Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Transportation
Patent
1996-06-11
1998-08-18
Hajec, Donald T.
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Transportation
G07B 1502
Patent
active
057960844
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The device is intended for the registration of vehicle fees such as road and bridge tolls and for the registration of staying, including parking, within the toll area such as city cores so that the fees can be debited or preferably deducted from a prepaid card.
TECHNICAL FIELD
It happens that in road toll facilities fees are collected for passing highways, bridges, tunnels and other roads with high production costs. Hereby, an economic contribution is gotten to the production and maintenance costs. At first, the toll was taken up manually in toll booth counter that the vehicle had to pass. Later, pay cards were introduced as well and stop gates which temporarily opened at the presentation of the card. The most recent development comprehends, that in the toll facility entrance there is a facility for remote reading of identification units on passing vehicles, so that no stopping will need to occur. Usually, for communication a microwave transceiver is used in the fixed unit and transponders in the vehicles. Thereby the technique described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,328 (Koelle et al) can be used. For registration on the fee, the identity of the vehicle is fetched from the vehicle unit, which makes it possible to debit the fee. A still more rational system is obtained if the fixed unit activates the registration of the fee in the vehicle unit, so that the fee can be deducted from a prepaid card, a so-called Smart Card, with which the vehicle unit can be provided.
It also happens, that it is desired to provide areas of congested traffic, such as city cores, with entry tolls. In such cases, the possibility of gainings is not the main goal, but the most important thing is usually that, hereby, means is provided to limit the traffic in such areas in that unnecessary driving is decreased and a greater motivation is created for the transfer from passenger transports with car to public transportation means. Due to the development of the technique with remote passage-registration, the interest has increased for arranging this kind of zone tolls.
Within zones where entry checks through toll facilities is of interest, generally occur parking problems in addition to the problem with congested traffic. For a long time it has been known to control parking with fees, which mostly are paid by means of parking meters. In addition to the guidance of long-term parking on particular away from the most frequented streets and places, a certain economic contribution to construction and maintenance of the parking places is achieved.
However, the system with parking meters has many disadvantages. They require for example a number of personnel for surveillance; in order to maintain the paying morale and for the control to be effective, every vehicle must be checked at certain intervals by patrolling guards. Installation and maintenance and service and emptying of parking meters require considerable costs and the meters often give an unbeautiful impression in the city picture and make street cleaning more difficult. For the user, they are uncomfortable in that he or she is often uncertain of for how long time the necessary prepayment shall be paid. A too late return to the vehicle means risking parking fine, and to pay for a longer time than one has planned to use, mostly means unnecessary costs. An alternative system to parking meters are areas or multi-storey car park with exit cash desks, where one pays for the time between entry and exit, which in certain respects is a smoother system. It can however only be applied to a limited extent un urban areas in which it is mostly necessary to arrange with parking possibilities along street and in small, spread parking-grounds.
In order to find a parking system without said disadvantages, so-called P-boxes have been developed. Such contain a time counter that can be started and stopped manually. A registration unit registers the time that the counter works and hereby debiting can occur, in the occurring P-boxes on a Smart Card. Usually, in addition to starting and stopping means there are
REFERENCES:
patent: 5351187 (1994-09-01), Hassett
patent: 5382780 (1995-01-01), Carmen
patent: 5428353 (1995-06-01), Bird
patent: 5451758 (1995-09-01), Jesadanont
patent: 5498859 (1996-03-01), Farmont
Frech Karl
Hajec Donald T.
Saab-Scania Combitech Aktiebolag
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