Automated toll collection system using GPS and GPRS

The toll collection is becoming a major problem on the highways leading to large waiting queues. Toll gates installed on highways result in increased waiting time and fuel usage. In this paper, a study on automated toll collection system using radio frequency identification (RFID)-based system is presented, which provides fast identification of vehicles and toll collection. Using this system, the identification can be done just by slowing down the speed of the vehicle when it is passing from the toll plaza. The RFID reader scans the RFID tag or card and deducts the amount from it. The research analysed the system by proposing a mechanism and implementing an example scenario, which considered the random arrival of different vehicles. This technique is also compared with other existing mechanisms such as number plate recognition and barcode-based passes, which showed the need to utilise this technique for toll collection.

<p> In order to cut down the manual work at toll plazas, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based concept is portage for the entire process within a second. The system uses passive tag which will have the particular number mapping the owner information; this useful detail is stored in congruence to that particular number.</p> <p><a href="https://journalnx.com/journal-article/20150560">https://journalnx.com/journal-article/20150560</a></p>

Little research has been conducted to evaluate the traffic safety of toll plazas and the impact of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems on highway safety, but analyses indicate that toll plazas do contribute to traffic accidents. Traffic safety issues related to toll plazas and ETC systems were studied using the 1999 and 2000 toll plaza traffic accident reports of the Central Florida expressway system. The analysis focused on accident location with respect to the plaza structure (before, at, after plaza) and driver injury severity (no injury, possible, evident, severe injuries). Two well-known artificial neural network (ANN) paradigms were investigated: the Multi-Layer Perceptron and Radial Basis Functions neural networks. The performance of ANN was compared with calibrated logit models. Modeling results showed that vehicles equipped with ETC devices, especially medium/heavy-duty trucks, have higher risk of being involved in accidents at the toll plaza structure. Also, main-line toll plazas have a higher percentage of accident occurrence upstream of the toll plaza. In terms of driver injury severity, ETC users have a higher chance of being injured when involved in an accident. Older drivers tend to have higher risk of experiencing more severe injuries than younger drivers. Female drivers have a higher chance of experiencing a severe injury than do male drivers.

Traffic simulation models are used to enhance planning, design, operation, and management of transportation facilities. A discrete-event stochastic object-oriented microscopic simulation model is presented that was specifically developed to evaluate the operational performance of toll plazas. Traffic behavior is represented using a set of mathematical and logic algorithms that control the conflicts among vehicles within the toll plaza area. Modified versions of car-following and lane-changing algorithms and a new toll-lane selection algorithm are integrated into this new model to simulate traffic operation at toll plazas. The model output includes measures of effectiveness (MOEs) that can be used to evaluate the performance of existing and future individual toll lanes and the entire toll plaza system. Real-world data collected at the busiest toll plaza in the Orlando–Orange County Expressway Authority system were used to validate the developed model. Statistical tests indicate that there is no significant difference at the 95 percent confidence level between MOEs obtained from the model and those collected in the real world. Sensitivity analysis of market penetration of the electronic toll collection (ETC) system indicates that an increase in ETC subscription rate improves the efficiency of toll plaza operation. The benefits of ETC depend on the specific plaza configuration. One of the most interesting results of this study is that for all plaza configurations simulated with manual payment lanes operating over capacity, total plaza delay can be reduced by half if only 10 percent of the users switch from manual payment lanes to ETC lanes.

