Today’s focus is on a final report of a road pricing demonstration project in the UK which examined VMT Charging Systems (or Time-Distance-Place as termed there) from 34 companies in 10 countries. The main interest was in looking at inter-system compatability , user acceptance, and governance issues which included such aspects as trust, theft and display or mapping – at a time when technology has evolved to go far beyond the traditional toll station approach.
Key Quotes:
“The Demonstrations Project was a technical research project designed to establish how any system of road pricing by time, distance and place (TDP) could operate reliably, accurately and affordably, whilst safeguarding privacy”
“DfT is particularly interested in the potential for charging road users on the basis of the distance travelled, by time and place. Systems and technologies that could make time, distance, place-based charging possible are now becoming available on the market”
Some findngs:
“Users:
- Indications suggest that providing choice could increase public acceptability.
- A mandatory TDP scheme can be expected to face more problems related to user acceptance than a voluntary one, as well as raising additional complications for service providers
- Information presented to users should be in a form they can relate to, such as for a complete journey
- There is a very clear trade-off between privacy and transparency.
- Assurance: If TDP road pricing is developed in the future it is likely to require some ongoing independent assurance process to maintain the trust of all parties in the process.
- Assurance to Scheme Owners - Self-Assurance is unlikely to be sufficiently robust on its own to provide the necessary
- Mapping:Great care is needed when defining boundary and cordon crossing points on chargeable roads”
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