2008/12/27

Smart Mobility Metering

New technology often needs new vocabulary.

Once upon a time the toll booth was it. One day they started to be replaced by coin counters which were then replaced by Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) which is now being replaced by Open Road Tolling (ORT). The difference between ETC and ORT is that for ETC you have to slow down and be channeled into a lane to have your transponder read, but for ORT you can rip through at speed and if you don’t have a transponder you’re license plate will be read and you can pay a little later and likely a little more.

If you’ve been paying attention you know that something new is afoot – a way to meter your use of the road without those big metal monster-gantries reading your transponder (“tag” if you are European). This new technology uses GPS and a bunch of other techno-magic to provide satellite-based tolling, or GPS-based tolling. At Skymeter we call this class of highly-reliable GPS, Financial-grade GPS (FGPS), since it can produce evidentiary quality trip records in the event a motorist wishes to confirm or refute whether a certain trip was taken exactly as billed.

FGPS enables tolling anywhere – or better still everywhere – and that makes it the key to eventually ending the gas tax. (The gas-tax has several major problems: it cannot manage congestion, it is already diminished by fuel efficiency, and it will soon become further diminished by alternate fuels including the hybrid and the all-electric vehicle. It has other problems, but let's go with these for now.)

More interesting is the fact that FGPS permits the variation of tolls by place (roadway or area), time of day, day of week and type of vehicle. This introduces a way to protect the environment by tolling differentially by vehicle emission class, a way to reduce congestion by charging more during peak hours, and a far fairer way to fund roads than raising property or sales taxes.

In addition to all that fairness and greenness, FGPS enables automated parking payment and pay-as-you-drive insurance. These get high marks for convenience and yet more fairness. Pay-as-you-drive insurance also reduces congestion and increases road safety.

Even better, it is possible to reward drivers (say, with parking credits) when they do not use their vehicles during peak hours. So they’d pay lower tolls AND receive a reward.

Altogether these capabilities combine to form what we call Smart Mobility Metering, which is analogous to smart electricity metering or water metering and other simple supply-and-demand payment variation.

AND all of this is provided in a manner that keeps the vehicle and driver ID anonymous. We think that is equally smart.

4 comments:

Rob Dawg said...

AND all of this is provided in a manner that keeps the vehicle and driver ID anonymous. We think that is equally smart.

Laughing out loud. There has never been a successful defense against court orders to provide this data. Most coming from divorce cases. You probably think your Social Security number is prohibited by Federal law from being used for anything except benefit allocation.

Please research the US-101 Conejo Grade survey and the subsequent fallout. It included a blanket agreement by Caltrans to NEVER again collect or retain the data you claim is safe. You are near a decade too late to this problem.

Bern Grush said...

Rob,
I let your posts on because the subject of privacy is critical. Stay constructive, to stay published. This blog is about ideas, not fear. On a short search you are either Rob Coté of Haterz fame or have a legitimate concern. I am assuming the latter and thank you for the opportunity,

I am not familiar with the “US-101 Conjo Grade survey”. Please post one or more relevant URLs to forward the debate. I am not an expert on divorce court, or Social Security. I do not think privacy is easy, nor do I think privacy is a laughing matter.

I also do not think a bankrupted US Highway Trust Fund, worsening congestion and a deteriorating environment are particularly laughable. Obama’s 2009 is not Eisenhower’s 1956. Somebody needs to pay the piper, and the best is the person using it.

Here my rules. You raise objections, I will respond (without spilling our IP, of course). Arguments sounding like “the government will force your company to spy on citizens” is inadmissible. If the government really wants to do that, they will not need us.

My next post is my reply.

Rob Dawg said...

Rob,
I let your posts on because the subject of privacy is critical. Stay constructive, to stay published. This blog is about ideas, not fear. On a short search you are either Rob Coté of Haterz fame or have a legitimate concern.


You don't see the problem? The subject is privacy and the very first thing you did was to find out exactly who I am. And you were successful. Thank you for making my point is such a short time and from a source you trust.

Bern Grush said...

Wait. Let's see if I get this.
1: I treat your concern as legitimate (it was).
2: You use an assumed name to mask your true intention.
3: The link between your nom-de-guerre is published in an alternate wiki (I wonder why an alternate wiki is needed for mature discourse)
4: I see it on the first page of Google (not always a trusted source, since it obviously disclosed your identity pretty readily), and
5:*I* made YOUR point?

Well, Mr Deputy Dawg, I submit you have made my point better than I ever could have on my own.