North America Vehicle Tolling System Market- Growth, Trend and Forecast (2020 - 2025)

Electronic toll collection helps predominantly in reducing traffic at tollbooths, by collecting tolls without cash and without requiring cars to stop. There are several technologies that are being used for collecting tolls electronically. The majorly technologies are Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

In DSRC technology, RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tags are used to scan the vehicle entry/exit at tollbooth, whereas ANPR uses camera to identify the vehicle license plate. The above technologies are used to automate the toll collection process and avoid long queues at toll booths. Additionally, these technologies not only improve vehicle theft detection, but can also track vehicles crossing the signal and over speeding vehicles.

Other advantages of this method for motorists include fuel savings and reduced exhaust emissions, by reducing or eliminating deceleration, acceleration, and waiting time. However, RFID tags have been popularly adopted across the world, compared to other technologies. For electronic toll collection system, the trend of shifting from barrier based ETC to open road tolling (ORT) or fee flow tolling, has been gradually growing, especially in countries facing high traffic congestions at toll roads.

The road and highway construction industry generated a revenue of nearly USD 130 billion in the year 2019. Despite being on of the most sophisticated network of highways and roads in the world, the US roads were awarded a D grade by American Society of Civil Engineers deeming them to be too crowded, underfunded and poor condition. FAST Act allots USD 305 billion from 2016 to 2020 for development of highway, safety, transportation technology, railway, etc. Major projects such as High Desert Freeway project, Tri State Tollway Widening Project, Illinois, are underway in the United States. However, In the United States, many major highway and freeway development projects were termed fraudulent and in 2018 locals in Tampa Bay, Florida stopped the installation on toll lanes along I-275.

In Canada, The government has authorized the widening and linkup projects of highways in places such as Ontario and Toronto. In 2019, The Toronto province started on Greater Toronto Area West Highway Corridor to reduce traffic congestion and improve highway for trucks. The government is also addressing the need for Greater Golden Horseshoe corridor where population is expected to reach nearly 11.5 million by 2031 leading to 1.5 million extra trips from trucks and cars everyday and increment of 27 minutes in commute time. In 2019, the lane expansion of Trans-Canada Highway 1 was also completed in British Columbia.