Motorized multi-mode highway toll station structure

Abstract

The utility model discloses a motorized multi-mode expressway toll station structure, which relates to the technical field of expressway toll station structures, and comprises a toll queue area which is divided by depending on the interior of a single lane and is used for accommodating a plurality of vehicles to be transacted to form a transaction queue; a mobile and / or fixed charging terminal is adopted, is arranged on the side surface of the charging queue area, and carries out charging transaction corresponding to the vehicles in the transaction queue; the entrance and / or exit of the charging queue area is provided with a fee-display integrated handrail to control vehicles to go in and out. According to the utility model, the toll queue areas are divided in the single lane to accommodate multiple vehicles, and the toll terminal is matched to carry out parallel toll collection, so that the traditional single-point serial toll collection is changed into multi-point multi-vehicle parallel toll collection, the traffic bottleneck problem of insufficient toll points in peak hours is solved, and the traffic efficiency and throughput of the toll station are improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model relates to the technical field of highway toll station structure, and in particular to a mobile multimodal highway toll station structure. Background Technology

[0002] While traditional highway tollbooth structures are technologically mature, their inherent limitations become increasingly apparent when dealing with dynamically changing traffic flows, mainly in the following aspects:

[0003] First, the traditional fixed-toll structure has poor scalability and rigid resource allocation. The number of toll lanes is determined when the toll station is built, and it is limited by the physical space of the plaza, making dynamic expansion impossible based on the tidal characteristics of traffic flow. This results in idle resources during low-traffic periods and a severe shortage of toll booths during high-traffic periods, becoming a traffic bottleneck and easily causing long-term, long-distance congestion. Second, equipment utilization and flexibility are low. Fixed toll booths and their supporting equipment (such as barrier gates and toll display screens) are bound to specific lanes and cannot be shared across lanes. When a lane experiences slow traffic due to equipment failure or special vehicle handling, the equipment in adjacent lanes cannot provide effective support, and the overall system throughput efficiency is limited by the slowest lane. Third, the coordination of toll collection modes is insufficient. ETC lanes and MTC lanes have single and relatively isolated functions. ETC lanes are poorly adaptable to vehicles with abnormal tags or without ETC installed, requiring them to be guided to MTC lanes, which can easily cause vehicles to weave in and cause disorder. MTC lanes are mainly operated manually, resulting in low payment efficiency (especially cash payments), making it difficult to meet the widespread demand for fast, contactless payments in modern transportation. Fourth, the emergency response capability is weak. When faced with sudden traffic surges such as the transition period of the toll-free policy or traffic accident diversion, the existing system lacks the means to quickly deploy additional toll booths. When additional personnel are temporarily deployed with handheld toll collection devices for traffic control, the effect is often limited because these mobile devices are not deeply integrated with the core control system (especially the barrier control logic).

[0004] In existing highway toll station structures, to compensate for the shortcomings of the fixed model, the industry has attempted to introduce mobile devices such as handheld or portable toll booths for auxiliary toll collection in some scenarios. However, most of these attempts only treat the mobile devices as functional extensions of the fixed toll booths, failing to achieve deep integration at the system level of the highway toll station structure, resulting in limitations: First, the control logic is rigid. The raising / lowering control of traditional barrier gates relies on the trigger signals of induction coils in fixed lanes. When toll points are dispersed by mobile devices, the original fixed trigger logic cannot be adapted. Toll collectors need to manually control the barriers based on experience, which is prone to errors, such as raising the barrier before the vehicle has completed the transaction, resulting in missed charges, or delaying the barrier raising after the transaction is completed, affecting traffic efficiency. Second, there is insufficient system coordination and data real-time performance. There is a delay in data synchronization between mobile devices and the central toll collection system, which may lead to the transaction status not being transmitted back to the control system in real time, resulting in duplicate charges or incorrect barrier control commands. There is a lack of unified coordination and scheduling between devices, which can easily form information silos. Third, the level of intelligence in queue management and scheduling is low: existing solutions lack real-time perception and intelligent analysis of the queuing status of vehicles throughout the station. The inability to dynamically allocate toll resources and optimize vehicle guidance routes based on the queue length, waiting time, and working status of each lane has resulted in an imbalance where "some lanes are congested while some toll booths are idle," failing to fully utilize the potential of the toll equipment.