The objective of this study is to develop a discrete-event simulation model of traffic operations at a toll plaza to compare the performance measures between the manual and electronic toll collection (ETC) systems. This study also attempts to simulate the scenarios where the number of servers in these systems is reallocated to improve the overall operational performance. The field data were collected at a toll plaza on an expressway on-ramp during a PM peak period via video recording. The collected data were summarized to determine the characteristics of parameters as inputs for the simulation model. The simulation model was developed in EZStrobe, while the results were carried out via STROBOSCOPE. The simulation model was calibrated with the field data prior to making modifications and simulating various scenarios. The results show that, under the existing conditions, switching an electronic tollgate to a manual tollgate reduces the average overall queue delay and queue length by 71% and 78%, respectively. After reallocation, the average queue delays in these systems equalize as the proportion of ETC users reaches 72%. The additional throughput time of 0.4 s/veh in the ETC system is small compensation for the 6.8-second deduction in the average overall throughput time. In conclusion, shortening the queue lengths at the toll plaza by efficiently utilizing the existing tollgates is possible for improving the overall operational performance of the toll plaza without the additional tollgate installation.

In the Traditional method which we were using from the past 10 years the toll mode in the national highway, defects in these systems still exist, and defects in security of the electronic toll collection system, at every point required manpower and high cost. So, in the current scenario Radio-frequency chip were adapted into the traditional way of toll collecting system, and these systems were used in all the car parking areas in the movie theatres and in the shopping malls. To monitor vehicles, RFID technology was used with an effective utilization. Authentication of vehicles was also done using RFID. RFID was also used in the automated toll collection system in the national highways (NH) and also in the shopping mall and movie theaters. In this research paper, we are exploring the concepts of radio-frequency identification, which enhances the authentication of vehicles in a unique way.

Bay Area toll bridges are the main transportation link across the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. These bridges experience extreme congestion and become bottlenecks during peak hours with long backups at the toll plazas. A solution to ensure smooth vehicle throughput at toll plazas is the widespread adoption of the electronic toll collection system called FasTrak. However, the FasTrak system has experienced low usage rates since its inception relative to other toll collection systems in the country. Forecasting, marketing, and operations research models were utilized to make recommendations and collaborate with transportation authorities to increase FasTrak usage during peak hours (5–10 a.m. and 3–7 p.m.) to address traffic congestion. After these recommendations were implemented, FasTrak usage increased from 40% in 2006 to the long-term target of 70% by 2016. This paper presents a synthesis of the challenges and the implementation of the FasTrak Strategic Plan. Furthermore, econometric models are presented that capture the effect on traffic volumes of increased FasTrak usage achieved through congestion pricing. Saved travel time resulted in productivity gains of approximately $569 million per year. This study contributes to an understanding of the role of effective transportation policies in reducing congestion and improving productivity. History: This paper was refereed. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.2022.1127 .

Exploratory Study on Approaches for Traffic count Prediction; Using Toll-Way Traffic Count

The present manual toll collection system of Sri Lankan expressways is expected to be inadequate to serve the forecasted traffic demand on most interchanges. High waiting times at the manual toll booths would directly affect the expressway user delay and the level of service. Therefore, an efficient tolling system will have to be introduced. This study is focused on developing a methodology to evaluate the operational improvements of using electronic toll collection incorporating the traffic characteristics of Expressways in Sri Lanka. A micro-simulation method using a commercially available software; PTV Vissim, was adopted to conduct a scenario analysis for a forecasted traffic demand at the Kottawa interchange as a case study. A calibrated sample model was developed and its simulation results show that the electronic toll collection system can reduce the average per vehicle delay and increase the toll plaza capacity up to 50% during peak hour if the proper toll plaza configuration is provided. The findings of the study are beneficial to toll station operators as well as for planning for toll station upgrading by assessing its optimum capacity.

