Toll Lane Configuration for M-Flow Electronic Toll Collection System

Abstract

Traffic congestion in front of toll plaza is a major cause of delay on expressways. Therefore, Ministry of Transport has a policy to urgently mitigate traffic congestion so that the vehicles can pass through toll plaza without interruption. One of the key strategies is to develop M-Flow system, which is an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system without barrier. This is a new ETC system using Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR), an artificial intelligence technology, in combination with Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) in order to verify vehicles and identify users for toll billing process. To efficiently solve traffic congestion, the microscopic simulation model of AIMSUN had been applied to analyze the appropriateness of toll lane configuration and various traffic impacts at Chatuchote Toll Plaza on Chalong Rat Expressway. The purposes are to provide M-Flow lanes and the existing toll collection systems, both ETC lanes (Easy Pass) and Manual Toll Collection (MTC) lanes, as well as to achieve maximum benefits for expressway users.