[0005] For example, utility model application number 201620463362.9 discloses a layout structure for a vehicle toll station. Based on this utility model, multiple vehicles can pass through, which helps to improve and increase the traffic efficiency at the toll station and alleviate traffic congestion, making it highly practical. However, its solution does not effectively integrate the mobile toll terminal with the existing toll station structure. Utility Model Content

[0006] To address the aforementioned problems, the purpose of this utility model is to provide a mobile multimodal highway toll station structure, which solves the problems of low traffic efficiency and uneven resource allocation caused by rigid fixed toll lane layout, insufficient coordinated scheduling of mobile toll resources, low level of intelligent queue management, and low integration of payment methods when facing dynamic high traffic volumes.

[0007] The objective of this utility model can be achieved through the following technical solution: a mobile multimodal highway toll station structure, comprising:

[0008] The toll queue area is formed by dividing the space within a single lane and is used to accommodate multiple vehicles waiting to be traded, forming a vehicle transaction queue.

[0009] The toll collection terminal adopts mobile and / or fixed toll collection terminals, which are installed on the side of the toll collection queue area and correspond to the vehicles in the transaction queue to carry out vehicle toll collection transactions.

[0010] The integrated toll display barrier is installed at the entrance and / or exit of the toll queue area to control vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area.

[0011] A drone platform is used to park drones, which work with payment terminals to process vehicle payment transactions.

[0012] As a further improvement of this utility model, the gantries at the entrance and exit of the toll queue area are equipped with license plate recognition devices to perform video recognition of vehicle information.

[0013] As a further improvement of this utility model, inductive loops are installed at the entrance and exit of the toll queue area to detect vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area.

[0014] As a further embodiment of this utility model, the inductive loop includes an entry coil, a trigger coil, a presence coil, and a drop coil.

[0015] As a further embodiment of this utility model, the vehicle transaction queue formed by the toll queue area is no less than 5 vehicles, and the area length of each vehicle is 400cm-800cm.

[0016] As a further embodiment of this utility model, the toll collection terminal includes a handheld device, a portable device, and a toll booth.

[0017] As a further improvement of this utility model, an RSU antenna is provided at the exit of the toll queue area.

[0018] The beneficial effects of this utility model are:

[0019] 1. This utility model transforms the traditional single-point serial toll collection into a multi-point, multi-vehicle parallel toll collection mode by dividing a toll queue area within a single lane to accommodate multiple vehicles and cooperating with mobile and fixed toll collection terminals for parallel toll transactions. This design breaks the limitation of the number of fixed toll lanes and can dynamically adjust the toll collection points according to the tidal characteristics of traffic flow. In the face of sudden large traffic volumes, there is no need to modify the civil engineering facilities; only the addition of mobile toll collection terminals is required for rapid expansion. This reduces the emergency response time from hours to minutes, fundamentally solving the traffic bottleneck problem caused by insufficient toll collection points during peak hours and significantly improving the overall traffic efficiency and throughput of toll stations.

[0020] 2. This utility model integrates various toll collection terminals, such as handheld devices, portable devices, fixed toll booths, and even drone platforms, into a unified toll collection system, and uses license plate recognition equipment, ground loop coil groups, and RSU antennas to achieve real-time perception and accurate positioning of vehicle information.

[0021] 3. The structure of this utility model supports multiple payment modes such as ETC, mobile payment, and drone aerial toll collection. Through hierarchical guidance, it effectively avoids mutual interference between vehicles with different payment needs, reduces vehicle weaving and disorder, meets the general demand of modern transportation for fast and contactless payment, and ensures the orderly and efficient operation of the toll station area under various working conditions. Attached Figure Description

[0022] Figure 1 This is a structural diagram of the highway toll station structure of this utility model.

[0023] 100. Toll queue area;

[0024] 210. Handheld device; 220. Portable device; 230. Toll booth; 240. Sign recognition equipment; 250. Unmanned aerial vehicle platform; 260. RSU antenna; 270. Integrated toll display barrier;

[0025] 310. Entering coil; 320. Triggering coil; 330. Existing coil; 340. Dropping coil. Detailed Implementation

[0026] The embodiments of this utility model are described in detail below. Examples of these embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar symbols denote the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions throughout. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and are only used to explain this utility model, and should not be construed as limiting this utility model.