Toll plaza is considered conventional toll collection, which is manual and the most common toll collection method in Vietnam. This study attempts to analyze the traffic performance of toll plaza by using the microsimulation software VISSIM. At the selected toll plaza, An Suong—An Lac toll plaza, Hochiminh City, traffic data including traffic volume, traffic composition and service time are collected at toll booths for all types of payment. A suggested solution is conducted to enhance the level of service of the selected toll plaza. The output of this study indicates that the best solution for reducing queue length, vehicle day at toll plaza is to change the payment type from manual method to Electric Toll Collection (ETC) method.KeywordsToll plazaMicrosimulationVISSIMTraffic performanceElectronic toll collection

The authors present a novel approach to modeling a toll plaza and evaluating a number of possible scenarios for an ETC (electronic toll collection) equipped toll plaza. Utilizing a spreadsheet based demand/capacity model (which was validated and created in a relatively short time frame) rather than using the traditional complex simulation language, the effectiveness of ETC technology was evaluated. For each scenario the modeling effort showed that the implementation of ETC technology should result in an improved toll plaza operation. For the majority of the toll plaza users considered the results from the modeling effort showed that, by implementing ETC technology, service levels would improve and in most cases, significantly so. >

This study presents an analytical method for dynamically adjusting toll plaza capacity to cope with a sudden shift in demand. The proposed method uses a proxy measure developed using discharge rate observed at toll plazas and segment travel times measured by probe vehicles. The effectiveness of the method has been evaluated by analyzing the empirical data obtained from toll plazas in the San Francisco Bay Area before and after toll plaza capacity changed. Findings indicate that the estimated number of vehicles stored near the upstream of toll plaza based on discharge rate and their travel times can be used as a proxy measure for predicting the effect of changes in toll plaza capacity. The proposed model can aid government agencies to dynamically adjust the toll plaza capacity in response to a sudden shift in demand due to various situations of failure.

Advances in intelligent transportation systems technologies promoted the implementation of open road tolling (ORT) on tolled freeways worldwide. This new tolling solution converts existing barrier toll booths to express lanes that are capable of collecting tolls at high speed. ORT has demonstrated numerous benefits in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. However, the effects of ORT on safety are still not clear because most ORT systems have been operated for a relatively short period. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the safety impacts of ORT by examining recent practices in New Jersey. Multiple-year crash data at toll plazas before and after the implementation of the ORT systems were analyzed. The full Bayes methodology was employed to develop crash frequency models as a function of traffic and toll plaza configurations. These models were used to estimate the crash frequency on the assumption that the ORT systems were not installed. The estimations were then compared with the observed crash counts that occurred after the deployment of the ORT systems. Comparisons showed that crash reductions were obtained at most of the toll plazas. The overall comparison showed that crash frequency decreased by about 24% after the deployment of the ORT systems and suggested that the use of ORT is a beneficial solution to improve the safety of the toll plazas. From an implementation point of view, the analysis results also indicated that special attention should be paid to operational elements such as signage, diversion, and merge designs of the ORT systems.

This paper proposes a very novel approach to implement the automatic toll tax collection system on the toll plazas using radio frequency identification (RFID) and global system for mobile (GSM). Nowadays, the cities and highways are bursting with traffic, and very often long queues of vehicles can be seen at various toll plazas so that they can pay the toll and then able to use the road or highway. So a system is proposed wherein the toll tax could be paid via cashless transactions and people wouldn’t have to wait for a long time for the cash payment of the toll tax. This would save people’s money and time simultaneously. It would also eliminate errors in cash transactions and further ease the job of the toll plaza companies. It would definitely bring down any of the corruptions occurring at the toll plazas. Finally, it would make the existing toll tax collection more efficient and ease our lives a bit more.

The aim of this paper was to study issues of network connectivity in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) to avoid traffic congestion at a toll plaza. An analytical model was developed for highway scenarios where the traffic congestion could have the vehicles reduce their speed instead of blocking the flow of traffic. In this model, nearby vehicles must be informed when traffic congestion occurs before reaching the toll plaza so they can reduce their speed in order to avoid traffic congestion. Once they have crossed the toll plaza they can travel on at their normal speed. The road was divided into two or three sub-segments to help analyze the performance of connectivity. The proposed analytical model considered various parameters that might disturb the connectivity probability, including traveling speed, communication range of vehicles, vehicle arrival rate, and road length. The simulation results matched those of the analytical model, which showed the analytical model developed in this paper is effective.