Volume 60, Issue 4 -

Known since the Roman period, toll is nowadays an issue that is becoming increasingly important. The original main objectives, funding of road maintenance and -expansion and the financing of public budgets, are more and more pushed into the background through steering-policy objectives (demand-side management, environmental protection, internalisation of external costs). Beginning with toll stations with manual payment to satellite-based toll systems, there are various technologies, to be selected by various relevant criteria. The toll amount varies depending on different vehicle criteria (usually length, height and number of axles). In recent years, the vehicle weight and emission criteria have also become an issue. This requires more complex classification and enforcement technologies. A major challenge is that many toll systems, unfortunately, despite all efforts, are still not interoperable. It has also been contemplates that the tolling technology could also be used for other ITS applications (e. g. e-Call, various information services). Furthermore, it is the political objective (at least that of the EU) that in future not only heavy goods vehicles but all vehicles must pay a mileage-based fee. And on each and every road, not just on the primary road network. This would represent a significant step towards the true cost of transport.

Introducing a toll system provides means to influence the traffic flow by financial incentives. However, influencing the traffic dynamics can cause undesirable effects such as oscillating traffic conditions and traffic jams. This paper presents an oscillation problem in traffic systems based on delayed feedback information and describes a system theoretical approach to analyze it.

A prerequisite for a success of forward-looking transport telematics applications is the availability of reliable wireless communication systems. Subject of this article is a method for a quantitative assessment of the time and error behaviour of such communication systems. The approach is described by using exemplary tests of wireless devices according to IEEE 802.11p. The results emphasize the importance of systematic testing in order to discover eliminate weaknesses.

In future applications based on vehicle-vehicle and vehicle infrastructure communication shall enable a safer traffic, a more efficient road traffic management and also future toll systems. Special requirements regarding the underlying technology arise from the various application scenarios. Currently different wireless technologies are developed and tested facing these automotive requirements and are also used for standardization activities.

This article deals with the formulation of a model, which makes it possible to compute tolls, such that the roads are used in an efficient way. We state an optimality condition, which can be checked in polynomial time under some assumptions. An example will show that each of these assumptions can be fulfilled.

In this paper the modeling and analyzing of an optimal toll distribution for traffic systems is studied. Therefor the considered road network is described as a mathematical graph which will be determined further. Subsequently network flow algorithms will be applied. For these algorithms a sensivity analysis of the variability of the traffic costs is shown. This paper closes with an practical example.