JP2010026777A - Device and method for charging at toll gate in toll road - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and method for charging at a toll gate in a toll road for reducing communication costs of data necessary for calculating tolls of a toll road, and for flexibly coping even with establishment and abolition of a route or the tool gate. <P>SOLUTION: In response to each of a plurality of branch routes obtained by dividing a toll road with the terminal interchange or branch point of the toll road as an end part, a fee block for deciding a passage fee between interchanges included in a branch route is stored, and passage route information recorded in an ETC card from a passage route recording device 2 installed in each of the interchange and the branch point through an ETC onboard unit 3 is acquired by radio communication with the ETC onboard unit 3. Then, the branch route where the vehicle has passed is specified by analyzing the passage route information, and a passage fee related with the passage route information is calculated by combining fee blocks related with the branch route. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toll gate charging apparatus and a charging method for calculating a toll at a toll gate on a toll road.

Normally, when collecting tolls at toll gates of toll roads that calculate tolls according to the distance traveled such as expressways, refer to the table describing the tolls for the combination of entrance and exit, You are asking for a charge to be charged. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a specific example of a conventional fee table. Such a price list is created according to the distance between the entrances and exits. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for generating a charge table by calculating all routes, distances and charges from a route table having route information.
JP 2005-182593 A

  However, the conventional techniques have the following problems.

(1) Data distribution to toll gates is not considered.

  At present, there are hundreds of entrances and exits on toll roads in Japan, so if you create a tariff table for all the entrance / exit combinations, the amount of data will be enormous. costly.

(2) Cannot respond flexibly to the establishment and abolition of routes and tollgates.

  For example, if a fee is revised or a new toll gate is established or abolished, it is necessary to regenerate this table and distribute it each time. In addition, it is necessary to confirm the combination of all the entrances and exits, and this work takes a lot of time.

  Therefore, in view of the problems of the prior art, the present invention can reduce the communication cost of data necessary for calculating tolls on toll roads and can flexibly cope with the new establishment and abolition of routes and toll gates An object is to provide a billing apparatus and a billing method.

  A toll gate billing apparatus according to the present invention includes a branch interchange corresponding to each of a plurality of branch lines obtained by dividing the toll road in advance so that a terminal interchange or a branch point of the toll road ends. Toll block storage means for storing toll blocks for determining tolls between interchanges, and toll path information recorded in an ETC card via an ETC on-board unit from communication devices respectively provided at the interchange and the branch point The route information acquisition means for acquiring the route information by wireless communication with the ETC on-board device, the branch line through which the vehicle has traveled is analyzed by analyzing the route information, and the toll block relating to the branch line is combined with the charge block And a toll calculation means for calculating a toll related to the toll path information.

  The toll road tolling method according to the present invention is included in the branch line corresponding to each of a plurality of branch lines obtained by dividing the toll road in advance so as to end at a terminal interchange or a branch point of the toll road. A toll block storage step for storing a toll block for determining a toll between interchanges, and toll path information recorded in the ETC card via the ETC on-board unit from the communication devices respectively provided at the interchange and the branch point A route information acquisition step of acquiring the route information by wireless communication with the ETC on-vehicle device, analyzing the acquired route information to identify the branch line through which the vehicle has passed, and determining the charge block relating to the branch line And a toll fee calculating step for calculating a toll fee related to the toll route information in combination.

  According to the present invention, there is provided a toll road toll gate billing apparatus and billing method that can reduce the data communication cost required for calculating tolls on toll roads and can flexibly cope with the establishment and abolition of routes and toll gates. Provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a toll fee charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the toll charging device is composed of a host server 1, a toll route recording device 2, an ETC onboard device 3, a toll gate management server 4, a lane management server 5, and a lane device 6.

  The host server 1 is a computer that is connected to the toll gate management server 4 via a network and manages vehicle traffic and toll collection on the toll road.

  The traffic route recording device 2 is a communication device that is installed for each lane at each base on a toll road and performs wireless communication with the ETC vehicle-mounted device 3. Here, the base refers to a point that serves as a reference when calculating a toll such as an interchange (IC) or a branch point (JCT). FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a toll road. Here, the toll road is composed of 10 bases, black circles indicate interchanges (IC), and white circles indicate branch points (JCT). The branch point includes a junction that also serves as an interchange (IC) and a simple branch that does not have a toll gate.

