£10M boost for innovation in road-charging technology

17 May 2006

Transport secretary Douglas Alexander’s £10M technology to trial state-of-the-art road-user charging technologies could help overcome the problems of satellite-based charging in built-up areas.
Alexander last week announced that he would be issuing an invitation to the market to participate in a series of demonstration projects to ‘work with us to tackle some of the really difficult design issues’. These would take place over the next three to four years, while ‘pathfinder’ local authorities implemented charging schemes.
It was crucial that the system was ‘as simple for users as possible’, meaning that motorists should not be required to have multiple tags, passes or accounts. Simon Mapes, Atkins’ senior manager of project development (transport planning), who sat on the working group for the DIRECTS demonstration projects of different charging technologies, suspected the DfT wanted to overcome the ‘urban canyon’ problem that satellite systems faced. The difficulty in pinpointing vehicles in densely built-up central London caused Transport for London to opt for a tag and beacon system from 2009 instead.
But Mapes stressed that tag and beacon technology implemented over bigger geographical areas would be prohibitively expensive and overly intrusive, given the need for cameras to detect cars without tags.
Having a twin-track strategy of local pathfinder schemes and national technology trials allowed the Government to spread the many risks it faced in introducing a national scheme. Alexander alluded to this in his statement that ‘it would not make sense to launch straight into a national scheme… a measured approach, through pilots of varying scale will develop our understanding and demonstrate what works’.
• A £5M contract to provide automatic number plate cameras for the western extension of the central London congestion charge has been awarded to PIPS Technology. The Spike+ ‘integrates incorporated colour and infrared CCTV cameras, a digital video recorder, mobile phone and power cables into a cost-effective unit’ according to the Hampshire-based firm.
The deal is part of Siemens’ contract to provide the enforcement infrastructure for the western extension to cover the rest of Westminster and parts of Kensington & Chelsea, due to be introduced next February.

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