The IEE Road Transport Symposium in December 2005 included a day devoted to the subject of road user charging (RUC). This paper reports on the proceedings. Topics included the difference between road user charging and road use charging, the use of RUC to combat traffic congestion, the demise of the Lorry Road User Charging scheme in the UK, the problems in encouraging modal shift, the DIRECTS project and the OMISS (Open Minimum Interoperability Specification Suite) which has been developed from the project, the London charging scheme, the lorry user charging scheme in Germany, trials of a charging scheme in Stockholm in Sweden, RUC on the Svinesund Bridge between Sweden and Norway, interoperability between electronic toll collection (ETC) systems in the USA, and developments in satellite positioning and their implications for RUC.
Abstract