Tolling applications using infra-red technology and the highest priority requirement: the enforcement system

Concerns a motorway toll system under consideration by the British Government. The key requirement is that it should be fully electronic and automatic. Alterations to the motorway infrastructure to incorporate toll plazas etc. would not be considered. Road users will buy and display a smart-card which stores details of how much credit a vehicle has with the system. The smart-card will be inserted into an in-vehicle-unit fitted to the car windscreen, and be read and written to remotely as the vehicle travels through the toll area. A complete system comprises two major sub-systems which must operate together in a fully integrated operational manner but which ought to be considered as sufficiently independent, with well-defined interfaces, to allow for their introduction alongside each other or either of them alongside other technologies offering the same functionality. These two major sub-systems are: 1) the transaction subsystem and 2) the enforcement subsystem. This paper assesses some of the issues raised, gives an overview of the Siemens approach to free-flow multilane motorway tolling through the infrared technology, and then focuses on a key aspect of road tolling and pricing systems-enforcement