Quantifying and Demonstrating GNSS and EGNOS Benefits in Regulated Road Pricing Applications

F. Diani, P. Hamet, European Commission; G.G. Calini

Abstract:	Ten per cent of Europe’s roads are congested on a daily basis and mobility demands continue to grow together with the pressure on national budgets to build or scale up roads. In addition, road transport is a significant source of CO2 emissions. A new strategy is needed to pass from “road saturation” to “network fluidity": balancing traffic to eliminate congestion, increasing the net value of externalities (e.g., socioeconomic benefits), improving the fairness of cost-sharing (e.g., new pay-per-use road pricing initiatives). While Electronic Fee Collection solutions have traditionally been implemented using manned or partially automated toll gates, free flow options are now available to cities, regions, countries and road operators. In this context, GNSS solutions play a key role, since they do not require an infrastructure, are flexible, and have proven to be the enabling technology for new nationwide road pricing schemes. When road pricing strategies are applied to specific vehicle types (e.g. Heavy Goods Vehicles “HGVs”) in large road networks, or when tolling systems are extended to different road classes (e.g. first class roads or all roads), the advantages of GNSS solutions in terms of cost-benefit ratio are maximised. In addition, GNSS enables a holistic approach to the road network optimisation: operators and public authorities have in fact the flexibility to charge by time, distance or the number of times the vehicle crosses the boundary of the toll area, realising innovative mobility management. The schemes can be adapted easily and dynamically as new roads are added or new mobility problems appear (e.g., large events). These systems, currently based on GPS, can now be enhanced by Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) in US and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) in Europe. EGNOS Open Signal is officially operative since October 2009 and is already successfully used in some professional application, as precision agriculture. In addition, the EC is committed to have the Safety of Life service certified for use in the aviation sector, before the end of the year 2010. EGNOS can enhance road pricing systems based on GNSS. In fact EGNOS provides increased accuracy over GPS (e.g., a meter-level accuracy could solve disambiguation among parallel roads or, under certain conditions, also among parallel lanes) and could offer a “guaranteed position” (obtained as exploitation for the EGNOS integrity information). This means that EGNOS can help reducing incorrect charging and increasing trust in the system. Moreover, thanks to EDAS (EGNOS Data Access Service), EGNOS corrections are available (e.g, via cellular network) also in difficult environments, such as urban canyons. In addition, Galileo will offer several advantages over current GPS to a “liability critical” service like road pricing: ?? increased availability (a new constellation interoperable with GPS will improve visibility in urban canyons); ?? increased accuracy (allowing lane detection), ?? stronger resistance against interference and reflections ?? faster Time To First Fix; ?? service guarantees and liability acceptance due to authentication and to the “subscription” nature of the future Galileo Commercial service. The EC and the GSA are supporting the full exploitation of EGNOS and Galileo potential to accelerate in Europe the passage from “road saturation” to the “network fluidity” paradigm by means of: ?? Identification and analysis of applications requirements in road pricing initiatives favourable to GNSS ?? Cost-Benefit Analysis to quantify the costefficiency advantage ?? Field trials to demonstrate the EGNOS benefits ?? R&D projects to fill the gaps and leverage on the EGNOS/Galileo’s differentiators (e.g., integrity, authentication) ?? Awareness campaign, at different decision levels (e.g., national authorities, road operators), to increase knowledge of the GNSS potential. ?? Policy developments in the frame of the EC strategy to fight climate change and provide better mobility conditions to citizens. The current results of these actions are presented hereafter, explaining the activities under development and the next steps.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2010) September 21 - 24, 2010 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	1124 - 1129
Cite this article:	Diani, F., Hamet, P., Calini, European Commission; G.G., "Quantifying and Demonstrating GNSS and EGNOS Benefits in Regulated Road Pricing Applications," Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2010), Portland, OR, September 2010, pp. 1124-1129.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In