OTA

Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) in the US have partnered to integrate their electronic toll collection programmes.

Effective from 1 November, the new service will allow motorists to carry either KTA’s K-TAG or OTA’s PikePass while travelling on toll roads in both the states.

KTA maintains 380km of electronically tolled roadway from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City, whereas Oklahoma has an extensive network of ten turnpikes.

Traffic Technology Today. reported that since both the state agencies use E6 multiprotocol readers from TransCore, the integration may not face many hardware issues.

"This is a good thing for travellers and for business."

The E6 readers are also being used by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which singed interoperability agreement with the OTA PikePass on 10 August.

Kansas governor Sam Brownback said: "This is a good thing for travellers and for business."

As part of the interoperability agreement, both the state authorities have asked customers to remove one of the tags to prevent duplicate reads, billing and other tag interference.

OTA director Tim Stewart said: "This added accommodation is an example of how we continually listen to our customers and provide innovative ways to make turnpike travel faster, safer and easier."

Image: Eastern terminus of the Cherokee Turnpike near Kansas, Oklahoma. Photo: courtesy of Rt66lt.