Leicester Environmental Road Tolling Scheme (LERTS)

The Leicester Environmental Road Tolling Scheme (LERTS) was conceived in 1995 as an innovative demonstration of electronic road tolling in an urban area. The overall scheme comprised components of system design, a demonstration phase and analysis of results. The demonstration took place between August 1997 and May 1998. Additionally, it was hoped to be able to assess the extent to which road tolling could contribute to the fulfilment of the traffic management and transport planning aims. LERTS was not designed to be a trial of technology since proven technology exists to implement road tolling. However, it was thought that in order to present a realistic scenario, a technological solution should be used to implement the trial. This would also allow the effect of fee collection, the use of smart card payment systems, and participant's attitudes towards them to be studied. Following the production of a specification and tender document, a contract for the implementation of the road pricing aspects of the demonstration was awarded to Micro-Design ASA of Trondheim, Norway. The scope of this contract was the supply and installation of three 5.8GHz microwave beacons, a smartcard-operated ticket machine to be installed in the new park-and-ride site, on-board units to be fitted into participant's cars, and a central management system to collect, collate and analyse data from the demonstration.