SH 130 Concession Co.

Traffic on SH 130 has grown 86% since 2019, with heavy truck traffic up nearly 130% as freight haulers, families, and daily commuters all found their way to the fast lane. But mysh130.com hadn't kept pace. A site meant to build trust in a brand working hard to earn back driver confidence needed an upgrade in speed, security, and usability of its own.

Monkee-Boy takes the wheel.

Challenges

• Standing Out - Toll sites tend to blend together, so SH 130 needed a brand evolution that made it stand out without losing its identity.

• Plan & Persuade - The Trip Planner needed to be intuitive for route and cost planning, while also encouraging toll tag purchases.

• One Clear Answer - With two segments carrying their own toll rates and qualifications, the Trip Planner needed to keep that split easy to follow so every trip estimate landed accurately.

• Traffic in Context - A live traffic feed risked making SH 130 look busier than it really is, so the map needed to show I-35's traffic alongside it, giving drivers honest, side-by-side context rather than a skewed picture.

Charting the Course First

Before a single pixel went down, Monkee-Boy needed a map of its own. The Monkee-Boy team built out audience personas to understand who actually uses mysh130.com, from commuters chasing a faster route to truckers moving freight to families planning a weekend drive to Seguin. From there, the team audited the existing site alongside competitors across the toll road industry, then turned those insights into a purpose-built sitemap grounded in real user needs rather than guesswork.

Only once that foundation was in place did design begin. The payoff: an information architecture that gets commuters to toll rates and truckers to the trip planner without either one wading through content meant for someone else.

Every Mile Planned

SH 130 only operates the southern 41 miles of the highway, but a driver's trip sometimes doesn't stops there. The Trip Planner accounts for the full 91-mile stretch, pulling in the northern segment's rates and qualifications so drivers heading toward Georgetown get just as complete a picture as those heading to Seguin.

Users can start from a handful of common trips or build a custom route, choosing entry and exit points from a simple form or straight off the map itself. Submit it, and the planner breaks down the full cost with and without a toll tag, gantry by gantry, so there's no guessing and no surprise bill later. It's not just a calculator, it's the moment a curious driver decides SH 130 is worth the toll.

Seeing Is Believing

SH 130's whole pitch rests on being the calmer alternative to I-35, and the Traffic Advisories tool makes that case in real time. Drivers can check current conditions on SH 130 itself, but they can also see what's happening on I-35 right alongside it, backups, slowdowns, the whole congested picture.

Because SH 130 rarely has much to report, the comparison does most of the talking. When I-35 is crawling and SH 130 is clear, the extra few dollars in tolls stops feeling like a cost and starts feeling like a bargain.