Five years ago... Smartcards delay road toll trial

06.07.98 A traffic management trial that is central to the UK government's forthcoming transport white paper was delayed because the technology supplier failed to deliver on time.

The Leicester environmental road tolling scheme (Lerts) used smartcard technology and roadside microwave readers to toll car drivers entering the city. But Norwegian supplier Microdesign delivered cards that the kerbside readers couldn't understand and the trial was delayed by approximately two months.

(Five years later... For years road traffic-reduction programmes were let down by IT. Long before London's now infamous congestion charging scheme was implemented by Capita there was a line of critics saying the technology wouldn't prove workable.

Arguably a reliance on smartcards - client-side technology - was the weak link. Municipal authorities up and down the UK and around the world are now looking at Mayor Livingstone's approach - and databases over smartcards.)

But back to five years ago... Project leader, Ed Tyrer, detailed the delay in an interim report. "That we couldn't automatically debit the cards as cars passed under the reader was disappointing," he said. "We may well run another trial."

The project is believed to have been central in the formation of a government white paper, outlining policy on reducing car traffic in inner cities, due out later this month. A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport praised the project. "As an experiment it definitely has a place in the white paper," she said. "It has been extremely valuable."