Design And Application Of ETC Lane Based On Traffic Efficiency Analysis

Electronic Toll Collection(ETC)system is an international common automatic toll collection system for highway,bridge and tunnel.China began its research on ETC for highways as early as 1996,it has established integrated connected ETC theories,which it reserves independent intellectual property rights,and relevant technical standards,and gradually connected ETC systems in 29 provinces & municipalities to a network.With the increasing adoption of ETC,ETC lanes are congested from time to time.In order to improve lane traffic efficiency and to give full play to ETC's role in alleviating traffic congestion,saving energy and reducing emission,by studying the traffic flow characteristics when vehicles pass through toll gate,analyzing the operating mode of ETC Lane module,this paper put forward ETC lane designs based on analyzation of traffic efficiency and has these designs tested in projects with a view to providing references for constructing and updating ETC lanes.The main studies completed in this paper include:(1)Analyze the components and functions of ETC lane as well as its toll collection procedure and lane layouts to recognize its key components and functions,sum up five key steps in toll collection procedure,summarize the applicability of three types ETC lane layout and thus to lay a foundation for optimization of lane design.(2)According to the traffic flow characteristics when vehicles pass through ETC lane,identify the major factors that affect ETC lane traffic efficiency,illustrate how to analyze and calculate the traffic efficiency and thus to yield the theoretical results of maximum traffic efficiency and speed of ETC lane with currently available toll stations and lanes.(3)By studying lane module and analyzing traffic efficiency,develop the optimization plan for ETC lanes through improving lane work process,toll collection procedure and lane layout,and implements the plan in projects.(4)Test the optimized lanes in terms of toll collection procedure,traffic speed and efficiency.Increasing the traffic efficiency considerably,ETC lane optimized according to this plan shown to be consistent with the traffic characteristics of toll stations.As a perfect combination of theories about traffic flow and ETC lane design,it strengthens ETC system's role not only alleviating traffic congestion,but also saving energy and reducing emission.