ETC-Enabled Intelligent Expressway: From Toll Collection to Vehicle–Road–Cloud Integration
Source abstract
Abstract
Following China’s completion of the removal of provincial boundary toll stations and expressway network integration reform, a large number of electronic toll collection (ETC) gantries were deployed along expressway mainlines nationwide, transforming these facilities from dedicated toll terminals into pervasive traffic-sensing infrastructure covering the entire road network. However, the data value and technological potential embedded in this major infrastructure transformation have not yet been systematically reviewed. This paper adopts a narrative review methodology, incorporating 71 publications identified through multi-database systematic searches. The review is organized along the functional upgrade path of ETC gantries, covering the progression from toll terminals to traffic sensing nodes, multi-source fusion hubs, and finally vehicle–road–cloud cooperative control nodes, and synthesizes research progress in expressway traffic sensing, multi-source data fusion, safety operations, and emerging applications. The review reveals that ETC data have enabled a diverse methodological repertoire spanning travel time estimation, traffic flow prediction, origin–destination (OD) matrix inference, toll plaza safety analysis, dynamic pricing strategies, and environmental impact assessment. Nevertheless, a single ETC data source suffers from inherent limitations: spatial–temporal resolution constrained by gantry spacing and real-time capability limited by transmission latency. This fundamental contradiction constitutes the core driving force behind multi-source data fusion and vehicle–road–cloud integration technologies. The paper further argues that establishing a closed-loop pipeline integrating sensing, fusion, decision, and control and anchored on ETC gantry nodes represents the key direction for realizing intelligent expressway transformation.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques · Traffic control and management · Transportation Planning and Optimization
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, No. 4800 Cao’an Road, Shanghai 201804, China
Intelligent Transportation System Research Center, Tongji University, No. 4801 Cao’an Road, Shanghai 201800, China
State Key Lab of Intelligent Transportation System, No.8 Xitucheng Road, Beijing 100088, China
Funding
Jiangsu Communications Holding Co., Ltd.
References (71)
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