Your guide to the inaugural Road User Charging Conference USA – a brand-new dedicated annual gathering of tolling, road pricing and ITS professionals, being held in Miami, Florida this June!
Following the success of last year’s RUC Americas virtual conference, CiTTi Magazine is bringing the Road User Charging Conference to the USA for the very first time! Taking place on the 13th and 14th June at the James L Knight Center Complex in Downtown Miami, the inaugural Road User Charging Conference USA will highlight the latest tolling technologies, road usage charging projects and intelligent transport systems being implemented across the USA.
The two-day event will see some 20 expert speakers discuss how traffic is regulated and revenues generated on highways, freeways and express lanes, as well as on turnpikes in and out of the USA’s most congested cities, from New York to Los Angeles. Road usage charging schemes covering distance-based charging, congestion charging, all-electronic tolling, heav y-vehicle tolling, and automated enforcement will all be presented via exclusive case study presentations and in-depth panel discussions.
Attendees will include US-based toll road operators, toll service providers, toll chargers, systems integrators, automotive manufacturers and suppliers, municipal councils, transportation and highways authorities, state and federal government, mobile telecom operators, telematics solutions providers, consultancies, device and equipment suppliers, technology companies and mobility service providers.
Highlights from a bumper two-day programme include an overview of the Commuter Choice program, administered by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), which reinvests toll revenues from two principal expressway corridors in the Northern Virginia portion of the Washington, DC metropolitan area into transit improvements and other multimodal transportation enhancements that expand commuters’ travel options and support corridor mobility goals.
Together, Ben Owen, commuter choice senior program manager, and Adam Hager, commuter choice senior program analyst, will address how the programme operates, the public-private and state-regional-local partnerships involved, the programme’s performance management framework and how NVTC ensures that the programme delivers maximum value to toll payers.
They’ll also explain how to invest toll revenues defensibly into non-roadway projects, address the partnerships critical to the success of a competitive transportation grant programme funded through toll revenues, and the necessity of rigorous performance analysis and transparency.
Mark Reichert, executive director at the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, will explain how transportation infrastructure is funded in Florida and provide insight on the fiscal challenges the state faces regarding its reliance on fuel tax as a primary source of transportation funding for the future. He will also explore how to replace the fuel tax with a more sustainable option.
Insight into a national RUC programme will be delivered by Barbara Rohde, executive director of the Mileage Based User Fee Alliance (MBUFA) and Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation. Attendees can expect to hear Rhodes expound on the implications of a law signed last November by US President Joe Biden that incudes US$125m to test road charging at all levels in the USA in the next five years, while Moore will discuss the status, and emerging scope of, the national RUC trial approved by Congress, outlining the unique challenges and opportunities it could face and provide, as well as examining how it might interact with ongoing trials.
The concept of congestion pricing will also be explored via two unmissable presentations and one special panel discussion featuring representatives from transit agencies from two of the USA’s most densely populated and congested cities. First, Dr Allison L. C. de Cerreño, deputy chief operating officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will speak about New York City’s Central Business District Tolling Program – the first implementation of this type of road pricing for congestion reduction in the USA. She’ll provide background on the project and technology, a status update on the Environmental Assessment and public engagement process and discuss ways in which the project has already broken, and will continue to break, new ground in ways that will undoubtedly have application across the country and beyond the programme itself.
This will be followed by a presentation from Ryan Wiggins, senior manager at LA Metro, which, through its Traffic Reduction Study, is exploring if, where, and how in LA County a pilot programme with affordable pricing to manage demand and investments in high-quality transportation options could reduce traffic and make it easier to get around. Topics to be covered include the study background, progress to date, and how LA Metro is adjusting the study process and timeline to monitor and adapt to changing economic and traffic conditions brought on by Covid-19. The presentation will also explore pricing as one pillar of a broader strategy to address traffic, the importance of integrating equity into the study process and why the potential benefits and burdens are significant.
Both de Cerreño and Wiggins will then come together for a 60-minute panel discussion highlighting some of the different challenges these two major US cities are facing when it comes to trying to implement congestion pricing. It will serve as an invaluable opportunity to share learnings among delegates interested in this form of urban tolling.
Trish Hendren, executive director at The Eastern Transportation Coalition, will also moderate another unmissable hour-long panel discussion featuring representatives from several east coast state DOTs involved in mileage-based user fee programmes. Participants include Melissa Batula, acting executive deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Michele Boomhower, director of policy, planning and intermodal development at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and Amna Cameron, deputy director of strategic initiatives and program support at the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Elsewhere in the programme, Nathan Lee, director of technology and innovation at the Utah Department of Transportation, will provide an overview of Utah’s evolving RUC, tolling and connected vehicle efforts, the RUC West 10-year plan, and major developments across the western states regarding road usage pilots. Kenneth Buckeye AICP, road pricing program manager in the Office of Financial Management at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, will explain how a fleet-based approach to RUC, using embedded telematics, is accurate and reliable and may reduce administrative overhead and enforcement costs. He’ll also explain how embedded telematics, installed by manufacturers in most of today’s vehicles, could be used to deploy RUC more efficiently and effectively across a range of operations and ownership scenarios, and why a dual revenue collection system with RUC alongside the motor fuel tax will be needed for decades.
