01099348

Component

A mail survey concerning toll road sign design and colors was mailed to 1000 electronic toll tag customers of the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). The survey received close to a 50% return rate. HCTRA has recently introduced the use of a new color scheme for toll road guide signs on the Westpark Tollway, an electronic toll collection facility in the Houston Texas metropolitan area. These guide signs use a purple background with white letters. As part of an evaluation of HCTRA’s use of purple guide signs, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) conducted the survey: to determine electronic tag users’ current understanding of forms of payment accepted on various toll roads; to determine preferences for sign designs for electronic tag-only roads; and, to assess whether exposure to signs with purple backgrounds on the Westpark Tollway has created an association between purple signs and the restriction of payment to electronic tag only. The results showed that drivers who frequently drove on the Westpark Tollway, and hence were exposed to purple guide signs, had come to associate the color purple with toll roads, and in particular electronic toll collection on those roads. Despite this association, respondents still recommended the posting of NO CASH plaques on guide signs leading to electronic toll collection facilities.

01084478

08-1599

English

16p

2008

Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (11) ; References (7) ; Tables (2)

Automated toll collection; Guide signs; Operations; Toll booths; Toll collection; Toll facilities; Toll roads; Tolls

Texas

Administration and Management; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Terminals and Facilities; I73: Traffic Control

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2008 Paper #08-1599

TRIS, TRB

Jan 29 2008 3:56PM