Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Chrislynn Mabul Over 50% of North Texas students commute from the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex and surrounding areas to the Denton campus.

Texas is getting its first toll road with no toll booths, but the price of commuting is rising.
Instead of tollbooths, vehicles driving on Texas State Highway 121 will pass beneath gauntlets and have their license plates recorded, Randy Black, the Texas Department of Transportation's supervisor of the public information office, said.
The owner of the car will then receive a bill in the mail, he said. 121 will extend from FM 2281 east until Interstate Highway 75.
Drivers without a toll tag are charged one-third more than drivers with a tag, plus a $1 fee, according to the Texas Department of Transportation Web site.
Currently there are five tolls that range from 20 to 45 cents for drivers with a toll tag and 25 to 60 cents for drivers without one, according to the Web site.
Black said by 2010 the road will charge 14.5 cents per mile and North Texas Tollroad Authority will operate the revenue.
Texas State Highway 121 accumulated $1,151,539 in December 2007, he said.
Black said if the weather permits, the second section of the road that runs from FM 2281 to the Dallas North Tollway should be completed by June.
This is the first toll road in the country to have no tollbooths, according to the Web site.
Black said that the extension past Hillcrest Road will be built by the authority but is not expected to be complete until 2011.
Sherita Kauffman, the North Texas Tollway Association's public information officer, said the authority would begin building the third section of the toll road once TxDOT is complete.
The authority will also begin receiving money from highway 121 once it takes control of the road in September 2008, Kauffman said.
The money will "operate, expand and maintain the current system," Kauffman said.
She also said it will be used to pay back the bond debt used to build the road.
Black said the average of vehicles that used the road per day in December was 77,000.
The number of vehicles using the road is increasing as well. In January 2007, 1,960,000 vehicles used the highway, while in December it was 2,235,966, Black said.
The first six miles of the toll road opened in July 2006 and extends from FM 2281 to Denton Tap Road, according to the TxDOT Web site.
The next section of Highway 121 will continue east past State Highway 289, according to the Web site.
The Colony senior, Alexandria St. John, said she commutes from The Colony or Carrollton every day, and once the road is completed she will use the toll road. St. John said it costs her $6 in gas money per day to commute, and the biggest inconvenience is the traffic. She said she expects the toll road to cut her travel time by ten minutes and make it easier to get out of The Colony.
"Paying $2 for convenience is OK," St. John said. "Time is money."

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