[0027] Example 1:

[0028] like Figure 1 As shown, this utility model discloses a mobile multimodal highway toll station structure, including a toll queue area 100, a toll terminal and an integrated toll display barrier 270, etc.

[0029] Existing highway toll stations typically have toll booths, gantries, inductive loop detectors, and other equipment on their single-lane toll islands, enabling single-vehicle toll transactions.

[0030] The toll queue area 100 of this utility model is formed by dividing a single lane. The toll queue area 100 can accommodate multiple vehicles waiting to be traded at one time, forming a vehicle transaction queue. The vehicles are arranged in an orderly manner in this area. The setting of the toll queue area 100 can effectively utilize the space resources of a single lane, while providing a reasonable space division for multiple vehicles to wait in queue.

[0031] Preferably, such as Figure 1 As shown, the vehicle transaction queue formed in toll queue area 100 shall consist of no fewer than 5 vehicles, with each vehicle's queue length ranging from 400cm to 800cm. This ensures that all vehicle types (including sedans, SUVs, vans, and light trucks) can be stably parked within their respective areas, preventing queue chaos due to differences in vehicle size. Adjacent vehicle areas are separated by white dotted lines painted on the ground and prominent directional arrows pointing in the same direction as the vehicles' travel, guiding drivers to accurately enter their designated areas and further enhancing queue order. The width of this area remains consistent with the original single-lane width, thus avoiding the occupation of additional road space while still meeting the safe distance requirements for multiple vehicles waiting in queues.

[0032] On the side of the toll queue area 100, in the toll island area, mobile and / or fixed toll terminals are installed, wherein the mobile terminals include handheld devices 210 and portable devices 220, and the fixed toll terminals are existing toll booths 230.

[0033] The 210 handheld device can be a handheld toll collection tablet, which is a lightweight device (supporting 4G / 5G network connectivity) that integrates a license plate recognition camera, a QR code scanning module, and an NFC reader (compatible with ETC card emergency reading). It can be operated by staff by hand and is suitable for flexible verification next to the lane.

[0034] The portable 220 includes a trolley-type (with display screen, keyboard, and printer) and a mobile type (which can be towed to any location in the square). It supports full-function toll collection operations (ETC transaction assistance, acceptance of multiple payment methods) and is suitable for high-load lanes or emergency scenarios, requiring no manual operation.

[0035] A management server is installed in the toll booth 230 or the control center of the toll station, and a toll collection system is installed in conjunction with it. The toll collection system, combined with the toll station structure of this utility model, jointly completes business processes such as vehicle identification, billing, transaction and passage management.

[0036] Each toll terminal corresponds to a vehicle in the transaction queue and conducts vehicle toll transactions, realizing vehicle queue information verification and payment. Each toll terminal is connected to the toll collection system, and the toll terminals share and synchronize data in real time through the communication network.

[0037] By working in conjunction with the toll collection system, this utility model toll station structure achieves an intelligent upgrade of the traditional toll collection model, completing a vehicle queue transaction in one go. This not only improves the flexibility of toll collection operations and emergency response capabilities, but also provides accurate data support and decision-making basis for highway operation and management.

[0038] The integrated toll display barrier 270 is installed at the entrance and / or exit of the toll queue area 100 to control vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area 100.

[0039] The 270 integrated toll display barrier integrates toll amount display functionality, providing real-time information on the current toll amount to vehicles, ensuring transparency in the toll collection process. The barrier features automatic raising and lowering control, allowing for rapid ascent and descent based on instructions from the toll collection system or manual operation, effectively guiding vehicles through the toll area and preventing unpaid vehicles from entering. The 270 combines durability and safety, adapting to the complex outdoor environment and high-frequency usage requirements of highway toll stations.

[0040] For example, during peak traffic hours, toll queue area 100 can be used to collect tolls from 5 vehicles simultaneously. One staff member carrying a handheld device 210 is positioned to the side of toll queue area 100, and three portable devices 220 are also located to the side of toll queue area 100, with one fixed toll booth. The entrance to toll queue area 100 is controlled by manual guidance or turnstiles, allowing 5 vehicles to enter at a time. The handheld device 210, portable devices 220, and toll booth simultaneously collect tolls from all 5 vehicles. After the 5 vehicles in toll queue area 100 have been paid, the toll queue area 100 is used for the next batch of vehicle toll transactions.

