Marina Miceli
Europe Press Office,London
On 15 November 2016, a large delegation of RUC experts and interested parties from across the world gathered in Arup's Dublin office.
The event was hosted in conjunction with ITS UK and ITS Ireland. It was split into three sessions. It kicked off with a joint welcome note from ITS Ireland Board member, David O'Keeffe, and ITS UK RUC Coordinator, Keith Mortimer. The keynote address from former Head of Professional Services, ITS UK, Neal Skelton followed promptly.
The first session addressed interoperability across Europe. John MacCarthy of DTTAS provided key insights into tolling in Ireland. This session included the examination of the European Commission's reform and lessons learned from the implementation of the European Electronic Tolling Service (EETS) and the Eurovignette (HGV Charging) policies.
The second session featured a glimpse into the operations side of RUC, with international case study presentations from London, New Zealand and New York. Padraig Kenny of Arup featured on a panel discussion focused on 'Improving public-private cooperation for better mobility'.
The closing session examined the enforcement element of RUC in two contrasting scenarios. Efkon's presentation explained the difficulty of enforcing an RUC operation in a country where the majority of heavy traffic is foreign registered. Kevin O'Sullivan of Arup presented on the situation of foreign enforcement on the M50 Toll in Ireland, which has a lower percentage of foreign traffic, but experiences similar issues.
Keith Mortimer wrapped up a great day with some final words and invited the interest group and both ITS Ireland and ITS UK to organise similar events in the future in order to encourage cooperation.
