Satellite tracking scheme to
charge motorists £1.30 a mile
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39122467,00.htm
Government's new
congestion-busting scheme
unveiled…
Motorists face charges of up to
£1.30 a mile as part of the
government's new
congestion-busting plans to use
satellite tracking technology to
monitor vehicles. But the scheme
would require £10bn to fit all
cars with on-board tracking
devices and government research
conducted by a panel of
independent experts warns the
annual cost of running the
system would be around £3bn.
Transport secretary Alistair
Darling unveiled the
car-tracking scheme in his
Future of Transport white
paper and said that simply
trying to build our way out of
congestion is no longer an
option. The scheme would raise
around £9bn a year in revenue
and lead to £12bn in time
savings for the UK economy
through reduced time stuck in
traffic jams, according to the
government.
Deloitte Consulting provided
the government a model of the
system architecture required for
a national and local
interoperable road-charging
scheme. Charges would range from
2p a mile to £1.30 a mile
depending on the road and time
of day.
It would involve all cars
being fitted with an on-board
unit (OBU) that can be tracked
by satellite, or by microwave
receptors or electronic beacons
on the roadside. Drivers would
set up a road-charging account
with one of a selection of
payment service providers such
as utility companies, which
would register the vehicle
details and the OBU.
On the road, the OBU would
automatically record which
charge zones or charge roads the
car used, the distance travelled
and time of day. This would be
transmitted to a central
Communications Gateway, which
would pass the details to the
on-road service provider who
would calculate how much it was
owed. This would be forwarded to
the data clearing operator. At
this point all personal details
would be removed with just the
OBU number and charge forwarded
to the payment services
provider, who would then bill
the driver.
Automatic number plate
recognition technology would
also be used for the enforcement
of charges.
Darling said in a statement
to the House of Commons: "The
Road Pricing Feasibility Study
concludes that a national scheme
has the potential to cut
congestion by about a half as
well as providing environmental
benefits. It says that road
pricing is becoming technically
feasible in the next 10 to 15
years. But for a scheme to work
it would need general public
acceptance and a great deal of
preparation work over a number