Tolling, Mobility Pricing

Abstract

After a little bit of history, which is presented in Section 1, this chapter introduces some definitions and description of the variety of usages of tolling and pricing in Section 2. Tolling policies have played an important role in the development of new road infrastructures. During the last 20 years, thanks to the introduction of information and communication technologies in the transport sector leading to the concept of ITS (intelligent transport systems), the toll systems have largely benefited from this evolution by offering new possibilities for traffic managers and new services to the users. Tolling has, therefore, become a powerful tool for mobility management. Section 3 presents the main features of electronic toll collection, how it is functioning, and the variety of technologies that are used: from automated systems with barriers to free‐flow systems often called open road tolling ( ORT ). Advantages and weaknesses of the various technical solutions are presented in relation with their usage. Nowadays, a new phase, which is described in Section 4, is under development with the willingness of authorities and operators to go for interoperable systems. This has led also to the introduction of new actors in the field: the toll service providers. New opportunities are emerging in the domain of traffic. These new actors are now developing new services for the benefit of users and the transport system in general; for example, data collected from the toll systems allow better knowing the traffic situation, and, therefore, to better informing the user and giving more options for transport management strategies.