Charging, Tolling & Road Pricing

In the wake of low inflation and competitive pressure constraining tariffs, Moody's Investors Service expects that European toll roads and airports will benefit from healthy growth in traffic volumes in 2016, albeit lower than in 2015. Traffic volume growth remains critical to the credit quality and financial performance of toll road operators and airports.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans would support the use of road-usage fee options such as vehicle miles travelled or mileage-based user fees to help fund transportation costs, according to a new America Thinks national public opinion survey conducted by Kelton Global on behalf of infrastructure firm HNTB Corporation. The survey, Transportation Mobility 2016, also found that close to 170 million Americans (69 per cent) agree priced managed lanes should be considered when making improvements to US highways.

South Gloucestershire Council has purchased two mobile speed indicator signs (SIDs) from UK company Traffic Technology, which will be used to monitor traffic speeds at sites where there is a community concern about speeding vehicles or a history of speed-related injury accidents. The signs will be installed following a site survey to ascertain whether there is a problem with inappropriate speed. SID is a rugged, lightweight radar activated speed indication display that can be used at temporary or perm

US financial research organisation Fitch Ratings has released its spring US Transportation Trends report which indicates that growth will remain healthy for all three US major transportation sectors (airports, ports and toll roads) this year. Commenting on toll roads, Fitch notes that low fuel prices have boosted growth in traffic (6.6 per cent) and revenue (8.3 per cent) since the second half of 2015. The south-east and south-west US have and will continue to lead in traffic performance. The higher rate

Q-Free has appointed Håkon Volldal as its new chief executive officer; he will take up his new position on 1 August. Volldal is currently executive vice president and head of business area for TOMRA Collection Solutions, where he has held several senior positions since 2004. “I am impressed with Q-Free’s history, solutions and ability to adapt to changing market needs over time. I really look forward to joining the Q-Free organisation and I trust I can use my experience to contribute to profitable gr

Schreiner PrinTrust's RFID windshield tags provide automated, contactless vehicle identification for access control to parking garages and electronic billing of parking space as well as for other automatic vehicle identification (AVI) applications such as tolling and fleet management. The tags come in two variants and are optimised for different frequency ranges: the Global Secure tag provides dynamically encrypted communication and an authentication feature capable of identifying original tags, while the P

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has extended its contract with Q-Free for service and maintenance of the Stockholm congestion charging system. The new contract, valued at around US$1.6 million (NOK13 million), is an extension of the contract awarded in 2013 and continues the maintenance for one year from 2017. Congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm in 2006, first as a trial followed by a referendum, then permanently from 2007. “This is a confirmation of the long-standing r

Eric G. O’Rear and Wallace E. Tyner look at the benefits of mileage charges and how these might be implemented. Since the early 1900s, taxes on petrol (gasoline) and diesel fuels have been used to finance the construction and maintenance of roadway infrastructure and, in some countries other government spending too. Now, a combination of improved fuel economy, the advent of hybrid and alternative fuelled vehicles and a reluctance in some countries (especially the US) to increase fuel taxes has led to a d

Police officers across Europe are preparing for their latest Speed Marathon, taking place from 0600 on Thursday 21 April to 0600 on Friday 22 April. The 24-hour initiative forms part of TISPOL’s week-long speed enforcement operation, running until Sunday 24 April. The Speed Marathon concept was devised two years ago in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, members of the public have once again been invited to vote on the locations where they would like speed enforcement measures to ta

The Victorian Government in Australia is to provide the full funding for the Western Distributor Project, a second river crossing which includes the Monash Freeway Upgrade and upgrades to Webb Dock, after the Federal Government rejected a request for a contribution to the funding. Construction of the US$4.2 billion (AU$5.5 billion) Western Distributor will start in 2017, local motorists paying for the rest of it with tolls extended until 2045. The Government and Transurban in Australia have now signed