Metropolitan Expressway Public Corporation (MEX) adopted "Environmental Road Pricing" (The route dependant toll system.) for the environment improvement along the expressway with a free flow ETC (Electronic toll collection) system as the first time in Japan in July 2002. By setting a price margin in the traffic route, the vehicle on the inland area road will be introduced to a coastal road. Also, the technical study needs for introducing a various charge policy using a free flow ETC system are being advanced. In this paper, an introduction of system, technical requirements and test results of the Environmental Road Pricing are shown. ETC in Japan started in spring 2000 for monitors and expanded an application to a public user in spring 2001. ETC has also two type, fixed toll system and distance dependant toll system. MEX adopted fixed toll system that collects the toll at the entrance toll plaza. A conventional ETC has a single lane configuration as same as a previous manual collecting system. There are two ways of both inland route and coastal route in MEX. A heavy traffic jam has been occurring on the way of inland area, and it worsened an environment along the expressway. Therefore, as to inland route measures that lead traffic to a coastal route were required to improve environment.
Abstract