Electronic Payments In Traffic And Transport, Status And Perspectives

Creation date: 24 May 2011

On 27 January 2011, organized by ITS Croatia, the Croatian Road Society VIA VITA and CIVITAS ELAN Zagreb, at the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, the 6th ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Forum took place on the topic of "Electronic Payments in Traffic and Transport, Status and Perspectives". The forum provided discussions on the European guidelines in the area of ITS solutions implementation, regional aspects of electronic payment in traffic and transport and the problems of standardization and interoperability.

On behalf of the organizer, the Forum was opened by the ITS Croatia President, Prof. Ivan Bosnjak, Ph.D. and then audience was addressed by the CIVITAS ELAN Zagreb projects coordinator, Ms. Visnja Bedenko and the Vice President of the Croatian Road Society VIA VITA, Mr. Zvonimir Nagy.

In his presentation on the topic of "Electronic Payment in Traffic and Transport - Challenges and Perspectives of Regional Development", Sadko Mandzuka, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences University of Zagreb emphasized the meaning of the principle "honest and efficient payments in traffic and transport", in the term of development of technologies that facilitate the implementation. The application of modern systems of electronic payments in traffic and transport will soon represent one of the most significant steps forward in the development of traffic and transport. In the electronic toll collection systems, special importance is on the property of interoperability, which marks the existence of a standardized and compatible system/instrument. The goal of interoperability is to provide the users equipped by electronic toll collection device in a certain country / region / concessionaire to be able to automatically pay toll in other countries / regions / concessionaire, using a single (unique) device onboard vehicle. The electronic collection systems should be interoperable and based on open and public standards, available to the system suppliers without discrimination. As part of the initiative of starting the projects in the area of defining the regional ITS architecture the following activities are predicted: (1) development of national ITS associations, (2) development of a standardized system, (3) launching of joint projects, (4) coordination of research and development capacities, (5) connection of economic subjects, and (6) cooperation in education and professional training. In the final part the paper has indicated that the ITS implementation in the region will start even without such approach, yet for many in the region with: (a) higher costs, (b) reduced interoperability, (c) slower implementation, (d) loss of business opportunity for national economy, etc.

Mr. Dean Herenda from the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Slovenia presented the paper "European Guidelines in the Field of Implementation of ITS Solutions with special Consideration of the Electronic Payment Systems". The paper indicated the significance of the EU documents related to the electronic toll systems. This is first of all the DIRECTIVE 2004/52/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL (29.04.2004.) on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community. which stipulates the conditions necessary for the provision of the interoperability of the electronic road toll system within the Community. It is applied to electronic payment of all the types of road tolls. on the entire road network of the Community, urban and interurban, highways. main and secondary roads and various facilities such as tunnels. bridges and ferries. Special interest is focused also on the Action Plan COM(2008)886 COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (16.12.2008.) for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe (the objective of the Plan is to accelerate and coordinate the implementation of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in road traffic. including the interfaces with other transport modes). The last in this series is the DIRECTIVE 2010j40jEU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL (07.07.2010.) on the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport (the Directive establishes a frame for the support to coordinated and consequent implementation and use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) within the Union. especially over the borders of the member states. and it determines the general conditions necessary for this purpose).

Mr. Aleksandar Šenborn, Ph.D. from the Mihajlo Pupin Institute Belgrade presented a paper on the topic of "Development of ITS in the Republic of Serbia - Experiences of the Mihajlo Pupin Institute". He presented very clearly the past activities in the field of ITS on the road network of the Republic of Serbia, with special focus on the highway reconstruction program in Serbia. He concluded the presentation by providing an overview of a part of basic technologies that represent the priority in the development which the Mihajlo Pupin Institute plans to start.

Mr. David Jereb. M.Sc. from the King-ICT Ltd. Company from Zagreb gave a presentation as a representative of the Croatian industry in the field of implementing the electronic payment system. The topic of his presentation was "Electronic Payments in Public Transport - Zagreb Experience". He described the project of implementing a modern system into the Zagreb Electrical Tram (ZET) vehicles. Parts of this project are also related to the research-development project of the 7th frame program of the European Commission CIVITAS-ELAN Measure 2.6 - ZAG Electronic PT tariff system. 2008-2012, EC-FP7-218954.

Based on the presented ideas at the Forum and on the resulting short discussion it may be concluded that it is necessary to launch as soon as possible the development of national ITS associations in the region (where these have not been established yet) and to start the project "Regional ITS Architecture". Besides, it is necessary to intensify the cooperation in education and professional improvement in the field of ITS.

The Forum was attended by the representatives of the leading regional organizations in the field of ITS representatives of the government administration and self-government bodies, as well as of the leading companies for the management construction and maintenance in the area of traffic and transport. Apart from a large number of the representatives from the academic community the Forum was also attended by the representatives from small- and medium-sized enterprises in the field of design and production of equipment and services.

The organization of the Forum was supported by: The Department for Intelligent Transport Systems of the Faculty of Traffic and Transport Sciences University of Zagreb and the Association ODRAZ - Sustainable Community Development, independent organization of the civil society Zagreb.

Sadko Mandzuka, Ph.D., Vice President of ITS Croatia