Cover story
16 Eyes on the future Video has typically been how live traffic images have been sourced, until now
Tom Stone goes behind the scenes of research projects that are harnessing the power of lidar and redefining machine vision
TOLLROADGIS
AT YOUR
FINGERTIPS
the Great Depression. By the 1930s,
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www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com 31
to pay New ways As more regions consider
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com043 042Traffic Technology InternationalJanuary/February 2020
technology and the systems to serve
THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC TOLL PLAZAS NOW YOU
Once upon a time you couldn’t build a toll road without also building a plaza at which
vehicles stop to pay their dues. But as open-road tolling takes hold, some of the views on
the following pages may soon be confined to the history books. Enjoy them while you can…
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ABOUT THE
PHOTOGRAPHER
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January/February 2020 Traffic Technology International 003
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News
06 The road to Amsterdam A preview of what awaits at Intertraffic Amsterdam 2020
12 London life Transportation facts from the English capital city
Interview
14 Dr Angelos Amditis ITS Europe’s chairman is a man of many passions
and is committed most of all to building a better world
Features
24 Micromobility macro problems? James Gordon reports on the challenges and opportunities
that e-scooter transport solutions present to urban spaces
Regulars
65 The Mode Warrior Greg Winfree
The director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute
on the need to protect DSRC spectrum in the USA
69 Connecting the DOTs by Kirk Steudle
Truly autonomous vehicles may be some years off, but
that doesn’t mean we should stop focusing on the benefits
73 Driving revenue by J J Eden
The tolling industry can lead transportation into the future
77 Our man from AmsterdamRichard Butter
Smart mobility can enhance all of society
82 Express lanes The key transportation stories in this issue and beyond
Tolltrans
Turn to page 31
for our annual
tolling special
| In This Issue
14
24
24
32
2020
by Bruce Abernethy, KCS Systems Inc, USA
32TOLLTRANS 2020
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
by Jack Roper
Pennsylvania Turnpike has a reputation for innovation. Its current
technological centrepiece is the award-winning CAAR (Catch it early,
Act, Analyze and Review) GIS (geographic information system) for traffic
management, which can even be accessed via a giant touchscreen
Hailed as America’s
First Superhighway, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike was
born from the hardship of
mass-produced automobiles demanded
new paved highways and President
Roosevelt established a series of
federally-funded New Deal projects to
remedy high unemployment, including
a new Pennsylvania toll-road. The
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
(PTC) was founded in 1937 and the first
166-mile stretch from Irwin to Carlisle
opened just after midnight on October 1,
1940. Today, the 552-mile Turnpike spans
the state east-west from Pittsburgh to
Philadelphia, carrying 550,000 vehicles
daily. The historic road has become
a testbed for state-of-the-art innovation,
with PTC winning two International
Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association
(IBTTA) Technology Awards in three
years and securing the coveted
President’s Award in 2019 with its CAAR
data platform. This record of success has
been built on valuing failure.
33 TOLLTRANS 2020
TOLLROADGIS
HOW A NEW GIS IS ENABLING MORE
EFFICIENT TOLL ROAD OPERATION
32 AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Pennsylvania Turnpike is leading
the tolling world with innovations
that include a new, award winning
GIS for traffi c management
42 NEW WAYS TO PAY
Could road user charging turn all
roads into toll roads, in the future?
We compare and contrast recent
RUC pilots in the USA and beyond
50 THE WORLD’S MOST
ICONIC TOLL PLAZAS
Transport and tolling consultant
Rob Bain shares his stunning
photographs of toll roads from
around the world
PRODUCTS&SERVICES
56 TOLLING IN TURKEY
With over three million vehicles using
electronic toll collection in the country,
Turkey has invested substantially in the
business of highway tolling
Dr Erkan Dorken, Aselsan, Turkey
58 LOWIMPACT,
ONEBOX SOLUTION
The need for traffi c control is
increasing, but as it does, so cities and
governments are becoming more sensitive
about unsightly infrastructure. Compact
solutions are required…
Heimo Haub, Efkon, Austria
60 THE TRANSPOR TATION
FUNDING CRISIS
Can new forms of tolling help to
avoid insolvency for the USA’s
Highway Trust Fund?
Jason Wall, A-to-Be, Portugal
62 OPENROAD TOLLING
SUCCESS
Introducing large-scale open-road
tolling in South Africa provides lessons
for similar projects elsewhere in the world
Joseph King, Tolplan, South Africa
TOLLTRANS 2020
38 The number of US states
that are considering road
user charging (RUC), have
implemented pilots, or have
ongoing programs
PHOTOGRAPHS: CREDIT, CREDIT/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
introducing road user charging
pilots, it’s increasingly clear
that a one-size fits all approach
will not work. James Allen uncovers
different thinking in Singapore,
Hawaii, Oregon and Utah
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: IVAN KURMYSHOV/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
We know that no two
communities are the
same, and yet, when it
comes to delivering new
them it’s easy to fall into the trap of
using a one-size-fits-all approach.
Pilots of road user charging (RUC)
across the USA are proof that, even
within the same nation, profoundly
different approaches are necessary in
order to achieve similar outcomes.
That there is a road-maintenance
funding problem and RUC should be
the way to solve it is a notion
increasingly accepted by
governments, highway authorities
and traffic managers the world over.
The question is how can drivers –
who have become used to the benefits
of more efficient vehicles that offer
more miles to the gallon, or even
‘infinite’ miles to the gallon with
electric – and the associated fuel and
tax savings – be persuaded into
paying their dues for using roads that
January/February 2020 Traffic Technology International
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
Road User Charging | |Road User Charging
TOLLTRANS 2020
SEE IT…
Rob Bain is a UK-based chartered engineer who
has spent over 30 years in the toll road industry.
Today, Bain runs his own consultancy, RBconsult
(www.robbain.com), conducting commercial due diligence
of candidate investments in the international road and rail
sectors. He is also a keen photographer. A camera has
been his constant companion over the last 30 years on
various international site visits; from Asia to Africa to
Latin America. As a result, he has compiled the largest
private collection of toll road photographs in the world
– a small sample of which we are delighted to publish
here. We hope you enjoy them. Thanks Rob!
The bold neon sign on the Chicago Skyway Toll
Bridge helps to make it extremely memorable. The
50s styling is indicative of the decade in which it was
built. A toll must be paid for travelling the 7.8 mile
long ‘Skyway’ – completed in 1958 – that connects the
Indiana Toll Road and the Dan Ryan Expressway. The
toll was operated by the City of Chicago until January
2005 when Skyway Concession Company assumed its
operations under a 99 year lease.
TOLLINGICONS
com51
by Rob Bain
TOLLTRANS 2020
TOLLINGICONS
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/(www.robbain.com)