Verona: rule book urban mobility

Approach

The Municipality of Verona needed to verify compliance with the rules governing the access and stay of vehicles dedicated to loading/unloading goods in LTZs.  The city also needed to definitively solve the issue of counterfeiting disabled cards and to improve the effectiveness of roadside checks.
The urban center was already equipped with LTZ infrastructure consisting of 8 electronic gates to recognize license plates. However, the cameras positioned only in the LTZ access areas were not enabled to collect information about the exact time of entry and exit from the area, and consequently, the actual duration of the stay in the LTZ. Once vehicles entered, including with regular permits, they were then able to stay beyond the permitted period of time, thereby causing congestion within the LTZ and the unauthorized activity could neither be verified nor sanctioned.
The process of managing and controlling old disabled cards – in the process of being replaced by the new CUDE (European unified disabled card) – did not prevent counterfeiting or the unauthorized use of permits. Instead, more effective tools were needed for roadside checks by the dedicated personnel. Additionally, the city also wanted to automate the access and control procedure for vehicles with disabled people on board in the LTZ. The solution would need to reduce the workload of the related offices by registering all requests for access to the LTZ made by disabled people before each journey.

Solution

The existing LTZ system, which consists of electronic gates for license plate recognition, was enhanced with the new UHF RFID Mobility Gate system to identify disabled passes on board vehicles and to measure how long commercial vehicles remain within LTZs.
The two systems are independent, each specifically intended for its own functions: the 27 UHF RFID Mobility Gates, installed at each LTZ entry and exit point, make it possible to accurately measure how long vehicles used for loading/unloading goods stay in the area and to detect any cases of vehicles remaining longer than the amount of time allowed by their individual permits.
The old paper permits for the access of commercial vehicles in LTZs has been replaced with passes equipped with RFID tags. Mobility Gates detect both incoming and outgoing passes, making it possible to determine the actual duration of the stay.
Upon the replacement of the old disabled cards with the new CUDE (European unified disabled card)  – it was also decided to equip these with an RFID tag that makes the permit impossible to counterfeit and to allow for its identification via the handheld devices used by personnel in charge of the road control, as well as by the RFID LTZ access points. Citizens entitled to use the CUDE may request it from the designated counters where the card is printed directly with the user’s data and then equipped with RFID tags.