  Further, in the traffic route recording device 2, “next base information when traveling in the forward direction” is set up as a fixed value, and when the vehicle passes, the base information on the ETC onboard device 3 is set. Send. The base information set up in the traffic route recording device 2 does not need to be changed unless a new branch can be made before the next base. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an installation example of the traffic route recording device 2 at a branch point of a toll road. Here, the traffic route recording device 2 is installed in each lane that reaches the base_3 and the base_7 at the branch point (base_2), and when the vehicle travels in the direction of the “base_7”, the traffic route recording device. It is shown that the traffic route information “Route: Base_7” is transmitted from 2 to the vehicle by wireless communication.

  The ETC vehicle-mounted device 3 is a device that records the traffic route information acquired by the wireless communication from the traffic route recording device 2 or the lane device 6 when the vehicle passes on an ETC card (not shown). FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of the recorded contents of the ETC card. Here, on the toll road shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle flows from the interchange of “base_1”, and “base_2”, “base_7”, “base_4”, “base_9”, “base” The travel route information recorded in the ETC card when traveling in the order of _10 "is shown. Specifically, at the entrance toll gate, "entrance IC: base_1, course (1): base_2", and at branch point (base_2), "route (2): base_7", branch point “Route (3): Base_4” is written in the ETC card at the “base_7” and “Route (4): Base_9” is written in the ETC card at the branch point (base_4). Further, the ETC on-vehicle device 3 performs wireless communication with the lane device 6 at the toll gate, and outputs the traffic route information recorded on the ETC card.

  The toll gate management server 4 includes a control unit 41, a data transmission / reception unit 42, and a toll gate database unit 43. The toll gate management server 4 exchanges information with the lane management server 5 connected via the network, and collects tolls at the toll gate. It is a computer that manages

  The control unit 41 is a central processing unit (CPU) that controls each unit of the toll gate management server 4. The data transmitting / receiving unit 42 is a communication device that transmits and receives various data necessary for calculating tolls between the upper server 1 and the lane management server 5.

  The toll booth database unit 43 is a database having a toll table 43A and a route statistics table 43B. The toll fee table 43A is a table for storing data between bases (hereinafter referred to as “toll fee data”) used for calculating toll fees. This toll data is appropriately distributed from the upper server 1. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific example of the recorded contents of the toll table 43A corresponding to the toll road of FIG. Here, the charge block, the traffic section, and the section charge are listed as items. The toll block corresponds to each of a plurality of branch lines obtained by dividing the toll road in advance so that the terminal interchange on the toll road or the branch point becomes the end, and the toll for the interchanges included in the branch line ( Section fee). In the case of the toll road in FIG. 2, the ends of the branch lines are “base_1”, “base_2”, “base_4”, “base_5”, “base_6”, “base_7”. ”And“ base_10 ”, and the total number of charge blocks corresponding to the branch line is 8 blocks. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the toll table 43A of FIG. 5 in another format. For example, when “base_4” is an entrance of a toll road and “base_9” is an exit, by referring to the charge block G, the section charge for the traffic section (base_4 to base_9) can be obtained. It turns out that it is 10 yen. Then, the toll can be calculated as 110 yen by adding this section fee to the basic charge (TC: terminal charge) 100 yen.

  The course statistics table 43B is a table that stores data obtained by statistics of the course of each vehicle using a toll road for each branch point. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a specific example of the recorded contents of the course statistics table 43B. Here, the entry IC, the branch point, the course (next base information), and the cumulative number of units are listed as items. For example, it is shown that 15 vehicles entered the toll road with “base_1” as the entrance IC and proceeded from the branch point (base_2) toward “base_7”.

  The lane management server 5 is composed of a control unit 51, a data transmission / reception unit 52, and a lane database unit 53, and is based on information output from the lane device 6 connected via the network, with respect to vehicles in the toll gate. It is a computer that calculates the toll to be charged. The lane management server 5 is installed for each lane for ETC.

  The control unit 51 is a central processing unit (CPU) that controls each unit of the lane management server 5. The data transmission / reception unit 52 is a communication device that transmits / receives various data necessary for calculating tolls to / from the toll gate management server 4.

  The lane database unit 53 is a database having a toll table 53A and a route statistics table 53B, and is a database that is data-linked to the toll gate database unit 43 of the toll gate management server 4 through communication processing in the data transmitting / receiving unit 52. The toll collection information and traffic information update in each lane is notified to the toll gate database unit 43 via the network and reflected. Similarly, when the toll table 43A is updated in the toll gate management server 4 due to toll revision or the like, the toll table 53A on the lane management server 5 side is updated. Since the recorded contents of each table are the same as the toll gate database unit 43 side, the description thereof is omitted.

