How does electronic toll collection work?

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Renegade

Renegade

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Of course it works by attaching a passive RFID tag to your car which is read and amount is automatically deducted from your e-wallet. So you don't have to stop at the toll booth and hand over the cash. Very efficient.

What I was thinking about are more practical aspects of the implementation. How do we ensure that the tag is not tampered with. Or detect if the RFID tag of a smaller vehicle is attached to a larger vehicle to cheat cost. Once detected how do they stop and take action if the cars are not supposed to stop at the ETC (electronic toll collection) lane. I am sure there would be other concern or applications of this kind of implementation.

In a bid to cut down the travelling time on highways, the Government of India, yesterday, launched an electronic toll collection (ETC) programme. To be known as 'FASTag', it will allow people to pay their highway tolls electronically without needing to stop at the toll plazas.

"The unique number of the RFID Tag affixed on the wind shield of the vehicle will be read by the readers fitted in the dedicated 'ETC' lanes of plazas and appropriate amount as per the class of vehicle will be automatically deducted from the account of the user. The dedicated ETC lanes will have colour coding for distinct identity recognized as FASTag", the ministry said in a statement.
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Have seen this in USA. You need a tag on your car which is read by the toll gate. Don't know anymore information.
 
I haven't seen one in action, but taking a few guesses having worked with RFID, I can say that tampering can be easily be dealt with using encryption.
Regarding the small and large vehicle that can be solved by installing overhead barriers at certain height and thus providing different lanes for different classes of vehicles which in turn will allow for faster traffic flow.
 
Vince said:
How does it work in Singapore?
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Singapore has them all over the place. Small card-reader type of device is mounted at the end of the dashboard. They charge at peak hours when some roads are traversed.
 
In 1959, Nobel Economics Prize winner William Vickrey was the first to propose a system of electronic tolling for the Washington Metropolitan Area. He proposed that each car would be equipped with a transponder. “The transponder’s personalised signal would be picked up when the car passed through an intersection, and then relayed to a central computer which would calculate the charge according to the intersection and the time of day and add it to the car’s bill”[1] Electronic toll collection has facilitated the concession to the private sector of the construction and operation of urban freeways, as well as made feasible the improvement and the practical implementation of road congestion pricing schemes in a limited number of urban areas to restrict auto travel in the most congested areas.

alternate in london

The scheme makes use of purpose-built automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, manufactured by PIPs Technology, to record vehicles entering and exiting the zone. Cameras can record number plates with a 90% accuracy rate through the technology.[109][152] The majority of vehicles within the zone are captured on camera. The cameras take two still pictures in colour and black and white and use infrared technology to identify the number plates. The camera network and other roadside equipment is managed largely automatically by an instation system developed by Roke Manor Research Ltd, which delivers number plates to the billing system. These identified numbers are checked against the list of payers overnight by computer. In those cases when a number plate has not been recognised then they are checked manually.[152] Those that have paid but have not been seen in the central zone are not refunded, and those that have not paid and are seen are fined. The registered keeper of such a vehicle is looked up in a database provided by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), based in Swansea.[152][153]
 
Speed will be reduced when you pass through the toll gates.

RFID needs to be in a certain area in your windshield. The RFID readers are pointed to that general area. But yeas, I read those things scan the entire area of a general Wind shield. There are few of them to cover different types of vehicles.

Camera or high speed cameras will be taking a picture of the driver and the license plate also.
 
You been in US toll booths r8?. i have counted till 6 RFID readers at various levels once. Guess they do the job.
 
New_Jersey_toll_gate_FDL.jpg


The rectangular thing underneath the green arrows. Think this is Chicago/Illinois route.. although image name showed up as NJ.
 
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