Keeping big brother off the road [road congestion charging scheme]

Road pricing schemes dependent on massive centralised databases will be hugely expensive while posing a threat to personal liberty. This article proposes an alternative. In operation, vehicles would use a radio interface to communicate with the central charging authority, purchasing congestion charge tickets and downloading current prices and charging zones into a local database. Communication with other vehicles is also by radio. As the vehicle moves, the positioning system estimates the instantaneous location, which, used in combination with the local database, allows the computer to determine the current charging zone. The computer also analyses the video stream from a camera and uses automatic number plate recognition to identify any vehicles in front of it. If it successfully identifies a vehicle, the computer uses the radio channel to request the electronic ticket from the identified vehicle; thereby verifying payment. If verification fails, the image is stored by the car, until communication with the central authority becomes possible. In this scheme, enforcement is achieved primarily by other vehicles, and not the central authority.