Technology Summit

Urban Issues: Mobility On-Demand and Congestion PricingModerator: Phil Underhill, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Verra Mobility, Mesa, AZ

With an ever-growing emphasize on integrated mobility, and with digital information and fare-payment services options increasing, we are seeing opportunities to seamlessly share information and to provide payment connectivity among different transportation modes. Routes, schedules, trip reliability and costs are becoming key factors for determining best value option for travelers across multiple transportation modes. With a variety of partnership models already evolving to support mobility integration; Trip planning partnerships, Fare integration partnerships, and Data sharing partnerships, how does the tolling industry play into this dynamic as it relates to bridging information gaps, making multimodal travel and public transit more convenient, and enhancing decision making with dynamic and real-time information (travel times, congestion-based pricing, etc.) throughout an entire journey? Experts in this session will discuss what roles the tolling industry could play (or are already playing) in MaaS/MoD systems with impacts on tolling/congestion pricing and how this could impact the technology, services, and facilities used by tolling agencies.

Road User Charging (RUC, aka Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) fees, Mileage Based User Fees) all have one fundamental goal -- to ensure that there is a steady flow of funding to build, operate, and maintain the nation’s roadways. As fuel economy improves and more electric vehicles are on the road, the purchase of gasoline is no longer a good proxy for how much a vehicle uses the road. And over time, as gas tax receipts flatten and decline, relying on those revenues will put the health of the road systems at risk. While tolling collections are typically used to pay off a specific facility or to fund maintenance, operations or capital improvements, RUC will be a replacement to replenish the general transportation fund. Tolling and RUC have somewhat different purposes, but they share many common aspects including technologies, account management, commercial back offices and the need to gain public acceptance. This session brings experts from both the public and private sectors to explore, review and offer various areas of potential convergence between road usage charging and tolling programs.

Tolling agencies are constantly and proactively looking toward the future for more reliable and cost-effective roadside detection technology. Currently, traditional tolling technologies such as RFID and 4G are widely used by tolling agencies across the world; however, the advent of advanced technologies including 5G, C-V2X, cell phone tolling, and License Plate Recognition as well as the increasing prevalence of connected vehicles may eventually render RFID and 4G obsolete. Because of this, toll agencies must determine whether to continue deploying traditional tolling technologies or adopt advanced technologies as they become available. This session will explore the advantages and disadvantages of implementing new roadside tolling technology compared to more traditional practices. 

Technology continues to advance on many fronts. There are several emerging technology and business trends that will impact road system operations that are of interest: increased use of cell phones, higher penetration rates for embedded devices in vehicles, greater acceptance of automated vehicles, among others. Also, with the emergence of Congestion Pricing, Vehicles Miles Travelled, and other new business and policy approaches, keeping an eye to the future is critical. This panel will be a moderated discussion of these trends and more as we look at new capabilities and new business models.  The growth in these technologies and business models will impact the Tolling industry in many ways, some foreseen and others uncertain—this panel of experts across a wide range of industries will explore topics such as: 

• The Growth of Electric Vehicles will have far-reaching consequences.
• Increase in numbers of and capabilities for Connected and Automated Vehicles will change the transportation landscape.
• Increasing acceptance of new technologies such as Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Big Data will change toll agency technology adoption curves.
• The rise of 5G networks and the growth of the Internet of Things will enhance delivery of services.
• The sharing economy and the emergence of Uber, Lyft and others has altered the way we think about paying for trips.
• Mobility-as-a-Service/Mobility on Demand may transform transportation ownership models as we know them.