Despite governments spending considerable sums of money on the basket of evolving technologies that comprise Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), the widespread adoption of these new technologies has so far been limited. The USA alone is currently spending over $1bn/year on ITS initiatives and commentators have noted that the outstanding (some suggest the only) 'success story' has been in the area of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC). This paper uses a Caribbean case study to illustrate the international current state-of-the-art practice in ETC. Moreover, it reports the many (and sometimes conflicting) issues that need to be considered for both the retrofitting of existing toll collection facilities and the design of new ones. Puerto Rico, part of the Commonwealth of the United States, has been operating a network of toll roads for the past 25 years. Tolls are collected in the form of cash at mainline plazas and ramp toll booths, all of which operate with barriers. Early in 1999, Steer Davies Gleave was commissioned by the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority to conduct an international review of toll collection technologies. The commission was exciting, largely because we joined forces with a leading American engineering consultancy (acknowledged to be at the forefront of the implementation of ETC in the US) and a UK-based team of academics with extensive experience from Europe and the Far East. Our review was to be used to help formulate a strategy for the Authority's toll collection procedures for the next decade. Quickly it became evident that the challenge had less to do with which technology to adopt, and more to do with a systems approach, of which the technology was only one part. In the past, many papers have discussed the alternative technologies available for ETC technologies which can be adapted for road user charging/congestion management in urban areas. As we head towards the Millennium, this paper reviews the state-of-the-art practice on both 'sides' of the Atlantic but also extends the discussion to consider other key elements of a system that is required for successful ETC implementation.
Abstract