Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems have been deployed commercially in various forms since 1987. It is estimated that around the globe over 10 million motorists are now displaying tags, barcodes or even allowing their license plates to be read to pay a toll or charge for using highways, bridges and tunnels. Current independent estimates of ETC market size range from Euro 2.9 to 3.3 billion. North America continues to head so far the league table of installations, accounting for over 4,000 of the estimated 7,000 lanes equipped with ETC systems world-wide. In most European countries, Electronic Toll Collection is becoming a crucial ITS application for better highway management. Lack of space in some areas and scarcity of public funds for new roads in other cases lead towards new management models based on different types of road pricing. Europe has a long tradition of toll collection on motorways, particularly in the southern countries, where ETC systems have been used for a long time with a number of incompatible technical solutions. Interoperability of ETC all over Europe is considered very important by the EU authorities and is actively promoted through different actions: 1) pushing the standardisation for technical interoperability and the convergence between legacy systems and the new equipment that will conform to the standards set forth by the European technical bodies, and 2) pushing the operators as well to reach agreements on contractual interoperability and search for exception handling and enforcement. Particularly in Spain, the National Highway Administration (Direccion General de Carreteras - DGC) is committed to an ambitious ITS program for the years ahead, and one key issue to be decided upon is how to favour an interoperable ETC implementation in tollways, in such a manner that EU guidelines are fulfilled.
Abstract