Swiss launch 2nd generation heavy vehicle OBU

Switzerland has the world's oldest electronic based distance road user charging scheme.  The LSVA (Leistungsabhängige Schwerverkehrsabgabe) was launched in 2001, and has the following essential features:

- All goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes operating on Swiss roads must pay the LSVA distance charge (with few exemptions);

- Vehicles must pay for distance travelled on all public roads, not just motorways;

- The charge is based on gross laden weight, Euro engine (environmental) rating and distance travelled.

Distance is measured with an on board unit (OBU) connected to the vehicle's tachograph.  To avoid fraud (which can easily be undertaken by interfering with the tachograph signal) this is correlated with a GPS unit, which also helps to control the unit when vehicles enter and exit Switzerland.  Foreign vehicles without such units get their odometers measured at entrance and exit and are charged accordingly with a surcharge.

The distance measurement on the OBU is currently transmitted through a smart card which is removed from the OBU and either posted to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration or taken into offices where distance records are checked and payment is taken.

The 2nd generation OBU - Emotach - is to be available from 1 January 2011 with the intention that existing units are all replaced by the end of 2012.  According to Ertico the system supplier is Siemens Solutions and Services AG in Zurich, with sub-supplier Continental in Villingen/Schwenningen for the on-board unit. The new units have the following advantages:

- Greater security for units and smartcards;

- Multiple smartcards can be used so trailers can be more easily interchangeable;

- Bluetooth communication of data to cellphones or terminals, avoiding need to send or insert smartcards;

- Declaration available online;

- Data able to be produced in Microsoft Excel format.

Emotach Swiss distance charging OBU

In addition, it appears the units will be able to be used for the Austrian DSRC based ASFINAG heavy vehicle toll.

Information in more detail is on the Swiss Federal Customs Administration in German, French and Italian.

For heavy vehicle owners, the good news is that the cost of the unit replacement is being fully met by the system operator.   

The Swiss system deserves more attention, because it works well, applies across ALL roads and shows that it isn't bleeding edge technology that is needed.   Although the other side of all of this is that the system was expensive to set up, and that the main benefits for Switzerland have been revenue collected from foreign vehicles (and maintenance savings from reducing the use of its network).  Bear in mind that one of the key reasons the Swiss introduced the LSVA was to capture vehicles that used its roads to bypass French toll roads.

So whilst many consider how to introduce distance charging schemes, the Swiss quietly run one that works rather well.

London Mayor's Air Quality Strategy includes more road charging

London Mayor Boris Johnson has released his Air Quality Strategy (full version here, executive summary here), and it includes a wide range of policy measures for transport and other sectors.  However, for this blog the key interest is in the references to road pricing.   

These are:

- Maintenance of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) (which imposes a requirement that all vehicles within Greater London over 3.5 tonnes  must be Euro 3 standard or above, or face a £200 a day charge), with it being extended to larger vans, minibuses and motor caravans over 1.2 tonnes from January 2012;

- Continuation of the central London Congestion Charging zone;

- More road charging as a last resort "the Mayor may consider road user charging schemes if other measures at his disposal are deemed insufficient to meet his overall transport goals and where there is a reasonable balance between the objectives of any scheme and its costs and other impacts."

- Tightening the Low Emission Zone to a Euro 4 standard for PM for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes by 2012 (and consider one for NOx from 2015);

- Consider a Low Emission Zone for central London, contiguous with the congestion charge zone with even tougher standards.

In short, existing measures are being maintained and the key change will be tightening of the LEZ, with a potential very high standard central LEZ.   Beyond the existing congestion charge, little more is being said other than the options remain open to undertake more road charging if other measures are inadequate.   What this really means is that the political environment to expand congestion charging simply does not exist in London at the moment, but there is official recognition of the potential for it to do more.

Indonesia aiming for more electronic toll takeup

The Jakarta Post reports that Indonesian toll road company, PT Jasa Marga Tbk, is aiming for a major increase in electronic tolling takeup in the next two years.  Current takeup is only 6%, with the goal being to increase this to 30% by 2012.   This will partly be achieved by installing electronic tolling equipment at all toll gates.

The toll prices at present are complex, partly because Jasa Marga is responsible for 13 individual toll roads, with the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (only partly Jasa Marga responsible) already having 83 toll gates.

Prices range from 2500 Rupiah (US$0.28) to 5000 Rupiah (US$0.56) for cars, with prices ranging up to 4000 Rupiah (US$0.44) to 14000 Rupiah (US$1.55) for the heaviest vehicles.   The high number of tolling points means the tolls are more closely aligned to a form of blunt distance charging, a little like the nationwide DSRC based toll system on motorways in Austria. 

