A new smartphone app is promising to make sense of MoPac's unpredictable toll lanes by showing drivers how much each minute of time saved will actually cost.
Tolls on the MoPac Express Lanes rise or fall based on demand with the goal of keeping traffic moving at least 45 mph. The cost can range from 65 cents to more than $10 during the busiest times of day. Drivers who pay by mail face an even steeper charge.
The app, called Evil MoPac, launched Tuesday and gets its name comes from a partnership with the of a self-described "pro-gridlock activist."
Alan Farmer said he built the app after enduring years of commutes from Southwest Austin to the Domain.
"Twice a day having to deal with the terrible that is MoPac in the toll lane," he said. "Many days, the toll lane helped me get home quicker, but at a decent cost."
Some days it was worth it for him. Other days it wasn't.
Now, Farmer works from home, so he doesn't face the dilemma. But he realized the decision of whether to shell out is still a daily conundrum for thousands of Austin commuters.
So he sought "to create a tool that would help me not second guess whether I was getting into the toll lane on a good day or a bad day," Farmer said. "I ended up creating an app that would potentially help other people."
The Evil MoPac app pulls in toll prices from the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and divides them by travel-time data from mapping company TomTom.
Users can set a maximum amount they're willing to pay per minute saved � the default setting is $1 per minute � and the app will say if the express lanes are worth it.
During a mid-day test drive on the toll lanes from Cesar Chavez to U.S. 183 and back, the estimates were close. The app predicted a couple minutes saved at a low cost. One trip ran slightly longer than expected because a truck was driving slowly in the express lane.
Toll data is pulled about every 2 minutes. Travel time data is updated every five minutes. So sudden factors like a slow-moving vehicle can affect estimates.
After building the app, Farmer reached out to the anonymously run Evil MoPac account to gain some visibility.
"I thought it would be an interesting branding partnership just to have at least a launching point for the app," he said.
The Evil MoPac app is available for free in the and stores.