A second dual perspective will be provided by the Illinois Department of Transportation’s director of the office of planning and programming, Holly Bieneman, and chief of staff Becky Locker. Together, they’ll discuss how llinois has created and implemented numerous pieces of legislation that encourage the adoption of electric vehicles, which in turn requires IDOT to understand the effect of electric vehicle adoption on revenue related to the motor fuel tax. Their presentation will identify potential revenue replacement options, evaluate the revenue options, and conduct outreach related to the potential revenue options.
Finally, bringing the conference to a close Tammy Lee, administrative services officer within the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s highways division, will present the findings of the organisation’s recently completed Hawaii Road Usage Charge Demonstration project (HiRUC), which reached out to almost 360,000 Hawaii residents with customised driving reports showing the number of miles they had driven over the past year, how much they had paid in gas taxes, and how much they might pay in a road usage charge. Lee will share what HDOT accomplished, learned, and look ahead by outlining the next steps for Hawaii.
European perspectives
Road User Charging Conference USA will also offer unique perspectives from leading European organisations ready to lend their expertise to US colleagues. For example, Gerd Nees, director of international business development at Belgian smart mobility solution provider Be-Mobile, will explain why GNSS is becoming the standard for electronic RUC.“As an RUC charger, you want a uniform way of performing GNSS RUC collection and providing RUC context to mobility service providers and toll service providers,” says Nees. “In addition, you want to be able to estimate as accurately as possible what your RUC revenue will look like when you change the RUC roads and rates. “Other questions may include: ‘On which parts of the road network do the most vehicles pass?’ and ‘Are there inconsistencies in vehicle trips?’”
Thus, at Road User Charging Conference USA, Nees will present details about Be-Mobile’s unified RUC Control Center, which provides centralised map-matching, crystal-clear RUC revenue estimates and other great tools, all in an easy-to-understand user interface.
Delegates will also be able to learn how the generational replacement of an electronic toll system based on DSRC technology with a modern GNSS solution has brought huge savings to the Czech Republic, via a presentation delivered by Peter Polakovic, CTO of SkyToll, and Miroslav Benes, external relationships manager at CzechToll. “Operating costs fell by two-thirds, even though the toll road network expanded by 60% to cover highways and lower-class roads,” says Polakovic, who adds that experience from Slovakia has proven that GNSS tolling is a suitable method for charging of all road types, including in urban areas.
But what possibilities and bottlenecks have been identified from pilot projects of regional interoperability among Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia compared to the introduction of pan-European interoperability using service providers? SkyaToll’s presentation will explain why replacement of old DSRC toll systems may be a way to achieve significant financial savings; why GNSS tolling is the most suitable for charging of all road types; and how interoperability using GNSS provides a seamless way for users and reduces burdens.
Partners
Be-Mobile was founded in 2006 by Jan Cools focusing on monitoring traffic congestion using connected vehicles. Today Be-Mobile operates its connected vehicle platform to offer solutions for electronic road user charging, smart city traffic management, fleet management, traveller information services and mobile payment for parking and public transport.
When truck road user charging was launched in Belgium in 2016, Be-Mobile developed a unique, high-performance road user charging platform in record time using the granularity and accuracy of its map matching activities. Since then, Be-Mobile has continued to develop its suite of services for toll chargers and account managers. These services allow toll chargers to determine their rates and immediately calculate their impact. They also enable account managers to offer additional value-added services beyond road user charging.
The same technology is now being rolled out to do the first congestion-based charging in a European city. This will result in fewer miles driven, more use of public transport, more distance travelled by bike and on foot and, most importantly, fewer hours in traffic jams. Be-Mobile’s road user charging platform in combination with connected vehicles enables the collection of all required data from the vehicle itself and brings valuable information into the vehicle with vehicle to everything (V2X) technology. At Road User Charging Conference USA, Gerd Nees, director of international business development at Be-Mobile, will discuss why GNSS is becoming the standard for electronic RUC.
SkyToll has worked in the area of intelligent transport information systems capable of analysing and directing traffic anywhere in the world since 2008. It has created a unique solution combining the advantages of several technologies – satellite GNSS location technology, microwave DSRC technology for short distance communication, and mobile GSM technology to communicate within mobile networks and apply it not only to motorways, expressways and first-class roads, but also lower-category roads.
A significant advantage of satellite technology compared to other road charging technologies is the ability to manage increases in traffic volume and expansion of the road networks without the need of building a costly roadside infrastructure required for toll collection. Since January 1st, 2010 SkyToll has operated Slovakia’s world-class, state-of-art electronic toll system, which covers the largest road network in the EU. The company also leads pilot projects and consulting activities in the construction of toll systems in the Russian Federation, Uruguay and other countries. SkyToll won the contract for building an electronic toll collection system for the Czech Republic and, with CzechToll, has implemented the first generational replacement of toll systems in the world, changing from microwave technology to satellite technology. SkyToll built and, on December 1st, 2021 successfully launched an electronic vignette system in Slovenia. SkyToll builds on the synergy of state-of-the-art, world-recognised, progressive technology to solve the new requirements of contracting.
This article originally appeared in the June issue of CiTTi magazine.
The most up-to-date agenda for Road User Charging Conference USA is available here.
For partnership enquiries, contact Marina Sanchez at marina.sanchez@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 8037 1778. For speaking opportunities, contact John Thornton at john.thornton@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 8037 1783.