However, it does not appear that Jasa Marga is incentivising electronic tolling for anything other than user convenience and reduced congestion at busy toll booths.   Given the saving in labour, it would be appropriate to have a distinction between electronic accounts and manual tolls.   

More importantly, if I was thinking about reducing congestion in Jakarta, incentivising fully electronic free flow traffic on toll roads would be a higher priority than congestion charging.

No congestion charge for Melbourne says new Deputy Premier

The recent State election in Victoria, Australia saw the Labour Party ousted for the centre-right Liberal/National coalition.  Melbourne has a well developed public transport system (focused on the central business district of course), and for some years there have been discussions about whether a congestion charge (focused on the rather easily defined central city) could help ease traffic congestion and fit in with the city's transport strategy.

The new state government seems to have made its views known through new Deputy Premier Peter Ryan who is reported by AAP as opposing a congestion charge for Melbourne.  

Unfortunately, he is making the common mistake around congestion charging in thinking that such charges automatically mean people need a public transport alternative.   The experience elsewhere is that a significant proportion of motorists do not change modes, but change travel times, consolidate trips or do not undertake trips at all.   Public transport providers should anticipate increased demand, but the real point is that public transport at peak times is also underpriced, so congestion charging is an opportunity for further reforms. 

Another option is not to introduce a new charge, but to rebalance existing charges so that it may cost less at other times.   This would make it advantageous to those driving off peak and would increase overall economic efficiency, and may be designed to be net revenue neutral.

Still, there remains some obvious attraction in introducing a congestion charge for downtown Melbourne predominantly because the city's rail, tram and bus network provides good standards of service into the city from the rest of the metropolis.   However, when most discuss such charges they think of cordon/area charges ala London, Stockholm, rather than considering more disaggregated charges that may vary by time and location.   Congestion charging for Melbourne cannot be blunt, cannot be all day and should not have the same charge on all roads approaching the central city.   Equally important is to consider whether congestion charging is better considered as a form of distance charging rather than single events (e.g. crossing a set point).

San Francisco congestion pricing goes forward to next phase

Mercurynews reports that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to support further studies into a downtown San Francisco cordon based congestion charge, but rejected the San Francisco-San Mateo county boundary congestion charge option.   Both were described in my earlier post here.

It voted 9-2 to dump the San Mateo proposal (which performed poorly compared to the downtown option, and which had serious boundary effect issues).   However, it voted to study the San Francisco downtown charge option based on a US$3 charge in both directions in morning and evening peaks, with an option for a US$6 evening only peak charge.  If studies are encouraging, it could be implemented, following approval by state legislators, by 2015.

This is the right decision.  

Congestion pricing systems should not be based on administrative boundaries, but on roads that are congested.   It should be based to the extent practicable on charges that reflect capacity and demand based on time and location.  Whilst the downtown option has limitations, and potentially negative boundary effects, it is more sophisticated than London's system.  Peak only charges are appropriate, although charges in both directions should differ if congestion differs by direction.  Ideally consideration might be given to charge differentially on certain roads, but this is a first step.

SFCTA now needs to do the detailed work on this proposal.  That means looking at boundary effects, bypass and ring routes, the products that motorists should have available, the discounts and exemptions (which include the ludicrous low income discount), the costs, the governance of the project and its operation and finally, what to do with the revenue.   Motorists need to get value and that means making sure the design and pricing noticeably reduces congestion.  It means the roads that are charged and the roads approaching them are well signposted, but also well maintained.  It also means thinking how public transport can be made more responsive to users and not simply think this is a new cash cow to persist with existing practices and inefficiencies.

San Francisco may be the first city to introduce congestion charging in the USA in the form of cordon pricing, as I have said before.   This is not the ideal form of congestion charging, and there are reasons to criticise the proposal, but yet it is a significant step forward in linking the basic economic principles of demand and supply with price in rationing road space.   It will not solve congestion in San Francisco, it is no silver bullet, it wont provide a pot of cash for a wishlist of expensive transport projects, but it should deliver faster speeds on the roads that are charged.  It should allow buses to flow more freely and efficiently.  It should improve the experience for cyclists and pedestrians.  It should improve the financial viability of public transport.  It should reduce air pollution, and ensure the charged roads can be properly maintained and enhanced.  If done properly it can enhance the economic, social and environmental condition of downtown San Francisco, and be a platform for more sophisticated charging.

