The use of transponder technology in road traffic control

The authors describe some of the developments in transponder technology in particular with reference to European research. The potential applications and benefits of using transponder´s are discussed as well as a consideration of how they may be integrated to support a number of different traffic control and management applications. The author describes the technical development and field-testing of one such transponder-based system. The PAMELA system which is under development within the DRIVE programme by a European consortium headed by the University and Polytechnic of Newcastle upon Tyne. This system has been designed to meet the criteria of a number of applications, such as: car-parking; automatic-tolling; road-use pricing; driver information; and multi-lane operation and adequately demonstrates the future capabilities of transponder based systems