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Electronic toll collection (ETC) systems make it easier for drivers to pay the fee for driving on toll roads. Nevertheless, digitalization of any process enables the service provider to collect digital records containing an accurate description of all the transactions carried out by users. This is the case for ETC systems. Moreover, records about road usage contain data about people's driving habits, from which highly sensitive personal information can be inferred. Hence, these systems should be designed in such a way that the privacy of drivers is preserved. In this paper we present an ETC system which guarantees that drivers pay the amount corresponding to their journeys while preserving their privacy in the sense that all the interactions of a car with the system are anonymous and unlinkable. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ETC proposal in which the system server is unable to link the entrance and exit points of a trip. The security of the proposal has been analyzed, while its performance has been tested from a prototype implementation which proves its feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The travel time prediction of vehicles is an important part of intelligent expressways. It can not only provide the vehicle distribution trend of each section for the expressway management department to assist the fine management of the expressway, but it can also provide owners with dynamic and accurate travel time prediction services to assist the owners to formulate more reasonable travel plans. However, there are still some problems in the current travel time prediction research (e.g., different types of vehicles are not processed separately, the proximity of the road network is not considered, and the capture of important information in the spatial-temporal perspective is not considered in depth). In this paper, we propose a Multi-View Travel Time Prediction (MVPPT) model. First, the travel times of different types of vehicles of each section in the expressway are analyzed, and the main differences in the travel times of different types of vehicles are obtained. Second, multiple travel time features are constructed, which include a novel spatial proximity feature. On this basis, we use CNN to capture the spatial correlation and the spatial attention mechanism to capture key information, the BiLSTM to capture the time correlation of time series, and the time attention mechanism capture key time information. Experiments on large-scale real traffic data demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal over state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the topic of a modern electronic toll collection system that will be applied in the Republic of Croatia from the year 2022 onwards. The paper primarily analyses the existing toll collection systems in Croatia, as well as in the European Union. Modern electronic toll collection systems were analysed with an emphasis on the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system, because ANPR technology will be used in Croatia after the restructuring of road traffic occurs. ANPR is not a new technology, however in the last twenty years it has found its wider application. This happened mostly thanks to local and global infrastructural development and technological improvements therefore in turn infrastructure required for the operation of this system became cheaper. By applying the ETC and ANPR, Croatia will have a system in line with European directives and practices which are being applied in other European countries. The system will in turn significantly raise the quality of road traffic in Croatia and reduce its costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a CMOS DSRC transmitter architecture for China electronic toll collection systems. A digitally configurable transmitter architecture is proposed to reduce chip area, power, cost, and design complexity. This transmitter consists of only two digitally configurable analog blocks: an ASK modulator and a power amplifier, other than the digital baseband. The use of digital configuration extends output dynamic range, and facilitates rapid prototyping in different process technologies. The RF-SoC is fabricated using a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. Chip measurement results show that the maximum output power from a single-end port is 7.23 dBm, the occupied bandwidth is 2 MHz, the adjacent channel power ratio is −38 dBc at a 10 MHz offset, the adjustment range of modulation index is 77%–95%, and the transmitter dissipates 36 mA in active mode under a 2 V supply. Compared with state-of-the-art designs in the literature, this design demonstrates remarkable advantages in design complexity, modulation index, chip area, power consumption, output dynamic range, and output peak power. The chip area savings is at least 60%, the power consumption is reduced by at least 10%, the output dynamic range is enhanced by 9%, and the single-end output peak power is improved by at least 45%. • This paper presents a CMOS DSRC transmitter architecture for China electronic toll collection systems. • A digitally configurable transmitter architecture is proposed to reduce chip area, power, cost, and design complexity. • The use of digital configuration extends output dynamic range, and facilitates rapid prototyping in different technologies. • The RF-SoC is fabricated using a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. • Chip measurement shows remarkable advantages in chip area, power consumption, output dynamic range, and output peak power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent European debt crisis has led many governments to impose strict measures to alleviate public expenditure and increase revenue, especially in the southern countries. Many public services and infrastructures became more costly for users due to the increase of existing fees or the implementation of new ones. In Portugal, one of the measures adopted by the government consisted in the removal of shadow tolls and the application of the user-pays principle to the entire network of rural motorways. To rapidly implement, this measure, in the context of financial