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The IBTTA Technology Summit in Orlando this week delivered a clear message: tolling, traffic management and digital mobility infrastructure are accelerating into a new era defined by automation, connectivity and low-footprint intelligence.
The 2026 International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) Technology Summit, held 2–5 May in Orlando, Florida, brought together the global tolling and mobility technology community for what has rapidly become one of the sector’s most influential gatherings. Hosted by Florida agencies, the event blended operational lessons from one of America’s busiest transport corridors with a forward look at next-generation tolling, roadside intelligence and the growing convergence of connected vehicles and digital infrastructure.
Across the week, three themes dominated: the rise of gantryless tolling, the mainstreaming of V2X-enabled mobility and the operationalisation of AI-driven traffic management. Together, they paint a picture of a sector moving decisively toward frictionless, data-rich and resilient mobility networks.
The week began out on the network itself. Delegates visited the Florida Department of Transportation’s District 5 Intelligent Transportation Systems facility, a hurricane-hardened operations centre that manages traffic across nine counties and is designed to keep running when conditions are at their worst. A second tour moved to the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s SR-429 Flex Lanes programme, where dynamic lane management is used to balance capacity and safety in real time. Along the corridor, solar-powered roadside installations offered a practical reminder that resilience is increasingly measured not only in redundancy and hardening, but also in energy independence and day-to-day sustainability.
These tours underscored Florida’s position as a living testbed for integrated ITS, blending operational robustness with forward-looking innovation.
Among the most talked-about showcases was Indra Group USA’s emphasis on tolling architectures that use less roadside hardware, have fewer intrusive civil works and a smaller maintenance burden, paired with far richer sensing and decision-making at the edge. The proposition is simple but powerful, shift capability from concrete and steel into software, sensors and connectivity, so that systems can be deployed faster, maintained more safely and upgraded with the pace of digital technology rather than the pace of roadworks.
At the heart of that approach is a move away from traditional gantries and in-pavement sensors. Indra outlined open-road tolling configurations that rely on 3D LiDAR, AI-driven machine vision and C-V2X communications to detect, classify and identify vehicles in real time, even at speed and in poor weather. The practical appeal is hard to miss, with fewer heavy structures over live traffic, reduced maintenance exposure for crews, fewer lane closures and a much smaller physical footprint, all while retaining the accuracy agencies need for billing, enforcement and performance management.
The Summit also pointed to a milestone many in the ITS community have been waiting for, connected-vehicle tolling at scale. The I-485 Express Lanes in North Carolina were highlighted as the first large deployment in the United States to use C-V2X for tolling interactions. For equipped vehicles, roadside units can share real-time toll information, prompt payments and deliver safety messages such as pedestrian presence or wrong-way driver warnings. In Orlando, the significance was less about novelty than about proof, V2X tolling has moved beyond pilots and into day-to-day operations with a pathway to replication elsewhere.
Just as notable was the maturity of AI-enabled enforcement. Indra’s multi-angle Vehicle Occupancy Detection technology which is used to support high-occupancy and HOT lane compliance, was presented as a proven operational tool, with deployments dating back to 2020. As managed lanes expand, agencies are looking for ways to protect revenue, maintain fairness and keep traffic moving without adding friction for compliant drivers. Occupancy detection is increasingly positioned as a cornerstone capability rather than an experimental add-on.
Sessions throughout the week emphasised the growing importance of digital infrastructure, including cloud-based analytics, real-time data exchange and interoperable platforms that allow agencies to manage increasingly complex networks.
With C-V2X now operational in tolling, agencies are beginning to consider how connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will interact with managed lanes, expressways and tolling systems. The Summit’s discussions suggest that tolling agencies may become early adopters of CAV-ready infrastructure, given their controlled environments and strong business cases for automation.
Sustainability came through less as a slogan and more as an engineering constraint. Solar-powered roadside assets, energy-aware designs and lighter-touch deployments all featured in discussions about how to expand capability without expanding footprint. The implication is that tomorrow’s roadside will be defined as much by efficient power, modular upgrades and reduced disruption as by the sensors and software it carries.
For the wider ITS and mobility technology sector, the Summit distilled into three connected messages. First, V2X is shifting from concept to deployment, with tolling emerging as one of the earliest real-world applications at meaningful scale. Second, AI and machine vision are becoming foundational, being essential for enforcement, classification and optimisation rather than optional enhancements. And third, the direction of travel is unmistakably toward infrastructure that is more digital, more resilient and more sustainable, as agencies prioritise low-impact systems that still deliver high-quality intelligence.
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