Charging, Tolling & RUC

After much debate and delay, a unifying European Electronic Toll Service is now finally on the horizon, says ASFiNAG’s Klaus Schierhackl. Here, he talks with Jason Barnes about what that might mean. Aworkable European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) which will allow truck drivers to travel across the continent and pay tolls using a single account and OnBoard Unit (OBU) was originally timetabled to be in place and operating by October of this year. A lack of urgency from some of the stakeholders involved in t

Telematics Update is hosting a free webinar that will explore how the EETS Directive could provide inter-operable tolling services and seamless mobility across Europe’s boarders. The interactive event will be held on Wednesday 6 November 2012 at 10-11 CEST and is open to the entire fleet telematics community. Due to the different devices and data collection methods used throughout Europe for road user charging (RUC), driving across boarders can be problematic. Truck drivers at present have up to ten differe

Drivers using the Windsor-Detroit tunnel linking Canada with the US will shortly be able to pay electronically on both sides of the border. Until now, electronic payment has only been available on the US side. Tunnel president Neal Belitsky said it’s part of a plan to eventually phase out tunnel tokens after 2013. “We’re going to be getting out of the token business,” Belitsky said. “It takes time to buy rolls of tokens. All that is going to disappear. If you look throughout the US or Canada, you can count

After a long wait for the green light from the central government, the much-anticipated electronic road pricing (ERP) system is expected to be implemented in Jakarta city in 2013, governor Joko Widodo has said. The ERP system is intended to discourage motorists from using private cars and opt for public transportation instead. The initial plan is for the ERP to be implemented on roads in the current “three-in-one” car-pooling zones and replace the city’s old car-pooling system. Under the three-in-one syste

Following a series of consultations with stakeholders, South Africa’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), led by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Cabinet, has recommended that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) should proceed with the implementation of an e-tolling system.

Spanish technology provider, Indra, has been awarded contracts valued at US$13.1 million to supply traffic and toll management technology for Indian motorways. Indian infrastructure company GMR has awarded the company three contracts to implement its toll technology on the motorways of the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajastan and Gujarat states.

Private sector operator, Transurban, operators of Virginia’s I-495 express lane, has unveiled the highway’s incident management centre where the flow of vehicles will be monitored on a widescreen monitor displaying a dozen camera angles. The new lanes are expected to open by the end of fall. The centre will monitor traffic volume 24/7 in order to compute toll rates. The new roadway, connecting the Dulles toll road to the I-395/I-95/Springfield interchange fourteen miles to the south, will charge drivers dyn

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calls for road charging should be introduced on the strategic road network in England. Proposals in the report, Bold Thinking: A model to fund our future roads also suggest that responsibility for the network’s budget should be taken away from the Department for Transport (DfT) and given to an independent regulator. Launching the report, CBI director-general John Cridland said a regulatory asset base (RAB) model was required to address the problem of long-term fu

The US Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is to implement pilot project for a completely cashless toll system for the Henry Hudson Bridge in New York City. The system partly depends on the E-Z Pass device and the Hudson Bridge was chosen for the pilot project as E-Z Pass is already used by over 87% of drivers. Drivers using E-Z Pass will be offered a discounted toll to encourage continued use; drivers without a pass will be identified by licence plate images and will be billed for the full rate b

Earthquake sensors, automatic barriers and real time monitoring systems are all part of a scheme to make a major Seattle traffic artery safer, by taking it underground. Huw Williams reports. Seattle’s metropolitan area of 3.5 million people, like much of the western seaboard of the United States, lies in an earthquake zone. In Seattle’s case, the city and its hinterland sit atop a complex network of interrelated active geological faults capable of severe seismic activity and posing complex considerations fo