[0041] When faced with sudden surges in traffic, there is no need to modify fixed facilities; simply adding more mobile toll collection terminals can quickly increase the number of toll collection points, reducing emergency response time from hours to minutes, and fundamentally solving the traffic bottleneck problem caused by the fixed number of toll lanes.

[0042] Example 2:

[0043] Based on Example 1, this example further optimizes the structure of highway toll stations.

[0044] Preferably, a drone platform 250 is set up in the toll booth area 230. The drone platform 250 is used to park drones, and the drones work with the toll terminal to conduct vehicle toll transactions.

[0045] The drone is equipped with an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) module and can take off from a drone platform (250mm) or be controlled to ascend to a preset altitude above a designated vehicle, depending on demand. The ETC module on the drone can actively identify the vehicle's OBU (On-Board Unit), establish a wireless communication connection, read and interact with ETC transaction data, calculate toll fees in real time, and deduct the fee.

[0046] Furthermore, in conjunction with the drone platform, vehicle guides are set up at the entrance of the toll queue area 100. The vehicle guides, based on the prompts on their handheld devices, divert vehicles that have completed ETC toll transactions to the fast passage lane, while guiding vehicles that have not installed ETC or whose ETC transactions have failed to the toll queue area 100.

[0047] This tiered guidance model, which combines drone-based ETC transactions with manual assistance, fully leverages the advantages of ETC's rapid passage, effectively avoids congestion caused by different types of vehicles mixing at the entrance, and further improves the vehicle turnover efficiency of the toll queue area.

[0048] Preferably, the toll queue area 100 is equipped with a license plate recognition device 240 at the entrance and exit gantries to perform video recognition of vehicle information.

[0049] The license plate recognition device 240 is installed at the entrance of the toll queue area 100 or at the toll booth 230 gantry. The license plate recognition device 240 collects vehicle image information, and after recognition and analysis by the pre-trained image recognition module, it can obtain vehicle license plate information, vehicle queue length information, and vehicle location information.

[0050] License plate information provides the basis for subsequent vehicle identity verification and accurate toll calculation; vehicle queue length information can calculate the number of vehicles in the current toll queue and the queuing distance; vehicle location information, by using the installation location coordinates of the license plate recognition device 240 and the relative position of vehicles in the image, enables dynamic positioning of vehicles within a 100-meter radius of the toll queue area. Based on the license plate recognition device 240, intelligent monitoring and scheduling of toll stations can be constructed. This provides data support for optimizing lane resource allocation and improving toll collection efficiency.

[0051] Preferably, ground induction coils are installed at the entrance and exit of the toll queue area 100 to detect vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area 100.

[0052] Furthermore, such as Figure 1 As shown, the inductive loop includes an entry coil 310, a trigger coil 320, a presence coil 330, and a drop coil 340, etc.

[0053] The entry coil 310 is installed at the entrance of the toll queue area 100 to sense vehicles entering the toll queue area 100 and generate a sensing signal. This signal can be transmitted to the toll system in real time as the initial trigger for vehicles to enter the queue sequence, helping the system to accurately record the vehicle entry time and providing basic data for subsequent statistics on queue duration and analysis of peak traffic periods.

[0054] The trigger coil 320 is located at the exit of the toll queue area 100 and can be used to trigger the card retrieval device, making it convenient for drivers to quickly retrieve their cards and effectively reducing the need for manual card delivery.

[0055] The presence coil 330 is located at the exit of the toll queue area 100 and is used to detect whether a vehicle has fully entered the operating area. After the front wheels of the vehicle pass over the trigger coil 320 to complete the card retrieval, the vehicle continues to move forward. When the rear wheels pass over the presence coil 330, the coil generates a continuous induction signal. This signal is transmitted to the toll system and the barrier gate control unit. Based on this, the system determines that the vehicle is in a stable toll operation position, at which point the toll collector can perform subsequent operations such as toll collection.

