More than electronic toll booths: Singapore's Electronic Road Pricing innovation

This paper explores the dynamics of the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) innovation in Singapore, tracing its implementation to subsequent diffusion to delineate the links between technology and society. The ERP system, introduced in 1998, is an elaborate and sophisticated toll collecting system using ICTs to regulate road usage. We use the actor-network theory (ANT) as a conceptual tool to analyse the dynamics of this innovation. Through a detailed examination of both human and non-human actors, we are able to analyse how interests of heterogeneous members of a societal network can be aligned to introduce a technological innovation. In the process, we have observed issues arising from the differential power relationship that exists between road users and government planners as well as the integration of the social and technical aspects of this emerging socio-technological system. As an emergent technology, the ERP innovation system reflects the social morphology of Singapore as it plays out its part in the making of this nascent nation.