constraints, the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), materialized by the installation of gantries in selected motorway segments, was the preferred solution over the more time and resource consuming construction of toll plazas. Toll revenue is directly collected by the state, which intends to cover, at least partially, the expenses associated with the contractual payments to private concessionaires for the traffic using these roads. The main objective of this research is to provide a new optimization tool to allocate toll gantries to the segments of an existing motorway with the aim of maximizing toll revenue, based on the case study of Portuguese motorways. A macroscopic decision model that predicts drivers' decision on using a tolled segment or the fastest alternative route and an optimization model that sets the price and location of toll gantries along a given motorway work together to provide a valuable tool to maximize the revenue. A special focus has been placed on scenarios of economic downturn, characterized by a negative growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); however, the new tool allows making explanatory analyses for situations of economic growth. The results show that the optimal configuration for ETC vary with the macroeconomic scenario, with the number of tolled segments and price per kilometre inducing relevant variations on the revenue and traffic volume. The proposed methodology may be applied in other countries to assist decision makers in the implementation of ETC in motorways under different conditions. The required data is easy to collect from sources at the disposal of the practitioners.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a monolithic received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and an ultra-low power SAR ADC for 5.8 GHz DSRC transceiver in China electronic toll collection systems. In order to meet the stringent requirement of wide input range for the transceiver, two RSSIs collaborate with auxiliary ADC circuits to provide the digitalized received signal strength to the digital baseband of a transceiver. The RSSI design achieves fast transient response and low power consumption with a small die area by using internal active low-pass filters instead of external passive ones. The proposed design has been fabricated using a 0.13 µm 2P6M CMOS technology. Measurement results show that the overall input dynamic range is 86 dB with an accuracy of  ±1.72 dB and a transient response of less than 2 µs. Compared with the state-of-the-art designs in the literature, the overall input range and transient settling time are improved by at least 14.6%, and 300%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of multipath fading and the surroundings of the communication area cause errors in the V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure) communication link. Traditional ITS/DSRC systems cannot read information when vehicles move at high speed. These reasons cause the unreliability of the conventional ITS/DSRC systems. Therefore, the authors propose using the MIMO technique and SDR technology to enhance the ITS/DSRC systems' performance. This article presents an implementation of the SDR technology for ITS/DSRC used with the MIMO technique. All experimentation has followed the IEEE 802. lip WAVE-DSRC standard. The USRP platform and GNU Radio software package have been used. The achievement of 2 USRP platforms can be configured easily as OBU and RSU. OBU are installed in the vehicles to perform measurements for V2I applications. The packet error rate, bit error rate, throughput, and average correct received packet ratio have been investigated by varying the distances between the RSU and OBU. The results show an improvement in the traditional ITS/DSRC system's performance. The proposed system increases the reliability for drivers when a small bit error rate occurred. The proposed system gains a high system throughput. Then, the ITS/DSRC communication system can transmit important information at a high data rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of long-distance travel time information has been a major factor facilitating the intelligent transportation system to become more successful. Previous studies have pointed out that non-recurrent congestion is the major cause of freeway delay. The long travel distance complicates the characteristics of traffic flow. Hence, how to improve the prediction capability of long-distance travel time in the case of non-recurrent congestion is an important issue that must be overcome in the field of travel time prediction. This study constructs the travel time prediction model for a segment of 36.1 kms (including eight interchanges) in the National Freeway No. 1, Taiwan, by using the multilayer perceptron. To improve the prediction capability of the model in the case of non-recurrent congestion, this study collects data of average spot speed and heavy vehicle volume gathered by dual-loop vehicle detectors, in addition to rainfall and temporal feature. Furthermore, the historical travel time inferred from the original data of electronic toll collection (ETC) system is also used as the input variable, and the actual travel time inferred from ETC is used as the training target to establish a robust prediction model. As suggested by the results of 168 experimental combinations, the most appropriate prediction model established in this study is a highly accurate forecasting model with MAPE of 6.47 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study develops an electronic toll collection (ETC) disaggregate choice model based on a large-scale questionnaire survey of car drivers in Taiwan. To acknowledge the difference in preferences among car drivers, the latent class logit model is used to classify respondents into different groups without subjective segmentation. The estimation results show that six groups of car drivers are optimally distinguished. The price of an e-pass and the discount for ETC tolls are identified as the two most important factors affecting ETC adoption. The study also finds that significant differences in adoption behaviours exist among groups. Effective marketing strategies for different groups are then proposed accordingly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper applies the contingent valuation method to investigate and estimate the toll rate that freeway drivers are willing-to-pay (WTP) for each unit of distance they travel, after switching from per-entry based to distance-based tolling system. Due to a large portion of respondents who are unwilling to pay a toll at all, we adopt the spike model to avoid estimation errors. The estimation results show that average willingness to pay toll is TWD [1] Note: 30.04 Taiwanese Dollars (TWD) was equivalent to $1 USD (October, 2011). 