program has become a model for workforce innovation, blending care for employees with operational strength. The program integrates 24/7 nurse triage, telehealth, real-time injury analytics, and tailored modified-duty assignments to keep staff engaged in meaningful roles during recovery. The results are tangible:

• 71% claims closure rate
• $351,000 in indemnity savings
• 54% reduction in total costs
• 56% fewer lost workdays in 2024

The Illinois Tollway is focused on supporting employees through recovery to ensure they stay connected to their teams and their purpose, while customers benefit from consistent roadway maintenance, reliable service, and safer operations. This proactive, data-driven, and people-first approach has made the Transitional Duty Program a cornerstone of the Tollway’s culture of care and accountability. 

Guarding Against Smishing: Ohio Turnpike Protects Customers

In response to a nationwide “smishing” scheme impersonating toll agencies and attempting to collect fraudulent toll charges, the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) launched a fast, coordinated multimedia campaign to protect customers and the public. Beginning in April 2024, the OTIC deployed Scam Alerts to more than 600,000 E-ZPass customers, issued four news releases, and leveraged social and traditional media to warn drivers how to spot and report fraudulent texts. A PSA video featuring a local media personality amplified the message, generating more than 323,000 paid views on Facebook, thousands of impressions on Turnpike TV at the Ohio Turnpike’s 14 service plazas, and wide national media coverage including CNBC. The campaign also included updates to the customer service call center IVR, which—together with the outreach—cut weekly call volume by 67% and reduced callback wait times from over an hour to just nine minutes. 

By equipping customers with clear instructions, restoring confidence, and providing a model other agencies can replicate, the Ohio Turnpike’s campaign demonstrates how communications excellence safeguards both the public and the industry—earning the OTIC IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Communications.

Historic First: New York’s Congestion Relief Zone Reduces Gridlock and Advances Access

On January 5, 2025, New York City launched the first cordon-based congestion pricing system in the U.S., the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP), creating the Congestion Relief Zone in Manhattan. Despite the highly complex policy and regulatory environment, this project demonstrates how tolling can deliver meaningful public benefits while balancing competing needs. The results have been immediate and measurable: traffic entering the zone has declined 12–13% year-over-year, speeds have improved, bus and paratransit trips are more reliable, crashes and noise complaints are down, and nearly $160 million was generated in the first quarter—on track to fund $15 billion in transit improvements across the region. The program also dedicates $248 million to mitigation efforts, including $100 million for Environmental Justice communities, and provides new discount and exemption plans for low-income drivers and people with disabilities.

Through unprecedented community engagement, careful design, and a seamless rollout, New York’s CBDTP sets a new global standard for social responsibility in tolling—earning MTA Bridges and Tunnels IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Social Responsibility.

The Central Florida Expressway Authority’s (CFX) Drive Smart Florida campaign is designed to combat the leading causes of preventable crashes on CFX expressways through a targeted behavior change marketing campaign (BCM). Designed utilizing the principles of BCM, which combines psychology with consumer insights to drive action, the goal of the campaign is to foster a culture of safety and courtesy and address the leading causes of crashes on its expressways including distracted driving, speeding, unsafe merging, work zone incidents, and road rage. Rather than relying on fear or guilt, the campaign emphasizes positive reinforcement and practical solutions, helping drivers see the immediate benefits of safe behaviors. CFX conducted in-depth research, segmented priority audiences, and rolled out targeted micro-campaigns such as “Smart Drivers. Safe Workers.” for work zones, “Merge Like a Master” to improve merging, the “Three-Second Rule” to reduce rear-end crashes, and “CARma Your Commute” to counter road rage. Since launching in 2023, the campaign has generated more than 12 million paid media impressions, 3 million earned media impressions, and 35,000 website visits, while building five new community partnerships.

By fostering empathy, engagement, and lasting behavior change, CFX’s Drive Smart Florida has set a new standard for safety communications—earning the agency IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Safety.

