The technical and institutional issues associated with the enforcement of a multi-lane debiting system

In the field of automatic debiting systems, the automatic collection of road tolls and road use pricing fees from vehicle drivers, without the need for the driver to slow down or stop at the point of collection is regarded as a technically demanding and complex interaction of a number of subsystems in real time. The problem of designing an enforcement system is regarded as not only technically demanding but there are also several institutional issues, legal and practical problems which need to be considered. Such issues and constraints can be difficult enough within one country, but when trying to implement a common pan European road tolling scheme the problems become greatly magnified. From a European perspective which must consider the issues from the view of harmonisation and interoperability, and the paper highlights some of these important areas. It discusses the development of a multi lane automatic debiting and enforcement system and presents a 5.8 GHz microwave solution which was developed within the DRIVE-ATT project ADEPT. This solution has been further developed by the ADEPT partner SAAB Combitech, and is now at a commercial stage with several installations in place throughout the world. The paper also looks at the work of CARDME in its attempts to harmonise automatic debiting systems across Europe. Additionally there is a discussion of the key legal issues which cover the actions from the detection of a non compliant vehicle to the imposition of a fine or penalty