[0056] The barrier gate lowering coil 340 is located at the exit of the toll queue area 100 and is used to detect whether a vehicle has completely left the operating area. When a vehicle completes payment and other operations and starts to leave, the front wheels first pass over the barrier gate lowering coil 340. At this time, the coil generates a brief induction signal, but the system does not immediately trigger the barrier gate to lower. Only when the rear wheels of the vehicle have completely passed over the barrier gate lowering coil 340 and the induction signal of the coil changes from present to absent will the signal be transmitted to the barrier gate control unit in real time. After receiving this signal, the control unit will issue a barrier gate lowering command, further improving the safety and orderliness of vehicle passage at the toll station. At the same time, the barrier gate lowering command is also controlled by the toll collection system. During queue toll collection, the barrier gate can be kept in the raised state, allowing multiple adjacent vehicles that have completed transactions to quickly leave the toll queue area 100.

[0057] Preferably, an RSU antenna is installed at the exit of toll queue area 100. The RSU antenna communicates with the toll collection system in real time to identify vehicle information with electronic tags. When a vehicle completes payment and leaves toll queue area 100, just before passing through the exit, the RSU antenna automatically scans and identifies the vehicle's electronic tag, and the identified vehicle information is uploaded to the toll collection system. The toll collection system verifies this information, and after confirming that the vehicle has completed all payment procedures and the information is correct, it sends a coordination command to the gate control unit to ensure that the gate accurately closes after the vehicle has safely left. This further improves the passage efficiency of ETC vehicles, realizes unmanned and rapid passage, and enhances the management accuracy and toll collection reliability of the toll station.

[0058] The principle of this utility model: This utility model discloses a mobile multimodal highway toll station structure. Based on the traditional toll station structure, it transforms the traditional single-point serial toll collection mode into a multi-point, multi-vehicle parallel toll collection mode by forming a toll queue area 100 through the collaborative networking of handheld devices 210, portable devices 220, and fixed toll collection points. This achieves flexible expansion and on-demand deployment of toll collection capacity. In the face of sudden large traffic volumes, there is no need to modify fixed facilities; simply adding mobile toll collection terminals can quickly increase the number of toll collection points, shortening the emergency response time from hours to minutes, fundamentally solving the traffic bottleneck problem caused by the fixed number of toll lanes.

[0059] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present utility model, but the protection scope of the present utility model is not limited thereto. Any equivalent substitutions or changes made by those skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present utility model, based on the technical solution and concept of the present utility model, should be included within the protection scope of the present utility model.

[0060] It should be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "front", "back", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", etc., indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this utility model and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, they should not be construed as limitations on this utility model.

[0061] In this utility model, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, "above" or "below" the second feature can mean that the first feature is in direct contact with the second feature, or that the first feature is in indirect contact with the second feature through an intermediate medium. Furthermore, "above," "on top of," and "over" the second feature can mean that the first feature is directly above or diagonally above the second feature, or simply that the first feature is at a higher horizontal level than the second feature. "Below," "below," and "under" the second feature can mean that the first feature is directly below or diagonally below the second feature, or simply that the first feature is at a lower horizontal level than the second feature.

Claims

1. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure, characterized by, include: The toll queue area is formed by dividing the space within a single lane and is used to accommodate multiple vehicles waiting to be traded, forming a vehicle transaction queue. The toll collection terminal adopts mobile and / or fixed toll collection terminals, which are installed on the side of the toll collection queue area and correspond to the vehicles in the transaction queue to carry out vehicle toll collection transactions. The integrated toll display barrier is installed at the entrance and / or exit of the toll queue area to control vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area. A drone platform is used to park drones, which work with payment terminals to process vehicle payment transactions.

2. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein, The toll queue area is equipped with license plate recognition devices at the entrance and exit gantries to perform video recognition of vehicle information.

3. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein, Inductive loop detectors are installed at the entrance and exit of the toll queue area to detect vehicles entering and exiting the toll queue area.

4. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure as claimed in claim 3, wherein, The inductive loop includes an entry coil, a trigger coil, a presence coil, and a pole-dropping coil.

5. The structure of a mobile multimodal highway toll station according to claim 1, characterized in that, The vehicle transaction queue formed in the toll queue area shall be no less than 5 vehicles, and the area length of each vehicle shall be 400cm-800cm.

6. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein, The toll collection terminals include handheld devices, portable devices, and toll booths.

7. A motorized multi-modal highway toll booth structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein, An RSU antenna is installed at the exit of the toll queue area.

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