Friday 10th June 2005

Experts question road toll feasibility

It can't work Europe-wide says consultancy

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Autoroute congestion: road tolls need to work in Europe too

Experts have raised doubts over whether UK Transport Secretary Alistair Darling's proposed road charging scheme is feasible, given that it would have to be implemented Europe-wide to achieve its objective.

According to transport consultancy SBD, the plan marks a radical new approach to combating traffic congestion. However, the UK’s move towards satellite monitoring of vehicles is one dimension of the wider issue of how toll collection systems can be standardised across the European Union.

A recent report by SBD reveals that European Commission’s ambitions for a single cross-border system of electronic toll collection (ETC) and road charging by the end of the decade face potentially insurmountable difficulties.

Although the UK is moving closer to adopting a satellite tracking and positioning system, it might only be introduced by 2015 at the earliest. So far, within the EU, only Germany has adopted the technology, with limited application for goods vehicles. In other states alternative systems are in use, most commonly DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) for automatic payment of motorway, bridge or tunnel tolls.

SBD, which focuses on telematics technology across Europe, said it has identified and analysed a series of issues that must be overcome if the EC’s ambitions are to be realised. Its report, An Introduction to Electronic Toll Collection and its Implication for Telematics, looks at the current status of ETC systems across Europe, both in operation and under development. It also scrutinises the implications for telematics services such as traffic information and e-call automatic emergency alerts.

SBD’s head of telematics David McClure said, "The UK Government is taking a forward-looking approach with a technology that has the potential to offer additional useful traffic and safety telematics services. However, the British move has to be viewed against the more fragmented picture across Europe that continues to pose problems for a workable cross-border ETC programme in the short to medium term."

[james]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how many billions of tax payers pounds are wasted while some incompetent civil servants try to get an equally incompetent vendor to produce a system that actually works.

They have absolutely no hope of ever getting a working system. Just look at the record of every other major government sponsored IT project. They might as well save themselves the money, and use it on something useful. Like reducing fuel duty :)

James

[Apache]

What? and ruin a brilliant jobs for the boys wheeze