Making Toll Plazas Safer: How Cooperative Systems are Changing Driver Experience

Safer trips through Toll Plazas

Every driver knows the moment: approaching a toll plaza, scanning for the right lane, slowing down quickly, reacting to other vehicles doing the same. It’s a brief stretch of road, but one of the most complex and potentially dangerous environments on a motorway. Multiple lanes, different payment locations, and unpredictable driver behavior often lead to sudden braking and last-minute decisions.

• What if drivers didn’t have to react at the last second?
• What if they already knew what to expect—before they even arrived?

In Austria, together with ASFINAG, Kapsch TrafficCom set out to rethink this experience.

Instead of relying on static signs and human reaction, the goal was to let the infrastructure itself talk to vehicles using cooperative-ITS (C-ITS), as a step further towards digitalization. At the A9 toll plaza in the Austrian Alps, a real-world deployment of C-ROADS specified use cases brought this idea to life. Roadside units, connected vehicles, and a central software platform were combined to deliver a cooperative system that informs drivers before decisions become critical. 

The goal was to develop a system where the roadside hardware can (securely and reliably) send safety-critical messages directly to the approaching vehicles dashboards - an effective way to inform them in time regardless of road and weather conditions. To avoid harmful interference with the existing DSRC tolling transceivers, the C-ITS roadside units close to the plaza operate at reduced transmit power, conforming to the ETSI TS 102 792 standard. 

The deployment included four roadside units (RSUs) installed around the toll plaza to ensure comprehensive coverage of approaching traffic and reliable communication with connected vehicles.

Helping Drivers Make Better Decisions Earlier 

"By delivering real-time lane availability, payment options and plaza layouts directly to the vehicles dashboards we are transforming how drivers approach toll zones. Instead of forced, last-second reactions motorists can now plan their approach well in advance. This shift from reactive to proactive driving results in smoother lane transitions, less sudden braking and a significantly more predictable, safer traffic flow for everyone on the road."

— Stefan Zelenbaba, Connected Vehicle Solution Professional, Kapsch TrafficCom

Seeing What Drivers Can’t See

But the cooperative system goes further. By combining connected infrastructure with intelligent video tracking, the environment becomes more aware than any single driver could be. The whole system can identify emerging congestion, unexpected obstacles, pedestrians or unusual movements, such as reverse driving. In this way, risky situations can be defused in advance, allowing traffic participants to make better and safer decisions.

From a Pilot Project to a Scalable Model

Running over a period of two years and now nearing completion, the project has provided valuable real-world insights into the deployment of cooperative systems infrastructure in complex lane layouts at toll plazas. This project shows how cooperative systems can move from theoretical concepts to real-world deployments and how infrastructure operators like ASFINAG can start transforming critical road environments today. 

One of the key objectives has been to better understand and overcome practical deployment challenges when implementing C-ITS in toll plaza environments, including integration with existing systems, ensuring reliable communication and managing operational constraints.

Just as importantly, it creates a foundation for what comes next. Because as vehicles become more directly connected to the infrastructure and eventually more autonomous, the ability to exchange real-time, reliable information will be essential to ensure that all information is available to make the right decision at the right time.

A Small Change with a Big Impact

At first glance, the change is simple: better information, delivered earlier. But the impact is significant: safer driving conditions, smoother traffic flow, more confident decision-making and ultimately, a better experience for everyone on the road.

For more information about Connected Vehicles by Kapsch TrafficCom click here >>>