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The Transport Department today (Friday) commissioned two contractors to conduct separate field evaluation for two selected technology options on electronic road pricing (ERP) in Hong Kong.

The field evaluations are prompted by a feasibility study commenced in March, 1997 on the need and practicability of introducing ERP to deal with traffic congestion.

The study has identified two technology options, Vehicle Positioning System (VPS) and Dedicated Short Range Communications System (DSRC), as suitable for local conditions in various aspects.

Contract on VPS is awarded to GEC (HK) Limited and the one on DSRC is offered to Mitsubishi Corporation (HK) Limited.

Speaking on the field evaluation, a spokesman for the department said: "The result of the evaluation exercise will be used to confirm the suitability of the technology options for ERP application in Hong Kong."

The two contracts are scheduled to commence in mid-July this year.

Both contractors are responsible for the supply and demonstration of field evaluation equipment as well as associated services for the two selected systems.

Field tests will be required to confirm the reliability of the systems in their abilities to correctly classify vehicle types, impose charges, detect and record violators amid multi-lane unchannelised traffic situation.

Off-street tests will be conducted at the Hong Kong International Airport (Kai Tak) after its decommissioning. On-street tests will be done in urban areas.

"The contracts cover electrical, mechanical, telecommunication and civil works of the tests.

"Related control and monitoring facilities will be provided by contractors," the spokesman added.

The VPS and DSRC field tests will be done concurrently under separate contracts.

The VPS system requires each vehicle to equip with an electronic device for determining the position of the vehicle through special signals transmitted from satellites.

The device will determine whether the vehicle has entered a pre-defined charging zone.

The DSRC system also requires each vehicle to equip with an electronic device.

The device, different from VPS system, will communicate with the road side readers installed at the entrance of each charging zone through microwave transmission.

For both systems, charges for entering a charging zone will be deducted from either a smart card inserted into the electronic devices or from a registered account.

The field test will be completed in six months. The contractors will have to provide another six months for continued data analysis support.

"A public consultation on the findings of both the field tests and the feasibility study on ERP will be carried out in early 1999," the spokesman said.

The field evaluation will be supervised by Wilbur Smith - Hyder, the consultant for the ERP feasibility study, together with the Transport Department.

End/Friday, May 29, 1998

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