May 14, 2023
What is ETC
The ETC parking toll system is one of most advanced road and bridge toll collection methods in world. With a vehicle-mounted tag mounted on windshield of vehicle and microwave-specific short-range communication between microwave antenna on ETC lane of toll plaza, computer network technology is used to perform background bank settlement processing to make vehicle pass through toll booth on roads and bridges without any delay Purpose of tolling on roads and bridges when parking is required.
The state supports development of ETC
At beginning of June this year, "State Council General Administration Notice on Printing and Dissemination of Implementation Plan for Deepening Reform of Toll Road System and Abolishing Provincial Expressway Toll Stations" was issued. The "plan" requires that by end of 2019, installation rate of ETC vehicles in all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) should reach more than 80%, and utilization rate of ETC vehicles passing through expressways should exceed 90%. .
ETC efficiency
This year, Yunnan Changshui Airport launched ETC application, becoming first car park in Yunnan province to support ETC; Wuyue Cultural Park Lin'an Museum's underground car park officially opened to support ETC, becoming first scenic car park in Zhejiang Province to support ETC. Using ETC for parking, car owner will automatically complete deduction in lane and parking will be left unattended. It is estimated that average transaction time of a single lane using ETC is reduced from 15 seconds to 4 seconds, and traffic efficiency of a single ETC lane is equivalent to four manually controlled lanes.
Problems faced by ETC parking
1. High costs
Conventional parking systems are extremely advanced, and today's intelligent license plate recognition system costs only a few thousand yuan. But price of ETC RSU reader and writer is at least 20,000 yuan. Moreover, most parking entrances and exits are located close to each other, and other technical assistance is required to avoid identification problems. In addition, each parking lot has its own characteristics, and parking system must include personalized individual services. So cost of ETC parking will be even higher.
Of course not, otherwise with development of technology and national support, cost of building an ETC car park will be reduced, but at moment, investing in building an ETC car park is not an easy task. In an environment where short-term benefits of ETC parking are not increasing significantly, and installation of on-board units is not popular among car owners, most parking properties are not ready to immediately invest in parking reconstruction.
2. High technical requirements
Today, ETC parking lots are typically built using ETC Expressway Toll System model. At end of lane, complex card transactions, key settlements, blacklist synchronization, settlement and account reconciliation processes are required. The procedures are complex and equipment is plentiful. The requirements are high and construction cost is high, and each parking lot has a ready-made invoicing system. Direct transplantation of existing expressway toll collection system is clearly not suitable for parking lot application.
Due to many technical specifications and standards involved in ETC system, many provinces mainly use a set of different lines. Companies operating expressways in different regions, in most cases, implement incompatible ETC systems that use ETC equipment from different manufacturers. general purpose incompatibility problem.
Currently, there are not many companies that can provide technical and operational support. Some external ETC equipment even requires users to remove card and hand it over to toll booth staff to manually debit it before they can pass through normally. . This was originally done for convenience, but there are no obvious improvements now. We can say that this is an undeveloped "virgin land".
Just as ETC expressway recognition cannot fully replace manual labor, ETC parking system is only a recognition or means of payment. Today, license plate recognition will continue to be primary method of recognition. It is believed that with support of national policy, efforts of banks to promote ETC cards and development of technology, popularization of ETC parking is not far off.
