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Environmental benefits
Road pricing provides a disincentive to drive and reduces the number of vehicles on the road. Fewer vehicles means lower emissions. It also means that the vehicles continuing to travel into the city operate more efficiently. Emission-based charging allows additional fine-tuning. It's a virtuous circle.
"There are two issues in terms of the benefits of road charging" says Bernard Lamy, Design Authority for Transportation Systems in Thales. "The first is encouraging the population to move from private transport to public transport. But it's not just that. If you make it more expensive to travel at the busiest times by using dynamic tariffing, it spreads the traffic peak over a longer period. That increases the fluidity of the traffic and as a consequence pollution is reduced. Those are direct effects of congestion pricing."
"There is also potential to use the funds raised by congestion pricing to favour environmental measures or take new actions in terms of making transportation user friendly" says Mr Lamy. "This might include increasing the capacity of public transport. And I think that's a key issue if you think of who's doing congestion charging - or who is planning to do it. It can really turn into environmental improvements if there is sufficient capacity in public transport."

Making it happen
As a leading systems integrator, Thales offers mastery of the full gamut of technologies needed to build and drive road charging systems. These include contactless tag-and-beacon technology (DSRC) with freeflow capability, satellite positioning (GNSS) and mobile communications, as well as conventional CCTV number plate recognition systems currently used for enforcement.
Thales has unrivalled global experience in developing and deploying seamless solutions to manage road traffic. The company's electronic toll collection systems are now used on more than 4,000 lanes across some 30 motorways around the world. The Liber-T system, for which Thales is a major equipment provider, is used throughout the French motorway system and provides a dramatic example of road tolling in action at a national level.
Thales also occupies a world-leading position in smart card ticketing technology used in public transport systems throughout Europe, Asia and America. The ability to combine ticketing and tolling is likely to become increasingly important in the development of truly interoperable urban transport systems. The convergence of these technologies could revolutionise mobility in cities, offering citizens real choice with a single ‘mobility card' to pay for all their transport needs - including road charges.

The Thales difference
"The key driver for winning congestion contracts is the ability to provide end-to-end solutions - and not many companies can do that" says Mr Lamy. "Thales is investing heavily in adapting its in-house freeflow motorway and GNSS technologies for urban requirements. It's also one of the few companies that can offer turnkey solutions, including everything from front end equipment to back-office IT systems."
Thales has the ability to build tailor-made solutions from the ground up, including everything from roadside tolling beacons to sophisticated IT systems capable of managing relationships with millions of road users. "We are technology agnostic" says Mr Monier. "But on the other hand, we cannot ignore the technology. To deliver the best solution, you need total understanding of what it is about, and to have the ability to communicate the advantages and drawbacks of different technologies with the customer."

The road ahead
Road pricing represents an important market for Thales. Cities with established congestion charging are now looking to second-generation systems. Meanwhile, the number of cities considering congestion charging for the first time is growing.
"The problems encountered in London, Stockholm and Singapore are found everywhere in large cities" says Mr Monier. "If you look at the way the world is changing, more and more people are living in cities. A company like Thales cannot ignore that. We have the people and the technology to create electronic toll collection systems and we have the technology for GNSS charging systems that allow us to measure the mileage of a car. We master the key technologies in-house and are constantly investing to ensure their suitability in charging schemes both for today and tomorrow. Congestion charging is definitely a key market for Thales, with great potential for us to show both our integration skills and excellence in technological innovation."

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Environmental benefits

·Lower emissions: Road charging means fewer vehicles and reduced emissions.
·Increased efficiency: Reduced congestion allows the vehicles that continue to use urban roads to operate at a higher level of efficiency.
·Green dividend: Revenue from road charging can be used to pay for improved public transport.

(Extract from: On the move, Autumn 2007)