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Today the Norwegian state collects NOK 15 billion from fuel taxes. This partially offsets the costs of air pollution, noise, road wear, traffic jams and accidents. The problem is that revenue shrinks rapidly when almost all new cars sold are electric. From 2025, the sale of new passenger cars with internal combustion engines will be banned in Norway and from 2035 in the EU.
Tolls are not very popular, especially among drivers who live near a toll booth that they constantly have to pass. Authorities are considering introducing a road toll, a payment per kilometer.
– The principle of road pricing is that you pay according to how you use the road, says Petter Arnesen, who researches mobility at Sintef Community.
Now Sintef and Q-free will test a new technology for the solution.
Investigator for the government
The Støre government’s Hurdals Declaration stated that alternatives to tolls need to be investigated, and in November 2022 the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport initiated a concept selection investigation (KVU). Together with traffic management company Q-Free and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Sintef has already completed two road pricing projects.
– Among other things, we tried a solution based on the use of satellites (GNSS). The technology has proven itself. The system records how far you have driven and reports this back on an invoice basis, says Arnesen.
– Do you know what drivers think?
– We conducted a survey among those who signed up to take part in the tests. They accept road tolls and consider them fairer. However, it must also be said that these are people who tend to have a positive attitude towards new technologies and do not represent a fully representative sample of the population.
The technology
The toll booths are not popular. There are many indications that road pricing will be a system that will replace the current toll system. Photo: Svein Inge Meland/Gemini
The previous project used a small computer with a power connection, antenna and connection to a telephone. This was perceived as inconvenient.
Now Q-Free, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Skyttel AS and Sintef are working on a third project testing a new technological solution. Some countries in Europe have already introduced versions of the road toll for heavy transport, but these are not suitable for normal cars.
The new solution is being tested in passenger cars in Oslo and Trondheim.
Smarter chip
Q-Free is developing a device that will be very similar to today’s Autopass chips. The new chip has built-in GPS (satellite-based navigation and positioning) that records where the car is at all times. A small computer program in the chip adds up the kilometers driven in different price zones. The information needed to create an invoice is sent from the car to a road pricing center via the mobile phone network.
– Only the number of kilometers driven in different zones is sent by the car, explains project manager Ola Martin Lykkja in Q-Free.
– Where you went, when you went or how fast you went will not be forwarded. In this way, privacy is guaranteed more than today’s toll booths, which record where and at what time you drive. In order to check whether all cars are equipped with a road pricing chip, control stations must be set up along the road, although far fewer than today’s toll stations.
The control station communicates with the chip in the car. Only if the tag and vehicle do not match or the tag is missing does the control center sound an alarm to the road toll center. Vehicles with everything in order are neither registered nor photographed, as is the case at today’s toll booths.
The technical solution is available
While the chips in the Autopass are based on DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) and require very little battery, the new device will require more power due to the GPS and cellular communications.
– The technical solution for the electronics is available, but we are not yet sure what the chip should look like. “The device needs to have more power, but we will make the solution as efficient as possible,” says Lykkja.
Dynamic system
Sintef’s Petter Arnesen believes that road pricing will give a good picture of how much car use is putting a strain on society, for example through wear and tear and pollution. In a system with road pricing, the road network can be divided into zones that can be changed at the push of a button and the possibilities for differentiating prices are – at least technically – almost unlimited. When the Institute for Transport Economics (TØI) recommended the introduction of a road tax in 2019, it proposed a significantly higher rate in urban areas than in rural areas.
Arnesen believes it is uncertain how effective road pricing is in reducing and regulating car use. Further investigations are required here.
– Of course it depends on tax policy. But such a regulation will certainly help to make drivers aware that mileage has a direct impact on how much they have to pay.
Protects privacy
An important argument against road pricing was concern for data protection. Nobody likes the idea that the authorities know where we are at all times.
– The Norwegian Data Protection Authority was involved in the discussion about the development of this technology. We believe it protects privacy because all location and time data remains stored in the car and is deleted when bills are paid. The tax is therefore calculated in the car and only the information that the authorities need to create an invoice is passed on, explains Petter Arnesen.
He believes that if politicians decide on a road tax, the technology will quickly become available to introduce it to all vehicles in Norway.
The article was first published on Gemini.no
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