However, I would plead that San Francisco look more at Singapore than London for its example of best practice.   For one of the big errors in quoting London is to claim that the London scheme cut congestion in London by 30% or traffic by 30%.  It didn't.  It reduced car traffic volumes by 30% within the charged zone (in the first year, eroding year by year), but around half of all traffic in the charged area was not subject to the charge and did not reduce.   The London charging zone is a tiny fraction of the area of metropolitan London, and congestion reduced only modestly because road space was reallocated to bus lanes, cycle lanes and wider footpaths (which was the goal of the then Mayor).   London has had success, but it is quite wrong to use statistics so grossly out of context and to claim it has freed traffic flow in London - the overall effect has been positive, but much beyond the charging area the effect has been minor.   San Francisco will need to ensure motorists see value for money.

Is Jakarta about to introduce congestion charging?

According to a report from Vivanews, a draft regulation of the Jakarta Municipality will authorise the introduction of congestion charging in the Indonesian capital, apparently based on the successful Singapore Electronic Road Pricing model (ERP).   The law apparently grants exemptions for emergency vehicles and buses, but would authorise charging of cars, trucks, taxis and motorcycles.  

It is unclear how the scheme will proceed, but it appears to target specific roads.  Charges will vary according to time of day and will apparently range

"between Rp 15,000 (US$1.6) and Rp 30,000 (US$3.3) for cars".

Another report indicates that the congestion charging scheme will be integrated with other ITS projects, including interoperability with other Indonesian toll roads and electronic ticketing systems for public transport.

Jakarta is a heavily populated metropolitan area.  The city itself has a population of over 9.5 million people, but the greater Jakarta metropolitan area has a population of over 23 million.   Congestion is severe in the city, and the government is committed to addressing this through a combination of road building, major public transport infrastructure expansion and regulatory measures.

It is already illegal to have less than 3 people per private car on certain roads in Jakarta at peak times, effectively making those roads entirely HOV roads, the intention is to replace this law with the charge.

Jakarta has wisely embarked on a high quality bus rapid transit network as well as metro rail, which is proving successful, although a key issue for the city is the dominance of walking as a transport mode.   There is little interest in shifting people from walking to public transport, but rather from driving to public transport.

It is expected that DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) will be used, with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) used for enforcement.  The Jakarta Post is supportive, mainly because congestion is so severe and Indonesia sees the success story of Singapore on its doorstep.  Berita Jakarta reports that the revenue will be new, and will benefit the city.  The question is what the money will be used for, as there is strong support for continued spending on improving the city's road and public transport infrastructure.

From my perspective it is good to see Jakarta embracing the Singaporean approach of targeting congestion by location and time.   It is far more likely to gain support, and will generate more economic benefits that the blunt approach of London and slightly less blunt approach of Stockholm (and proposed blunt approach of San Francisco).   Targeting by time encouraging time shifting of trips when the road has more capacity.  Targeting by location allows other parts of the network (if appropriate) to get better utilisation.  Together it has made the Singapore system still the most advanced from a policy perspective in managing traffic flows.

It is a shame policy makers in Europe and North America still look to London and Stockholm, when the real pioneer - Singapore - has been operating a more sophisticated (and effective) system for longer.

North Texas goes fully electronic freeflow

On 10 December, all of the roads of the North Texas Tollway Authority went cashless

The roads are:

* Addison Airport Toll Tunnel

* Dallas North Tollway

* Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge

* Mountain Creek Lake Bridge

* President George Bush Turnpike

* Sam Rayburn Tollway in Collin, Dallas and Denton Counties

This obviously creates benefits for motorists in reduced congestion, and sees the conversion of the scheme to full DSRC and ANPR technology.  DSRC customers have prepaid accounts and use a specific set of Transcore tags.  ANPR users are charged at 50% higher than DSRC rates.

Good on the NTTA.   Assuming the relevant systems are in place to allow efficient and effective ANPR charging and enforcement, electronic free flow tolling should be on the agenda for all tolling agencies worldwide.  It has been proven now for well over a decade in Canada and Australia, and one of the biggest criticisms of tolling are the queues resulting from manual toll booths.  Indeed the Dartford Crossing near London has this as one of its biggest problems, as a section of highway that already lacks capacity becomes an almost daily hours long bottleneck due to manual tolls.

Questions can be raised about interoperability, about the DSRC technology used and whether it is suitable for longer term goals for ITS and pricing, but that is for another article.  The key point is that electronic free flow tolling is what should be expected nowadays.

