Traffic Congestion: Addressing One of the Biggest Smart City Challenges with Secure RFID Technology 18. June 2020

Because traffic is one of the biggest challenges of urban living, it’s a key focus for many smart city initiatives, and one tool that cities are using to address the issue is smart road tolling. In city centers, congestion charges, paid by vehicles entering the city core, limit the number of vehicles on downtown streets, reduce pollution levels and make the area friendlier to pedestrians and bicyclists. Electronic road pricing, which adjusts the toll according to traffic level, uses peak pricing during heavy travel times to encourage the use of alternate routes and alternative modes of transportation thereby reducing congestion.

A system for automated toll collection lets vehicles pay tolls without having to stop or even slow down and, as a result, helps keep traffic flowing smoothly, with lower pollution levels and a lot less driver frustration. As one of the various ways to implement automated toll collection, secure passive long range RFID (also called RAIN RFID) offers a particularly compelling combination of security and convenience.