Protocols for toll road systems

Abstract

A problem in a tolling system like AutoPASS is the number of unidentified passages due to unreadable license plates. As a consequence money is lost for the toll road companies. A scheme is proposed that uses anonymous statistics to aid in the process of allocating resources for manual controls. Due to legal requirements for anonymity of data produced at toll plazas, a model that simulates the traffic frequencies on Norwegian roads is developed and implemented in Java. Using the toll plazas that make upMiljøpakken in Trondheim as a starting point, a simulation generatingthree months worth of traffic amounting to almost 460 MiB of data is performed. The simulated data were checked for its reliability and similarity with real data. Calculations based on an optimistic estimate on the number of AutoPASS subscriptions with rebated fares have shown that nearly 370 000 NOK are lost due to unidentified vehicles over the three months simulated. The outlined solution shows that toll plazaswith a higher number of unregistered passages can be identified and this information can be used in subsequent planning activities for the purpose of executing manual controls to reduce the losses.