Charging, Tolling & RUC

According to German toll company Toll Collect, the German government has put in place legislation which requires that from 1 July 2015 light vehicles using German federal trunk roads will be subject to toll. Vehicles with a gross weight of 7.5 tonnes or more will be included from 1 October 2015. Around 250,000 vehicles are expected to be affected, of which around 90,000 are from abroad. The toll also applies to combinations, i.e., trucks with trailers, which are heavier than 7.5 tonnes. The trunk road

In a recently published Quinnipiac University poll, 49 per cent of voters on New York opposed a proposal to toll the East River bridges and at the same time reduce tolls on the ‘outer borough’ bridges between the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and use the money for mass transit. Forty-four per cent backed the plan. Opposition to just setting tolls on the free East River bridges remains strong at 69 per cent, with just 27 per cent in favour, the independent poll finds. There is no group that co

A survey from toll operator Transurban finds that the Virginia Express Lanes have reduced travel times and increased lane speeds, including the main lanes. According to data extracted from the University of Maryland’s Regional Integrated Transportation Information System, drivers in the regular lanes on the Capital Beltway and I-95 have experienced reduced travel times and faster speeds since the Express Lanes opened. As expected, drivers who take the Express Lanes experience significant travel time sav

A tax per kilometre is to be implemented for all lorries weighing over 3.5 tonnes throughout Belgium from 1 April 2016. The system will be based on satellite technology, using on board units (OBUs), which drivers will collect at a distribution point. The OBU will register the distance travelled by the vehicle and on which roads. Mileage data will be transmitted to a data centre and an invoice generated, which the driver will pay on returning the OBU. The rate of road pricing will vary depending on t

Kapsch TrafficCom North America has been awarded a US$41 million contract by the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) to provide the toll system for the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges (LSIORB). The comprehensive project includes the installation, integration, operation, and maintenance of an end-to-end open road toll collection system, as well as back office system and customer service centre operation at the three bridges that will connect Louisville, Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana. As

Kapsch TrafficCom is strengthening its market in Chile, with the award of two contracts in the country through a subsidiary for the delivery of new multi-lane-free-flow gantries and on-board units. The first contract is for three new toll gantries for the urban part of the Pan-American Highway passing through Santiago de Chile, which are planned to be operational during 2015. These form part of a framework agreement with the concessionaire Autopista Central and will comprise Kapsch’s state-of-the-art sin

Toll evaders create major problems for tolling companies – of which lost revenue is only one. Open road tolling maximises roadway capacity but non-payers create enforcement problems Toll road operators are increasingly employing open road or free-flow electronic tolling to minimise travel times.

For the first time, the Australian ITS Summit and the National electronic Tolling Conference (NeTC), which takes place on 12-14 May in Melbourne, will combine as the most important gathering in Australia for ITS professionals in 2015. Delegates attending the combined Summit/NeTC Tolling Conference will have flexibility in attendance and choice of sessions. Attendees can register for: just the NeTC Tolling Conference, just the ITS Summit, or both.

Q-free has agreed to acquire Malta-based parking management solutions provider Traffiko for US$1.12 million; the deal also includes an earn-out condition that can generate up to US$1.12 million more. Q-Free and Traffiko have long partnered in parking management systems projects, most recently in the APCOA contract to supply systems for parking garages at the Stockholm globe arena. Traffiko offers a wide range of advanced traffic applications including secure cloud hosted web-based applications for car

Colin Sowman looks at the transition to free-flow charging on the Dartford Crossing, a notorious congestion blackspot on the UK motorway network. The Dartford Crossing, where London’s orbital M25 motorway crosses the lower reaches of the River Thames 32km (20 miles) to the east of Central London, has long been a major source of congestion. Now, to alleviate the congestion caused by some 50 million crossings per year, the Highways Agency has adopted a free-flow charging system - but the Crossing’s location a