Geofencing to enable differentiated road user charging

Abstract

Tolling normally has a dual purpose in Norway. Its first goal is to finance a project or an improvment in the transport services offered in an area, for instance extend public transport services. The second goal is to change travel behavior, encouraging drivers of private cars to use other more environmentally friendly modes. Today, this tolling system is based on fixed points on the road network which are not necessarily able to record all road usage evenly. Within the GeoSUM (Geofencing for Smart Urban Mobility) research project, a distance and fuel differentiated road user charging scheme has been piloted. Instead of fixed point tolling, this system enables the driver to perceive that the cost is directly related to how much gasoline or electricity is used on the road network. The key technology for this system is geofencing, and the pilot results show that the proposed system did indeed increase the amount electricity used for driving inside the geofence zones, reducing in turn the amount of fossil-based fuel used.