Microsoft predicts ‘pay as you-go’ solution to congestion

Congestion pricing is the solution to inner city traffic gridlock, according to Microsoft’s chief economist, Michael Schwarz. Speaking at the IBTTA’s Annual Technology Summit in Orlando, Florida last week, Schwarz said “traffic will be a thing of the past”, citing the difference between the traffic volumes in the free use and managed lanes as evidence. He also highlighted Singapore’s plans to have satellite tolling on all cars in 2020 and noted that almost all new cars are already fitted with SIM car
April 9, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Congestion pricing is the solution to inner city traffic gridlock, according to 2214 Microsoft’s chief economist, Michael Schwarz.

Speaking at the 63 IBTTA’s Annual Technology Summit in Orlando, Florida last week, Schwarz said “traffic will be a thing of the past”, citing the difference between the traffic volumes in the free use and managed lanes as evidence.

He also highlighted Singapore’s plans to have satellite tolling on all cars in 2020 and noted that almost all new cars are already fitted with SIM cards and GPS adding: “The cost of the technology is nothing.”

Furthermore, as satellite technology allows tolling and congestion pricing to be levied on any and all roads, he predicted that instead of paying one large charge when entering a city or corridor, “we will be paying a lot of congestion charges for each journey”.

He said that without congestion pricing, self-driving cars would cause gridlock and predicted that the introduction of such charging will be made more palatable by a new generation of car-pooling platforms.

“Technology is getting better at finding the ideal [car-pooling] partner,” he said. “Splitting the congestion charge three ways makes it more affordable.”

There will be a full report from the IBTTA conference in the May-June edition of ITS International

Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transcore challenges perceptions, targets broader markets
    December 13, 2012
    In August this year, Tracy Marks took over the presidency of TransCore, succeeding John Simler, who has moved on to other roles within parent company Roper Industries. A 19-year veteran of the company, Marks describes himself as having been groomed for the job. Previously responsible for TransCore’s Southern region in the US, he also took on a series of roles, including the top job at United Toll Systems, as part of moves which were carefully choreographed to prepare him for where he is now. The appointmen
    Read More
  • Covid-19 cleared the air: ITS can keep it clean
    July 31, 2020
    Covid-19 has created cleaner air: ITS can help keep it that way – but it’s not going to be straightforward, as Graham Anderson discovers
    Read More
  • China plans more ITS deployment despite economic slowdown
    March 30, 2017
    The Chinese government is turning to ITS to help solve urban traffic congestion in the majority of its large cities. Eugene Gerden reports. China is investing an estimated 3.5bn yuan ($551 million) per year in ITS and while the country’s current economic strategy may see this decline, the government plans to continue active development of the national intelligent transport system.
    Read More
  • Getting to the point
    September 4, 2018
    Cars are starting to learn to understand the language of pointing – something that our closest relative, the chimpanzee, cannot do. And such image recognition technology has profound mobility implications, says Nils Lenke Pointing at objects – be it with language, using gaze, gestures or eyes only – is a very human ability. However, recent advances in technology have enabled smart, multimodal assistants - including those found in cars - to action similar pointing capabilities and replicate these human qual
    Read More

Highlighted Content