1 0.86/km, which can be refined further to TWD 0.81/km for short distance travelers, TWD 0.93/km for medium distance travelers, and TWD 0.97/km for long distance travelers. Additionally, the WTP toll rate of short distance travelers is significantly different on public holidays but not during peak hours. In contrast, the WTP toll rates of medium and long distance travelers significantly different during peak hours but not on public holidays. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes conceptual frameworks incorporating technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior and three additional constructs – impression changes, attitude of government, and risk to investigate the factors affecting freeway driver intention to adopt electronic toll collection service for both users and nonusers of electronic toll collection. The proposed frameworks are unique because of the incorporation of media and word-of-mouth effects to represent the impression changes, respectively. The respondents were specifically asked about their impressions of electronic toll collection related policies and strategies spread through media and word-of-mouth before and after electronic toll collection operation. Estimated results obtained from structural equations modeling validate that impression changes in both media and word-of-mouth exhibit significant direct or indirect effects on freeway driver intention to adopt electronic toll collection service. Corresponding strategies to enhance electronic toll collection adoption rate are then proposed accordingly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to discuss the insight gained into the attitudinal factors that explain freight carriers’ decisions to use electronic toll collection (ETC). The paper uses the freight carrier survey data collected for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The qualitative analysis of the data identifies the potential reasons and factors that determined users’ and nonusers’ different responses towards ETC. In addition, a discrete choice modeling process was undertaken to quantify the relationship between the decision to use ETC and the explanatory variables. The modeling results indicate that freight carriers’ ETC choice depends on: the frequency of passing through the PANYNJ facilities, awareness of the ETC features, and business attributes such as company size, origins and destinations of deliveries, the business type, and the commodity types transported. Several important interaction terms were also explored. The paper also undertakes a comparative analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the behavior of freight users, and the behavior of passenger car users identified in a companion paper. This analysis reveals: (1) the importance of awareness campaigns to let potential facility users know the key features of the ETC system; (2) that the intensity of the potential use is a major motivating factor to embrace ETC; (3) that different users seek/value different aspects of ETC; and (4) that there are important user segments that, for reasons not entirely understood, are reluctant to embrace ETC. Since the intensity of use is not a variable that could be influenced by policy measures–as it is determined by the market dominance of the carrier–the best way to increase the market share of ETC is with the use of awareness campaigns aimed at the industry segments, e.g., independent owner operators, that are reluctant to use this important technology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the results of an investigation of the factors that shape the decision by passenger car users of a tolled facility to use an electronic toll collection (ETC) system. The paper is based on revealed data collected in the New York City area, that were analysed with the assistance of discrete choice models. The results provide insight into the nature of the underlying decision making process. A number of results stand out. The first one is that the time saved by using ETC at the toll booths does not play a statistically significant role in the decision to use ETC. This result is conceptually correct because: (1) the time saved at the toll booths when using ETC is a relatively small portion of the total travel time in the hyper-congested network in the New York City area and (2) the actual time saved is curtailed by upstream congestion that makes it difficult for drivers to reach the ETC-only toll booths, and by downstream congestion that frequently prevents driver from crossing the toll booths. The second set of results is related to the perceived financial benefits of using ETC. Two variables were found to play a significant role in increasing ETC use: the toll savings (the difference between cash and ETC tolls), and drivers’ awareness of the toll discounts offered. Other socio-economic attributes have a direct relationship with the likelihood of using ETC: the number of trips made through the facilities, auto ownership, college education, age, and income. The results also indicate significant differences by ethnicity as racial minorities (i.e., African–Americans and Hispanics) are less inclined to use ETC than Caucasians. From the policy standpoint, these results imply that in order to increase ETC use, the difference between cash and ETC tolls should be increased, and accompanied with outreach campaigns to raise awareness of the toll discounts available to ETC users. The underrepresentation of ethnic minorities should also be addressed by implementing specially designed outreach efforts to gain insight into the factors that shape their attitude toward ETC. Taken