  The lane device 6 is installed at each ETC gate of the toll gate, and controls the passage of the vehicle by opening and closing a control rod (not shown) and wirelessly communicates with the ETC onboard device 3 mounted on the vehicle. A group. When the vehicle passes, the lane device 6 performs wireless communication with the ETC vehicle-mounted device 3, acquires the traffic route information recorded on the ETC card, and transmits it to the lane management server 5. The lane management server 5 calculates a toll by referring to the toll table 53A based on this toll route information and transmits it to the lane device 6. The lane device 6 opens the control rod (not shown) after performing the settlement process. The lane management server 5 updates the route statistics table 53B based on the traffic route information of the vehicle that has passed, and a series of processing is completed.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the toll gate billing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a specific example of the toll calculation process in the toll calculation unit 54.

  In step S801, “entrance IC” of the travel route information read from the ETC card is substituted for variable X representing the search start base, and “route (1)” is substituted for variable Y representing the search direction.

  In S802, it is determined whether or not there is a toll block including the variable X and the variable Y in the toll table 53A. If it is determined that there is a corresponding charge block, the charge block is specified and the process proceeds to S804. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no corresponding charge block, the process proceeds to S803. For example, there may be a case where the writing process to the ETC card fails at the base and some sections are missing.

  In S803, the route statistics table 53B is referred to, and a charge block relating to a section missing in the toll information is estimated. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a specific example of recorded contents of an ETC card having a missing part in the traffic route information. Here, the information on the courses (3) and (4) is missing. In this case, there are two candidate routes from “base_7” to “base_10”: the direction of “base_4” and the direction of “base_8”. The route statistics table 53B in FIG. , It can be seen that there were two vehicles in the direction of “base_4” and 20 cars in the direction of “base_8” with “base_1” as the entrance IC. . Therefore, it is possible to estimate a toll route with a larger number of passing vehicles and specify the charge block H related to the branch line including “base_7” and “base_8”. This is because, in general, the route with the larger number of passing vehicles is considered a reasonable route. Furthermore, it is possible to further improve the route estimation accuracy by considering the route information before and after the missing part, the current traffic jam information, and the like. For example, in FIG. 9, the route (3) is missing, but if the route (4) is recorded as “base_9”, the route (3) is “base_4” due to the configuration of the toll road. It is also possible to identify the charge blocks D and G. That is, if there is only one missing part, the missing branch can be identified.

  In S804, it is determined whether or not there is an exit IC in the specified charge block. If there is an exit IC in the charge block, the process proceeds to S807. On the other hand, if there is no exit IC in the charge block, the process proceeds to S805.

  In S805, the section fee up to the base at the end of the corresponding charge block (hereinafter referred to as “terminal base”) is added to the total amount.

  In S806, the terminal base is substituted for variable X, and the route from the terminal base is substituted for variable Y, and the process returns to S802. The processing from S802 to S806 is repeated until the exit IC is included in the charge block, and the charge blocks are combined. That is, the section charges recorded in the charge block are sequentially added.

  In S807, the toll relating to the route information is calculated by adding the toll to the exit IC and the basic fee (TC) to the total toll.

  In S808, the route statistics table 53B is updated based on the entrance IC and the route information included in the route information, and the process ends.

  Hereinafter, the case where the toll calculation process is performed on the toll path information of FIG. 4 will be described in detail as a specific example.

  When the vehicle passes through the toll gate of the exit IC (base_10), first, the lane management server 5 (the toll calculation unit 54) selects from a plurality of toll blocks recorded in the toll table 53A. A charge block including the entrance IC (base_1) and the first route (base_2) is searched, and the charge block A is specified. Since there is no exit IC (base_10) in the charge block A, the section charge (10 yen) to the terminal base (base_2) of the charge block A is added to the toll.

  Next, a charge block including the terminal base (base_2) of the charge block A and the route (base_7) from the terminal base recorded in the ETC card is searched, and the charge block C is specified. Since there is no exit IC (base_10) in the charge block C, the section charge (20 yen) to the terminal base (base_7) of the charge block C is added to the toll.

  Next, a fee block including the terminal base (base_7) of the charge block C and the route (base_4) from the terminal base recorded in the ETC card is searched, and the charge block D is specified. Since there is no exit IC (base_10) in the charge block D, the section charge (20 yen) to the terminal base (base_4) of the charge block D is added to the transit charge.

  Next, a charge block including the terminal base (base_4) of the charge block D and the route (base_9) from the terminal base recorded in the ETC card is searched, and the charge block G is specified. Since there is an exit IC (base_10) in toll block G, the section fee (20 yen) and basic charge (100 yen) to exit IC (base_10) are added, and the toll is treated as 170 yen Exit.

