Posted: October 10, 2007

Last week in a special series on EnergyTechStocks.com, transport expert Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in Canada said that a good way to save oil and lives and cut down on air pollution would be to expand the idea of “congestion pricing” to include not just major cities but the equally-clogged highways in and out of those cities.

But whether “congestion pricing” remains an urban phenomenon or morphs into a suburban one as well, the growing number of cities around the world that are considering implementing congestion pricing plans suggests that companies which have the satellite and other technology that does the actual vehicle tracking could be in for a windfall before long.

Litman is not a stock analyst, but as a transportation analyst he knows which companies are leaders in this area. Asked which companies stand out, Litman mentioned two firms, one privately held, the other publicly traded in London.

The first company Litman mentioned was Skymeter Corp., a private Canadian company that is vying for New York City’s proposed congestion pricing program. Skymeter says it is a hardware and software provider with unique patented GPS signal processing methods.

The second company Litman mentioned was Trafficmaster plc, which is publicly held and headquartered in Britain. Among other things, Trafficmaster’s principal product is a satellite navigation system that helps motorists get around traffic congestion.

Again, Litman is not a stock analyst and congestion pricing isn’t yet a big deal. But with Singapore, Seoul, London, New York and other cities moving to implement congestion pricing, indications are that it could be before long.