together, the results in the paper—and in a companion paper that focuses on freight users—provide clear suggestions that could be used to increase ETC use, and enable the transportation system to fully exploit the potential benefits of such an important technology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We study the traffic states and jams occurring in traffic flow on a two-lane toll highway with electronic and manual (traditional) tollgates. The electronic and manual collection vehicles sort themselves into their respective lanes at low density, while they mix at each tollgate at high density. We derive the fundamental diagrams (flow–density diagrams) for the electronic and manual collection vehicles. The traffic states change with increasing density and varying the ratio. Dynamical phase transitions occur. It is shown that the fundamental diagrams for the two tollgates depend greatly on the density and fraction of both vehicles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In order to reduce the number of vehicles stuck in congestion, especially for stop-and-go traffic at toll plazas, the establishment of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems has been a hot issue and dominant trend in many countries. Taiwan has joined the crowd, adding an ETC system to its toll roads in early 2006. However, despite the potential benefits for motorists, the utilization rate has been lower than expected during the introductory stage. The objective of this study is to advance our understanding on the critical antecedents of motorists’ intention of ETC service adoption by integrating both technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) perspectives. Through empirical data collection and analysis from highway motorists who had not installed on-board units (OBU) for ETC service in Taiwan, we found that system attributes, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, indeed, positively engender motorists’ attitudes towards ETC service adoption. Moreover, results also reveal that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control positively influence the intention of ETC system adoption. Implications for practitioners and researchers, and suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article presents a discrete-event stochastic microscopic simulation model specifically developed to evaluate the operational performance of toll plazas. The model has been calibrated, validated, and applied to toll plazas equipped with Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) in Orlando, Florida. Traffic behavior is represented using a set of mathematical and logic algorithms that control the conflicts among vehicles within the toll plaza area. Modified versions of Car-Following and Lane-Changing Algorithms and a new Toll-Lane Selection Algorithm are integrated into this new model to simulate traffic operation at toll plazas. The model output includes Measures of Effectiveness that can be used to evaluate the performance of existing and future individual toll lanes and the entire toll plaza system. Real-life data collected at the busiest toll plaza in the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) system was compared with the model output to validate the developed model. Statistical tests indicated that there is no significant difference at the 95% confidence level between Measures of Effectiveness obtained from the model and those collected in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of a transportation system is a major concerning factor for urbanisation, as evidenced by the ever-growing problems of air pollution issues in major cities. While the growing population and migration don't have too much control to overcome the widespread use of public and personalised vehicles, it has destroyed our global environment. Therefore, the expansion of the transportation system should be carefully planned for global sustainability: so-called green transportation or sustainable transportation. In this paper, factors that should be considered when implementing green transportation for global sustainability have been critically reviewed. Firstly, barriers and challenges associated with current travel demands and blocking the implementation of green transportation have been identified. A three-step strategy (so-called ASI strategy, i.e. , avoid, shift, and improve strategy), which had been proposed to overcome the challenges and barriers, was investigated. Identification of innovative technologies or management approaches has been proposed for greening the public transportation system. Finally, some well-recognised success stories of the ASI strategy were presented, in which Avoid can reduce 146–312 kg CO2 /y, Shift can be reduced 0.27 kg CO2 /revolution of vehicles use and Improve can be reduced 12.4% CO 2 emissions. This review guides successful urban planning through the green transportation system. [Display omitted] - Barriers, challenges and strategies of sustainable transportation critically reviewed. - Three strategies (Avoid, Shift, and Improve) for green transportation were proposed. - Innovative technology and integrated management proposed for transportation. - Green transportation for environmental sustainability outlined. - Case studies of green transportation demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth of big data and open data in recent years, the importance of data anonymization is increasing. Original data need to be anonymized to prevent personal identification from being revealed before being released to the public. There is a growing variety of de-identification methods which have been proposed to reduce the privacy issues, however, there is still much to be improved. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the possibilities of re-identification from masked data, and to compare the pros and cons of different de-identification methods. A set of electronic toll collection data from Taiwan was used and we successfully re-identified vehicles with specific patterns. Four de-identification methods were performed and finally we compared the strengths and weaknesses of these methods and evaluated their appropriateness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]