Estimating Environmental Benefits of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)

Abstract

Toll plazas across India have been deploying electronic toll collection (ETC) systems since 2010. As they are at a relatively early stage of implementation, the demonstrated benefits of reduced delay and emissions, when compared to manual toll collection (MTC), may not be evident immediately. This paper develops a planning-level methodology to demonstrate the benefit ETC toll booths may have on reducing emissions. Existing levels of CO₂, CO, and NO_x were calculated while vehicles were idling in the queue, while they moved slowly in the queue toward the toll booth counter, as well as while they were at the toll booth counter. Subsequently, several scenarios of ETC usage were simulated, based on the arrival rates of vehicles and service time at the toll booth counter, and emissions were estimated. It was observed that a 42, 22, and 64% reduction in CO₂, CO, and NO_x emissions, respectively, can be achieved during a 24-h period when the current usage of ETC lanes is doubled and service rate of 700 veh/h is achieved in the ETC lane.