Amid nationwide calls to renew aging infrastructure, a U.S. commission report underscores the need for a nationwide pay-as-you-drive system – a system akin to one refined and tested worldwide by upstart tech firm Skymeter Corp.
The federally-appointed National Surface Transport Infrastructure Financing (NSTIF) Commission released a report recommending that the U.S. transition from fuel taxes to a system where roads are financed by drivers' actual use of roads.
The commission states that this can be done privately, efficiently, and most cost-effectively, by using satellite GPS technology. Coinciding with this report, just-completed results of supervised global trials on three continents confirm that Skymeter Corp's GPS technology is a consistent, secure, reliable and accurate system.
Skymeter's 'financial grade' GPS technology has been tested for reliability and repeatability in 20 cities worldwide, including Amsterdam, Detroit, Dubai, London, Montreal, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Singapore, and Toronto.
Cisco Korea has already endorsed Skymeter as its technical solution partner of choice for 'Smart Transportation Pricing' technology in the city of Seoul under the Connected Urban Development program. In its most recent field trials Skymeter's system has been tested repeatedly in France in preparation for the pending national truck tolling system, "Peage Poids Lourds".
These tests confirm that the Skymeter solution solves severe GPS signal problems among numerous intersecting and parallel side-roads and offers a high degree of billing accuracy, critical to system acceptance.
Skymeter is currently being tested in San Francisco against what are considered to be the best GPS receivers in North America. The results of these tests to date mirror successful European and Asian trials of Skymeter's system.
"The Commission has hit the bull's eye with its recommendations", says Skymeter CEO Kamal Hassan. "Recognizing and recommending sensible policy using reliable and cost-effective technology addresses the three evils plaguing surface transportation: under-funding, CO(2) emissions, and traffic jams."
Hassan says that by opting for a sensibly-designed GPS-driven user fee system America's total CO(2) emissions will be reduced by 5% or 350 million metric tonnes, the same reduction as if one out of every four cars on the road were replaced by electric cars. It will also make the average commute around 10% faster.
"Those are pretty good side effects for a system that returns the nation's road financing system to health" says Hassan.
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