Congestion Charging System Using Public Transport Card

Metropolitan areas around the world are suffering from severe traffic congestion resulting in economic losses via delayed time, fuel consumption, traffic accidents, air pollution and traffic noise. This paper describes a congestion road pricing system designed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI). MHI developed an urban environment-friendly road pricing concept called IURP (Integrated Urban Road Pricing), and successfully conducted demonstration tests. The proposed Congestion Charging System consists of an onboard unit (OBU), contactless integrated circuit (IC) Card and the gantry that includes a roadside controller and antenna, vehicle detector, enforcement camera and central computer. The authors outline the following components of this system: the requirements for dedicated short-range communication (DSRC)-based IURP; technical descriptions; the evaluation and demonstration tests conducted on the system; and a discussion of the extensibility of active DSRC-based IURP. The authors report that MHI demonstrated the successful use of this congestion charging system using an actual public transportation card in two different countries. They conclude that this approach can reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and road noise.