One Night, One System: Kansas Turnpike’s Seamless Cashless Conversion

On July 1, 2024, the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) executed a full-system conversion to cashless tolling—one of the most significant technology undertakings in its 70-year history. In a single night, KTA replaced its trip-based ticket system with an advanced per-mile, all-electronic tolling platform, constructing 36 new toll zones with 72 gantries, installing equipment at 42 toll zones, and deploying next-generation roadside collection systems integrated with a new, state-of-the-art back office. At the heart of this modernization is the innovative “One Account” system, which unifies transponder and license plate transactions into a seamless customer experience while improving operational efficiency and revenue assurance. Since launch, KTA has distributed more than 343,000 transponders, achieved rising ETC adoption, and maintained strong collections. A smooth workforce transition and a communications campaign reaching more than 50 million people further supported customer acceptance.

By pairing bold technology deployment with thoughtful implementation, KTA has set a model for industry-wide modernization—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Technology.

Protecting Revenue, Promoting Fairness: CTRMA’s Habitual Violator Program

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) implemented its Habitual Violator (HV) Enforcement Remedies Program to ensure all road users contribute their fair share to the region’s transportation system. Supported by state legislation, the program employs a graduated approach—beginning with courtesy letters and escalating, when necessary, to registration renewal blocks, prohibition orders, and on-road enforcement. This structured, data-driven process has delivered measurable results: in 2023, 28.6% of habitual violators made payments, monthly revenues increased consistently, and the program achieved an extraordinary 2,171% return on investment. Behavioral shifts are equally significant, with a 55% reduction in repeat violations among those completing the full remedy process. By pairing enforcement with thoughtful customer communications, CTRMA has improved awareness of toll payment obligations and transformed initial opposition into public support. Through technology integration, strategic collaboration, and a fair, transparent process, CTRMA’s HV Program demonstrates operational excellence and sets a model for revenue protection and system integrity—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Toll Operations, Engineering & Maintenance.

AI-Powered Tolling at Scale: TransCore Powers New York’s Congestion Relief Zone

In partnership with MTA Bridges and Tunnels, TransCore delivered the U.S.’s first congestion pricing system, launched on January 5, 2025, in Manhattan’s Central Business District. Designed for one of the world’s most complex urban environments, the compact all-overhead solution minimized disruption, preserved historic infrastructure, and blended seamlessly into the city streetscape. At its core, the system leverages a novel application of AI and machine vision to process every vehicle as a video-based transaction from all-overhead enclosures, ensuring accuracy and scalability across millions of daily entries. The results have been immediate: tens of thousands fewer daily vehicle entries, improved weekday rush-hour speeds, fewer collisions, drastic reduction in noise complaints, and hundreds of millions of dollars generated for needed transit improvements.

With features like variable pricing algorithms, AI-based video classification, and APIs for multimodal third-party integration, TransCore’s solution sets a global benchmark for congestion pricing innovation—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Private Sector Innovation.

Faster Detection, Safer Roads: Valerann's AI-powered Platform Reduces Incident Detection Time and Improves Road Safety.

In collaboration with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Roughan & O’Donovan, Valerann deployed its AI data fusion platform, Lanternn, to enhance real-time traffic management and incidence response on Irish motorways. Lanternn ingests and processes in real time large volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple data sources - floating car data, roadside sensors, CCTV, navigation apps, weather reports and historical data to deliver an accurate and comprehensive traffic information on a single pane of glass.

Tested on the M1 and M6, the pilot demonstrated on average 25-35 min reduction in incidents detection time, including detection of a multi-vehicle crush within one minute by consolidating 134 individual alerts from 5 sources. The results: faster operator response, reduced congestion and secondary crashes, and higher detection rates, with 47% of M1 and 65% of M6 incidents flagged earlier. Lanternn also detected additional incidents; if scaled nationwide, this equates to up to 20 additional incidents daily.

Hardware-agnostic, cloud-native, and predictive by design, the project demonstrates how AI and the use of data analytics can revolutionize roadway safety and efficiency—earning Valerann IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Private Sector Innovation.