Assessment Of Advanced Technologies For Relieving Urban Traffic Congestion

This session contains the following papers: Status of IVHS operational tests in the United States (Baxter, JR); Evaluation of a motorist information system using computer display terminals (Thompson, BA and Holcombe, TW); TravTek: An advanced traveler information system (Rupert, R); Human factors considerations in the development of an IVHS system - Night vision enhancement (Lunenfeld, H and Stephens, BW); Evaluation of alternative AVI/ETTM configurations at toll barriers (Pietrzyk, MC).

This volume, the first to result from the Diebold Institute Information-Based Infrastructure Project, explores the links between business and government in the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology. The work focuses on road and vehicular infrastructures, comparing those of the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and the roles that ITS can play in solving major current and anticipated future transportational problems. Special attention is given to environmental and economic concerns. The world's infrastructure requires refurbishing, but it especially requires rethinking. The computer has transformed business enterprises and now information technology can change our environment. This book explores the benefits and how to achieve them through the use of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The implementation of ITS will potentially lead to individual drivers, fleet operators, and public transit users saving vast amounts of journey time and fuel, to a significant reduction in pollution and to improved road safety. The Japanese are ahead of the U.S. and Europe in the area of intelligent transportation systems, using position location devices, and electronic maps. Most look at this development as one that helps speed passenger cars, but this book details the economics which point to the technology being equally good for speeding trucks and easing the movement of freight. Traffic avoidance is only part of the problem although route guidance is helpful. Financing of projects in ITS is an important area for innovation and ITS could be a source of revenue to municipalities rather than an expense.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined the development and application of intelligent vehicle and highway systems (IVHS), more commonly known as smart highways, as a means of reducing traffic congestion. The following questions were addressed: What have the major studies concluded about the potential effects of IVHS, and to what extent are these findings empirically based? What additional information can be learned from IVHS field tests under way? What major obstacles could impede the realization of transportation benefits possible through IVHS technologies? In brief, GAO found that the empirical basis for judging the effects of IVHS is limited but nonetheless positive and promising.

The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration requested that the Transportation Research Board and the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council conduct a study of congestion pricing for congestion management. To conduct this study, the National Research Council established the Committee for Study on Urban Transportation Congestion Pricing. The committee's deliberations were supplemented by liaison representatives from several groups concerned about the benefits and costs of congestion pricing. After a review of the literature, and drawing from its expertise, the committee commissioned papers on a variety of topics. Volume 1 contains the committee's overview of the material contained in the commissioned papers, its conclusions, and its recommendations regarding the potential of congestion pricing, the need for evaluation of early demonstrations, and other research needs. Volume 2 provides a rich array of information about individual case studies from around the nation and thoughtful analyses by individual scholars about many of the critical issues surrounding congestion pricing., as revised by their authors after the symposium.