Is the Washington Times completely wrong on toll roads?

The Washington Times editorial on 10 December is damning of the Virginian Governor’s policy on using private finance and tolls to improve Virginia’s highway infrastructure. It is easy to dismiss this as a kneejerk reaction to tolls, which advocates of tolling often observe. Some are suspicious that private finance can lead to corruption, and that users can be ripped off.

However, is there some truth behind what the newspaper is saying that those in the tolling/PPP sector need to take on board?

The editorial implies that because Governor O’Donnell announced his plans in the presence of various engineers, investors and consultants involved in the sector, that this was somehow suspicious as such firms will make money from the plans. It would be if there were not open competitive tendering and strict auditing of such procedures. Actually if the private sector was largely set free to initiate and build routes itself, there shouldn’t be a problem, but this is neither the plan, nor what the Washington Times endorses. Transparency is important and I would hope the Governor would ensure that is the case, and the state legislatures should also expect it. The phrase public/private partnership should not be a euphemism for dodgy deals. What is important is for the role of the private sector to be clear and open.

My key criticism is in the establishment of a state infrastructure bank, which implies that road projects can’t be financed by private sector investment at all (which raises the real question as to whether the projects are worthwhile in the first place). If projects are worthwhile they should be attractive to the private sector in raising their own finance and for the costs to be recovered over the long term. There is a separate value in setting up an independent funding body to bypass politically motivated roads funding decisions, but that isn’t the matter here. It should be what Virginia pursues, as it is international best practice.

However, the editorial criticism of the lease of HOT lanes is less well founded. Converting a shoulder into a lane is cheap, but the operation of HOT lanes provides a choice for motorists. The only criticism I would have is that ultimately additional capacity should be added, financed by the lanes, if viable. Finally transponders and camera systems will not track drivers’ every move. Use of a single lane is hardly an infringement on privacy. HOT lanes are a step in the right direction.

Tolling is a market oriented concept, because it is about user pays. Charging for usage of a piece of infrastructure is hardly big government oriented. The claim in the editorial that it is a tax hike is preposterous, as it is only right that those who use highways pay for them. Finally to claim that expanding highway lanes is the only true solution to congestion is part of the point. Basic economics tells you that eventually pricing needs to be combined with infrastructure construction. It would be a significant breakthrough if the Washington Times understood that the value of HOT lanes is in exposing motorists to the laws of supply /demand related to roads, but are only a first step towards moving towards full network road pricing.

Filipino push for interoperable electronic free flow tolling

Tito F. Hermoso in Business World Online argues that the Filipino government should put a little impetus into encouraging private concessionaires across the Philippines to established a transactions clearing house.   Why?  Because he believes the building blocks are already in place to establish a fully interoperable electronic free flow based tolling system across Filipino toll roads.

The Philippines has built an expressway network between major cities using private concessionaires with tolls, including using the European 5.8GHz standard for DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) technology.  However, whilst that means the tags that motorists acquire for different toll roads can be read at all of the roads, the key is to have the systems behind the different toll roads operators communicating behind the scenes so that payment is seamless.   What is far more important is contractual interoperability, which is good for users, but not necessarily always seen as so by concessionaires.

In short, what Mr Hermoso is rightly calling for is for motorists to have one account with one concessionaire that enables the motorist to use toll roads from other concessionaires and for the account to be deducted for those roads as well.   This is the holy grail of interoperability, an objective of many national or state/regional transport authorities in different countries, but often not achieved either for technical or contractual reasons.  

Of course there should be adequate incentives for concessionaires to do this.  It is cheaper to have such accounts, and they would encourage usage of the toll roads.   However, it does depend on the number of transactions from account holders from different concessionaires making it worthwhile to handle the accounts.  A central clearing house makes all the difference, but the precedents in the tolling world are not as common as one might think. 

What he also suggests is that barriers be removed and for electronic tolling to be free flow, which of course requires high quality ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) systems, but more importantly clear number plates and an accurate motor vehicle licence plate registry.   I can't say that I am sure the Philippines is ready for that yet, but the aspiration is certainly laudable as one of the big negatives of tolling is the use of manual toll booths which can contribute to congested. 

Tauranga: New Zealand's toll road capital got one wrong

There have been very few toll roads in New Zealand's recent history, but for some reason the city that seems to have had the greatest interest in tolling is not a major one, but a relatively fast growing provincial town called Tauranga (population today of around 120,000).   Outside Tauranga, only one other city (Auckland) has had a toll road in the past 25 years.

