Thinking Highways Europe/RoW June 2008

choice

THINKING

HIGHWAYS

EUROPE/REST of the WORLD EDITION

Volume 3

•

Issue 2

•

June 2008

BURNING ISSUE

Peter Plisner investigates whyHigh Occupancy Toll lanes aresuch a politically hot potatoOLDER, BUT WISER?

Phil Tarnoff’s guide to recognisingOrganisational Maturity

LIFE ON THE OPEN ROAD

Paul Vorster on South Africa’smega-ORT projectPLUS:

Electronic Toll Collection•TMC Technology•Road Pricing• International Road Transport•Road User Charging•Green ITS• CityMobil•Switzerland•Australia•Spain•LOGOS•Hermann Meyer

Advanced transportation managementpolicy • strategy • technologyfinance • innovation • implementationintegration • interoperability

the

INTELLIGENT

choice

The city of Stockholm is a fast growing city, putting a big pressure on the city’s roadinfrastructure. As a response to this challenge the city council decided to deploy a congestiontax charging scheme using Q-Free´state of the art technology. Q-Free supplied the completeroad side system, On Board Units (OBU) and operational services to the StockholmCongestion tax Charging System. The system was a great success for all involved parties andafter a year of service the results speak for themselves.Learn more about our success stories atwww.q-free.com

Q-Free ASA, Thoning Owesensgt 35c, NO 7443 Trondheim, Norway, Tel +47 73826500, sales@q-free.com

Traffic reduced with 15-20%Travel time reduced with 50%Air pollution significantly reduced

We did Stockholm

I had hoped that turning 40wouldn’t make me feel anydifferent than I did when Iturned 28 or 37, but I ratherthink that it has. I seem tohave become obsessed withmoney.

In the space of 25 minutesthis week I was twice horrifiedby the price of something Iwanted to buy - horrifiedlargely because I had longsince held the view that thiswas a definite sign of ageing(other than the obvious ones of thinking that policemen look young, which they do, and thatthe TV personality you findattractive is nearer to yourchildren’s ages than yours, andshe most definitely is).Firstly I went to buy a musicmagazine I’ve been readingfor 20 years and discoveredthat it was now £5 (most likelyabout €5.50 by the time youread this). I put it back. Torecover from the shock I took the unusual step of retiring tothe nearest pub. I ordered twopints of beer and fished £6worth of coins out of mypocket. “That’s £8.20 please,

Editor-in-Chief

Kevin Borras

Sales and Marketing

Luis Hill,Tim Guest

Design and Layout

Phoebe Bentley,Kevin Borras

Sub-Editing and Proofreading

Maria Vasconcelos,Joanne Cooden

Contributing Editors

Bruce Abernethy,Richard Bishop,Lee JNelson,Adrew Pickford,Phil Sayeg,PhilTarnoff,Harold Worrall,Amy Zuckerman

Contributors to this issue

Tom Antonissen,Phil Charles,SteinarFuran,Jean-Michel Henchoz,SuzanneHoadley,Keith McCabe,Hermann Meyer,Michael Nielsen,Margaret Pettit,AndrewPickford,Peter Plisner,Paul Vorster,Max Winck

Thinking Highways

is published by H3B Media Ltd.ISSN 1753-433X

Thinking Highways

is published quarterly in two editions – North America andEurope/Rest of the World - and is available on subscription at £30/€40 (Europe/RoW) andUS$60 (North America).Distributed in the USA by DSW,75 Aberdeen Road,Emigsville,PA17318-0437 USA.Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville,PA.POSTMASTER:send addresschanges to Thinking Highways,13705 North Ivy Lake Road,Chillicothe,IL 61523,USA.Although due care has been taken to ensure that the content of this publication is accurateand up-to-date,the publisher can accept no liability for errors and omissions.Unless otherwisestated,this publication has not tested products or services that are described herein,andtheir inclusion does not imply any form of endorsement.By accepting advertisements in thispublication,the publisher does not warrant their accuracy,nor accept responsibility for theircontents.The publisher welcomes unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations but can accept noliability for their safe return.

The views and opinions of the authors are not necessarily those of H3B Media Ltd.Reproduction (in whole or in part) of any text,photograph or illustration contained in thispublication without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.Printed in the UK by The Manson Group

Fund, fund,fund...

When did it stop being bad manners to talk aboutmoney? Is anyone talking about anything else?

1

Thinking Highways

Vol 3 No 2

www.h3bmedia.com

Foreword Thinking

Managing Director

Luis Hill

luis@h3bmedia.com

Publishing Director

Kevin Borras

kevin@h3bmedia.com

www.h3bmedia.com

Kevin Borras ispublishing directorof H3B Media andeditor-in-chief of

Thinking Highways Europe/Rest of theWorld

and

North America

editions.

kevin@h3bmedia.com

mate” demanded the barman.I tried to stop myself butbefore I could, I heard myself asking “Why?”“£4 for the lager, £4.20 forthe Guinness.” I could hardlyput them back so I paid rathergrudgingly. £8 for two drinks?I flew to Italy for £9.Then it dawned on me that Ihad spent that entire daytalking about money. In themorning I had had a veryinteresting and enlighteningconversation about the UK’sTransport Innovation Fund(TIF) in an attempt to scotchrumours that one of theauthorities was about to pullout, which would have meantonly two of the original 11bidding authorities stillmaintained an interest. Theyhadn’t, incidentally.In the afternoon I’d talked totwo different Brussels-basedorganisations aboutinternalising externaltransport costs. Or was itexternalising internaltransport costs? Either way, wetalked about costs. No soonerhad we finished our tele-conference I had a call fromthe US about “dried-uprevenue streams” affecting theVehicle InfrastructureIntegration programme andthen ended my working day(my working day in the office,anyway) talking to a manu-facturer about how muchcheap Chinese imitations of his company’s products werecosting him.Maybe it’s not just me, then.The love of money may be theroot of all evil, but the pursuitof it? Well, that just comes withthe territory, this territory atleast. Look at the eight wordsthat appear on every one ourcovers - how many of them canbe achieved without funding?How many of the articles in thisissue DON’T mention money?Finally, I’d like to draw yourattention to the firstannouncement, on pages 53and 55 of our EuropeanCongestion ManagementThink Tank, which will takeplace in Birmingham on 16October. A further-reaching,event than last year’s, can youafford not to go?

TH

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Tom Waldschmidt(tom@h3bmedia.com)

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Odile Pignier(odile@h3bmedia.com)

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Jodie Graham(jodie@h3bmedia.com)

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Pilarin Harvey-Granell

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Code Liquid

Financial Director