DfT to go ahead with road-pricing trials regardless of Manchester vote

By the end of December, the DfT will place its remaining contracts for technology trials of Time, Distance and Place (TDP) charging, said DfT research co-ordinator, Duncan Matheson. The DfT would press ahead despite the 'no' vote on the Manchester scheme.

The first six-month phase could see up to four potential TDP solutions running simultaneously. The experience, said Matheson, would help reduce future procurement times via mini-competions among contractors.

The first major non-metropolitan test of distance-based RUC will also take place in 2009, together with the first prototype of a privacy-protecting on-board unit (OBUs).

School buses and highway maintenance vehicles in Swindon will try out new-generation OBUs more advanced than those used by Transport for London. The trial would also monitor behavioural factors, said Dr John Walker, of project leader Thales.

Meanwhile, the Highways Agency is ‘actively investigating’ the possibility of high-occupancy toll ( HOT) ‘ramp bypasses’. These would allow qualifying vehicles to avoid signal-controlled queues on ramp-metered slip roads to interchanges by using diversionary loop lanes.

But, an AA poll showed that 65% of members would not use planned HOT lanes, and that only 51% would be persuaded by an 80mph speed limit. Campaign for Better Transport director, Stephen Joseph, said HOT lanes would not work widely in the UK, because of impacts on exiting traffic’s cross movements.