Time-based low emission zones preserving drivers' privacy

Nowadays, big cities try to fight high levels of pollution and traffic jams by limiting the access of vehicles to centric zones or Low-Emission Zones (LEZ). One of the most important drawbacks of LEZs is the citizens' risk to be tracked by means of their interactions with the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in use; another relevant problem is the significant error percentage on the detection of fraudulent drivers. The former shortcoming clearly affects the peace of mind of users regarding their privacy. The latter represents an important disadvantage for any entity willing to employ resources on managing a LEZ. In this article, a new ERP system specifically designed for cities with Low-Emission Zones is proposed. The new scheme is user-centric by design, in the sense that preserving the privacy of honest drivers is a fundamental objective. Regarding fraudulent drivers, the proposed system is able to detect them and revoke their anonymity.