Lesson
Enforce congestion toll collection and create integration linkages between pricing system and motor vehicle registries to process violations.
Experience from road pricing programs in Europe and Asia
12/01/2010
Czech Republic; England; Germany; Singapore; Sweden
Background (Show)
Lesson Learned
Congestion pricing programs face political, institutional, and public acceptance challenges and concerns everywhere in the world. Over a 12-day period, from December 7 to 18, 2009, a multidisciplinary scan team from the United States interacted with the experts in Europe and Asia to develop an understanding of factors that contributed to the successful implementation of road pricing. Based on their international experience, the scan team offered the following lessons learned on addressing the operations and enforcement issues of road pricing programs.
- Enforce an effective system of congestion toll collection. Enforcement is key to ensuring a financially viable and fair system. Video enforcement is an essential element in every site visited. Enforcement has played a large role in public acceptability by ensuring fairness because those paying for use of the road want to know that others are paying as well. Many pricing programs do not consider enforcement penalties as a revenue tool (i.e., fines and fees need not be higher than administrative costs), but do view enforcement as a critical element of ensuring that base road charges are collected without substantial leakage. All of the sites studied, except Stockholm, treat violations as administrative fees, not as criminal acts.
- Create integration linkages between pricing system and motor vehicle registries. Violation enforcement systems require effective system integration and linkages with motor vehicle registries. Typically, enforcement is managed through video capture of license plate images and an ANPR (automated number plate recognition) system. Back office processing centers use license plate information to identify the vehicle owner and collect payment.
London and Stockholm: In systems that rely on video systems and ANPR as the means of charging for road use, the enforcement process is an exception-based business process to pursue those who have not paid after some period of time. This process leverages one set of roadside equipment for dual functionality (i.e., primary collection and enforcement). This is the case in London and Stockholm.
Czech Republic, Germany, and Singapore: In systems that rely on on-board units (OBUs), such as transponders or GPS (global positioning system), for toll collection, the video enforcement process is a stand-alone subsystem that requires roadside video equipment for enforcement and systems integration to ensure violation transactions and electronic toll transactions are uniquely identified and properly distinguished. The systems in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Singapore rely on separate violations enforcement subsystems. All these systems supplement the automated violations enforcement systems with mobile and roadside enforcement efforts for periodic spot enforcement.
The use of ANPR enforcement requires an effective working relationship with motor vehicle registries for accurate information of vehicle owners from license plate data. Systems that include pricing for significant populations of foreign-registered vehicles (e.g., Germany and the Czech Republic) have a more complex set of relationships to establish and maintain in a cost-effective manner.
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Lesson ID: 2011-00592
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