Electronic toll collection
Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing toll booths, where vehicles must stop and the driver manually pays the toll with cash or a card. In most systems, vehicles using the system are equipped with an automated radio transponder device. When the vehicle passes a roadside toll reader device, a radio signal from the reader triggers the transponder, which transmits back an identifying number which registers the vehicle's use of the road, and an electronic payment system charges the user the toll.
E-ZPass tollbooths, like this one on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, use transponders to bill motorists.
Many ETC systems use transponders like this one to electronically debit the accounts of registered cars without their stopping.
Transponder used in Chile for some expressways
ETC Built-in Onboard device in a Nissan Fuga vehicle in Japan
Road pricing are direct charges levied for the use of roads, including road tolls, distance or time-based fees, congestion charges and charges designed to discourage the use of certain classes of vehicle, fuel sources or more polluting vehicles. These charges may be used primarily for revenue generation, usually for road infrastructure financing, or as a transportation demand management tool to reduce peak hour travel and the associated traffic congestion or other social and environmental negative externalities associated with road travel such as air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, visual intrusion, noise pollution and road traffic collisions.
A toll plaza in the United Kingdom
High air pollution day in Beijing
Electronic Road Pricing Gantry at North Bridge Road, Singapore
Entrance to Milan Area C