The Safety Impact of ETC System

摘要

Very limited researches have been done to evaluate impacts of electronic toll collectionrn(ETC) system on the safety at toll plazas. Past research has indicated that ETC system mayrncontribute to traffic accidents at toll collection plazas. However, it is not always true due torndifferent types and conditions of ETC system. The main object of this paper is to evaluate thernimpacts of ETC on safety performance of toll collections as a part of a research project. In thernpaper, the reasons of ETC related accidents are analyzed and the contributing factors of ETCrnto safety are discussed. Based on traffic crash data collected, it was indicated that ETC mayrnresult in the increase of crash number and more severe crashes could happen due to the highrnpassing speed at ETC gates. However, whether ETC system itself will result in the decrease ofrnsafety benefits still hangs in doubt.