Advanced Technologies for Road User Charging: International Experience and Future Trends

Up to 5 years ago, the mainstream technology for electronic toll collection was Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) and its near relation, Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI). Schemes based on these formed the backbone of national charging systems in Europe, North and South Americas and South East Asia. Standards were publicly available and these technologies were considered to be a safe solution for tolling. Europe and North America had already deployed regional interoperable schemes, including the Inter Agency Group?s EZ-Pass in the US tri-state area and Telepeage Inter-Societe (TIS) in France. However, the fiscal and economic policies that once supported tolls have also evolved: the decline in revenues from gas tax, increased vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the unchecked rise in congestion in cities are forcing governments to rethink how we should be charged for road usage. Road User Charging (RUC) is now firmly on the public agenda. National governments and highway operators are now faced with the broadest possible choice of technology options including: satellite positioning (GPS, EGNOS and the future Galileo system), Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems, Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI), the humble odometer and, the emergence of the electronic tachograph. Enforcement regimes now depend on image-based evidential capture rather than barriers. Toll plazas are also being replaced by Open Road Tolling (ORT) and Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) solutions. Classification treadles are being replaced by advanced laser profiling and stereoscopic imaging. Most recently, we have even seen novel Infrared (IR) absorption methods used to count vehicle occupancy to help enforce High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. This paper therefore presents a critical analysis of advanced charging and enforcement technology options and shows the future direction of technology evolution.