Road Charging

Facing rising levels of traffic congestion across Europe and North America, governments are giving serious consideration to nationwide road charging programs in addition to revamping public transportation systems and infrastructure.

Road charging is a concept aimed at alleviating the shared societal and environmental strain on urban road congestion. The goal is to introduce a marginal fee for road use in order to more accurately reflect the external costs of congestion and provide a disincentive to using roads at busy times.

Increased urban congestion can have an adverse effect on local transportation, population, and the economy. Governments are currently investigating different models that could reduce road taxes as an incentive to reduced congestion.

Time, Distance, and Place (TDP) solutions using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology are gaining popularity in a number of jurisdictions around the world. They provide real-time information about driver’s location, route, speed, and duration – eliminating the need for tollbooths, cameras, and transponders while alleviating toll route bottlenecks and road congestion.