Its first project was a very successful harbour bridge, which dramatically shortened (halving) the driving time between Tauranga City Centre and the neighbouring upmarket suburban district of Mt. Maunganui (which is also the locality of the Port of Tauranga, one of New Zealand's most dynamic port companies).   Between 1988 and 2001 it was tolled, after which the tolls had fully paid down the debt and interest (and some) of the bridge and tolls were removed.  The result of removing the toll was an 18% increase in traffic across the bridge (with only a 7% reduction in traffic count on the alternative route) which is hardly surprising.  In fact the continued increase in traffic was such that the bridge and its approaches were increasingly congested.  A proposal to toll the bridge again to fund a duplication of capacity and some grade separated approaches was cancelled, because the government of the day needed support from a minor political party, whose leader was then the MP for Tauranga (and who opposed tolls).  (The duplicated bridge has recently opened).

The third project is the forthcoming Tauranga Eastern Link, being led by central government, it is a motorway bypass 23km long which is to include electronic free flow tolling, entirely ANPR based.  It is a four lane motorway that bypasses one town and a rather tortuous stretch of single carriageway.  

Tolling is specifically to help finance the road, which is also being funded from conventional road taxes (fuel tax and road user charges (weight/distance charge on heavy and diesel vehicles)).

The second project is the one that has gone wrong.  Known as Route K, it was commissioned by the Tauranga City Council as a 5 km single carriageway (1 lane each way) highway bypass of its southern suburbs.  It is located on Google Maps as Takitimu Drive between Route J and State Highway 29 only (the northern half of Takitimu Drive is the untolled approach to the Harbour Bridge).

Tauranga City Council commissioned it as a fully toll funded road, but the problems with it were rather apparent from the start.  It cost NZ$45 million (US$33.7 million) to build, but has lost money every year it has been in operation since 2002.  Tauranga City Council now owes NZ$55 million on the road, and it can neither sell it nor will central government take over this liability.  Why has it failed?

First the route it bypassed wasn't particularly congested (or rather the routes, as there are two parallel suburban main roads).  It was primarily expected to be used by residents of growing southern suburbs, which haven't grown, and the time advantage frankly wasn't good enough for a journey this short.  

Route K is between the Pye Pa Bypass and the SH2 Northern Corridor.

Secondly, the route itself was forecast to need 10,000 vehicles a day to break even.  The fact the road is a single carriageway highway, that is not a crossing should be a clue as to whether enough revenue can be generated from tolls to pay for it.  Furthermore, the road went through analysis according to the Economic Evaluation Manual of the then funding body - Transfund New Zealand - and came out with a benefit cost ratio barely over 1.  That was why it was not funded with other road projects because it was poor value for money.   That tells you that no only could it not be justified from a national economic appraisal point of view, but users also perceived it was not worth paying for to use.

Actual traffic volumes are only 4840 daily,  even that is a 28% increase on a year ago.   Assuming all of those vehicles paid fuel tax (not true but just for argument's sake) and were relatively inefficient, they would only generate another NZ$295,000 p.a. if it was shadow tolled.

So Tauranga has a problem.   It borrowed money and built a road that doesn't have enough traffic and is tolling users and has less than half the demand necessary to break even.   The tolls are not high at NZ$1 (US$0.74) for cars and up to NZ$ 4 (US$3) for trucks, and the Council struggles to raise the tolls by 50%.   It is a manual tolling system with a cheap bespoke tag system that appears to have low takeup (and with a NZ$2 monthly rental for a tag and no discount the incentives to use them are low).

What it shows is the mistake of modelling demand based on assumptions about value of time that do not take into account the cost to users of engaging the toll transaction.  Quite simply put, motorists are far less likely to part with money for a toll than money for another discretionary purchase, particularly if they do not part with tolls regularly elsewhere (After all Route K opened a year after the Harbour Bridge toll was abolished).  In particular, if the new road doesn't bypass particularly congested routes, its appeal will be limited.

Demand has increased recently for two reasons, first the duplicated and improve Harbour Bridge corridor which leads to Route K has meant that it is now part of a far less congested major corridor to the Port, secondly the southern end of Route K is connected to the recently opened Pyes Pa Bypass, which itself comprises a recently improved secondary highway to the major town of Rotorua.  In other words, the road itself was built before its time.

As Tauranga grows and the attractiveness of the route given the roads either end of it, becomes more apparent, then the road will become viable.  Meanwhile a Council is stuck with a gamble, based on poor forecasting and assumptions about revenue! Here is a newspaper article explaining the council's troubles.