  By configuring as described above, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) The cost for creating and distributing the toll table can be reduced.

  If a toll table having all combinations of existing tollgates is created, a very large amount of data is required, and distribution costs cannot be ignored. That is, when the toll table is distributed from the upper server 1 to the toll booth, for each toll booth, charge records for all corresponding toll booths are required. For example, when there are 2000 tollgates, it is necessary to distribute about 2000 × 2000 records. Considering the case where 256 bytes are required for one record, data distribution of about 1 GB occurs from the upper server 1. However, the number of records to be distributed can be greatly reduced by using the charge block as described above, and the reduction rate increases as the number of ICs increases.

(2) Easily create and abolish routes and tollgates.

Even if a route or toll booth is newly established or abolished, it can be handled by simply rewriting part of the data in the toll table, so there is no need to reconstruct a huge toll table. Moreover, it is only necessary to distribute the rewritten fee block to the toll gate, and the communication cost can be greatly reduced.

(3) The toll can be calculated even when the toll route information is missing.

  At the exit toll booth, since the statistics of which route the vehicle flowing in from a specific entrance took at a specific branch point is available, even if the route at a certain branch point is unknown, By adopting the route as a traveling route, the charge calculation can be continued.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment.

The figure which shows the example of whole structure of the toll charge apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the specific example of a toll road. The figure which shows the example of installation of the traffic route recording apparatus 2 in the branch point of a toll road. The figure which shows the specific example of the recording content of an ETC card | curd. The figure which shows the specific example of the recorded content of the toll table 43A corresponding to the toll road of FIG. The figure which represented the toll table 43A of FIG. 5 in another format. The figure which shows the specific example of the recording content of the course statistics table 43B. The flowchart which shows the specific example of the toll calculation process in the toll calculation part. The figure which shows the specific example of the recording content of the ETC card | curd which has a missing part in traffic route information. The figure which shows the specific example of the conventional fee schedule.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... Upper server,
2 ... Traffic route recording device,
3 ... ETC on-board unit,
4. Tollgate management server,
5 ... Lane management server,
6 ... Lane devices,
41. Control unit,
42 ... data transmitter / receiver,
43 ... Tollgate database
43A ... toll table,
43B ... Route statistics table,
51. Control unit,
52. Data transmission / reception unit,
53 ... Lane database section,
53A ... toll table,
53B ... Route statistics table.

Claims (5)

Charges that correspond to each of a plurality of branch lines obtained by dividing the toll road in advance so that the end interchange or branch point of the toll road is the end, and determine the toll between the interchanges included in the branch line Charge block storage means for storing blocks;
A route information acquisition means for acquiring the route information recorded in the ETC card via the ETC on-board unit from the communication device provided at each of the interchange and the branch point by wireless communication with the ETC on-board unit;
A toll calculation unit that analyzes the toll path information to identify the branch line that the vehicle has traveled, and calculates the toll charge related to the toll path information by combining the toll blocks related to the branch line;
A toll gate billing apparatus for a toll road characterized by comprising: Passing vehicle statistics means for taking statistics of the number of passing vehicles for each branch line;
When there is a missing portion of the branch line by analyzing the traffic route information, one route is determined from route candidates that complement the missing portion based on the number of passing vehicles acquired by the passing vehicle statistics means. And a toll estimating means for estimating the toll,
The toll gate billing apparatus for a toll road according to claim 1, further comprising:   The toll gate billing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the toll estimation means selects a route having the largest number of passing vehicles when there are a plurality of route candidates. Charges that correspond to each of a plurality of branch lines obtained by dividing the toll road in advance so that the end interchange or branch point of the toll road is the end, and determine the toll between the interchanges included in the branch line A charge block storage step for storing blocks;
A traffic route information acquisition step for acquiring the traffic route information recorded in the ETC card from the communication device provided at each of the interchange and the branch point via the ETC on-vehicle device by wireless communication with the ETC on-vehicle device;
Analyzing the acquired toll path information to identify the branch line on which the vehicle has traveled, and combining the toll block relating to the branch line to calculate the toll charge relating to the toll path information; and
A toll gate billing method for toll roads characterized by comprising: A passing vehicle statistics step for taking statistics of the number of passing vehicles for each branch line;
When there is a missing portion of the branch line by analyzing the traffic route information, one route is determined from route candidates that complement the missing location based on the number of passing vehicles acquired in the passing vehicle statistics step. And a toll estimation step for estimating the toll,
The toll gate billing method for a toll road according to claim 4, wherein: