A REVIEW OF ELECTRONIC TOLL COLLECTION TECHNOLOGIES, THE NEED FOR STANDARDS AND INTEROPERABILITY

This paper briefly reviews the requirements and technologies of the current electronic toll collection (ETC) systems in use today or proposed for the near future. The classes and characteristics of the various technologies are discussed with reference to the application of electronic toll collection on conventional toll plazas and open road tolling. Despite the number of highly qualified organisations supplying ETC equipment, most large scale projects are preceded by a testing and trialing process of a range of systems to obtain the confidence necessary to fund the large investment needed for large scale deployment of ETC. The various international attempts to produce technical standards for ETC to provide wide area Interoperability and Compatibility are also reviewed and the future of the standardisation process is discussed. The need for standardisation and compatibility is now more urgent than ever. When an acceptable suite of standards is established for the ETC industry, a generation of early ETC systems will be retired to be replaced by interoperable ETC systems. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 899454.