Charging, Tolling & RUC

The Kapsch TrafficCom all-electronic toll (AET) system at the Tappan Zee Bridge went live and began collecting toll revenue on 24 April in South Nyack, on the 570-mile New York State Thruway. Kapsch installed this multi-lane free-flow AET system for the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), which operates and manages the bridge, over the winter after the system successfully passed a series of commissioning and integration tests. The on-schedule opening of these tolled, cashless traffic lanes elimi

United Bridge Partners, (UBP) and ETAN Industries are to team up to provide back-office services for the Dominion Boulevard Project in Chesapeake, Virginia, US, following an award to UBP subsidiary, UBP Dominion from the City of Chesapeake for the development of a complete Open Road Tolling (ORT) back-office system for the project.

D'Artagnan Consulting has been awarded a contract by the Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) to prepare a detailed state-wide road usage charge (RUC) demonstration implementation plan in preparation for a project expected to start in 2017. The company is working with Berk Consulting, WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff and several DBE firms and the work will entail updating the WSTC body of materials assessing RUC since 2012 that was successfully completed at the direction of the State Legislature.

In the wake of low inflation and competitive pressure constraining tariffs, Moody's Investors Service expects that European toll roads and airports will benefit from healthy growth in traffic volumes in 2016, albeit lower than in 2015. Traffic volume growth remains critical to the credit quality and financial performance of toll road operators and airports.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans would support the use of road-usage fee options such as vehicle miles travelled or mileage-based user fees to help fund transportation costs, according to a new America Thinks national public opinion survey conducted by Kelton Global on behalf of infrastructure firm HNTB Corporation. The survey, Transportation Mobility 2016, also found that close to 170 million Americans (69 per cent) agree priced managed lanes should be considered when making improvements to US highways.

South Gloucestershire Council has purchased two mobile speed indicator signs (SIDs) from UK company Traffic Technology, which will be used to monitor traffic speeds at sites where there is a community concern about speeding vehicles or a history of speed-related injury accidents. The signs will be installed following a site survey to ascertain whether there is a problem with inappropriate speed. SID is a rugged, lightweight radar activated speed indication display that can be used at temporary or perm

US financial research organisation Fitch Ratings has released its spring US Transportation Trends report which indicates that growth will remain healthy for all three US major transportation sectors (airports, ports and toll roads) this year. Commenting on toll roads, Fitch notes that low fuel prices have boosted growth in traffic (6.6 per cent) and revenue (8.3 per cent) since the second half of 2015. The south-east and south-west US have and will continue to lead in traffic performance. The higher rate

Q-Free has appointed Håkon Volldal as its new chief executive officer; he will take up his new position on 1 August. Volldal is currently executive vice president and head of business area for TOMRA Collection Solutions, where he has held several senior positions since 2004. “I am impressed with Q-Free’s history, solutions and ability to adapt to changing market needs over time. I really look forward to joining the Q-Free organisation and I trust I can use my experience to contribute to profitable gr

Schreiner PrinTrust's RFID windshield tags provide automated, contactless vehicle identification for access control to parking garages and electronic billing of parking space as well as for other automatic vehicle identification (AVI) applications such as tolling and fleet management. The tags come in two variants and are optimised for different frequency ranges: the Global Secure tag provides dynamically encrypted communication and an authentication feature capable of identifying original tags, while the P

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has extended its contract with Q-Free for service and maintenance of the Stockholm congestion charging system. The new contract, valued at around US$1.6 million (NOK13 million), is an extension of the contract awarded in 2013 and continues the maintenance for one year from 2017. Congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm in 2006, first as a trial followed by a referendum, then permanently from 2007. “This is a confirmation of the long-standing r