Skip to main content

China launches nation-wide ETC

China is to launch a national unified electronic toll collection (ETC) system in 2015 in a bid to solve freeway congestion, save logistics cost and cut emissions. The national ETC network will be primarily completed by the end of 2015 based on a regional system that will cover 14 provinces by this year end, said Xu Chengguang, spokesman of the Ministry of Transport (MOT). The ministry expects around 25 percent of passenger cars to be equipped with transponders and all toll stations along major express
December 1, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
China is to launch a national unified electronic toll collection (ETC) system in 2015 in a bid to solve freeway congestion, save logistics cost and cut emissions.

The national ETC network will be primarily completed by the end of 2015 based on a regional system that will cover 14 provinces by this year end, said Xu Chengguang, spokesman of the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

The ministry expects around 25 percent of passenger cars to be equipped with transponders and all toll stations along major expressways will be included.

China currently has 260 million vehicles, but only 13 million users pay toll fees via ETC system, data showed.

"An ETC lane is equal to five other lanes where tolls are collected manually as transit time is cut to three seconds from 14 seconds," Wang Gang, director of the ETC centre, said, "It can substantially ease traffic jams."

Related Content

  • Virtual traffic management centres, a new direction in traffic monitoring
    January 30, 2012
    David Crawford picks up a new direction trend in traffic monitoring The surprise winner in the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) category of the recently-announced 2011 OSMOSE (Open Source for MObile and SustainablE city) Awards for European innovations in urban transport, is the Danish city of Aalborg - which doesn't have a TMC. Alternatively, one might consider its 'virtual' TMC as a signpost for the future in medium-sized cities.
  • New solutions to old problems set to cut emergency response times
    April 30, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest developments in emergency response. Ensuring speedier reactions to transport and travel crises is becoming increasingly important. US statistics suggest that as many as 1,000 ‘saveable’ lives can be lost each year in major cities because of operational defects in their SOS operations.
  • Debating a cost-effective means of road user charging
    July 20, 2012
    Does GPS/GNSS-based technology provide a cost-effective means of charging or tolling on a national or international level, or are the issues pertaining to effective enforcement an obstacle. Here, leading equipment manufacturers debate the issue.
  • Bridging the highway travel information gap
    March 14, 2012
    A new traffic management solution is attempting to bridge the gap in information available on freeways and arterial roadways. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Agencies responsible for national networks of roads around the world have the ability to measure, analyse and disseminate accurate travel information to drivers. Millions of dollars go into data collection infrastructure to collect traffic congestion and travel time information on major freeways or highways. For example, a driver on the I-210 in the Lo