Transportation Infostructures

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.

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.

INFOSTRUCTURE presents the vision of interactive and responsive urban public transport environments where new forms of communication and information access are enabled through an overlay of urban digital media technologies. Featuring research and projects undertaken by master students in architecture at the University of Technology, Sydney and Bachelor students in design computing at the University of Sydney, the book explores the augmentation of existing public transport environments with urban digital media technologies, to set in motion a transformation from infrastructure to 'infostructure(s).' Precedent based research and technology investigations underpin the twenty featured student projects, that address a nexus of space, urban media, sensor, and mobile phone technology. The research presented in this book is a foundation for a series of future infostructure projects.

This authoritative reference work will provide readers with a complete overview of artificial intelligence (AI), including its historic development and current status, existing and projected AI applications, and present and potential future impact on the United States and the world. Some people believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize modern life in ways that improve human existence. Others say that the promise of AI is overblown. Still others contend that AI applications could pose a grave threat to the economic security of millions of people by taking their jobs and otherwise rendering them "obsolete"-or, even worse, that AI could actually spell the end of the human race. This volume will help users understand the reasons AI development has both spirited defenders and alarmed critics; explain theories and innovations like Moore's Law, mindcloning, and Technological Singularity that drive AI research and debate; and give readers the information they need to make their own informed judgment about the promise and peril of this technology. All of this coverage is presented using language and terminology accessible to a lay audience.

Motorway traffic management systems are useful for improving the traffic conditions on urban motorways. One of the most common motorway traffic management systems are variable speed limit systems. These systems adapt the speed limits based on the prevailing traffic conditions measured by roadside detectors and recommended or compulsory speed limits are shown on variable message signs installed on gantries over the road.Thesystems consist of three parts; the control algorithm used to determine which speed limit to be displayed, a method for estimating the traffic conditions to be used as input for the control algorithm and the infrastructure for application of the variable speed limits. The goal of the systems is often to increase safety or efficiency. Recent development in the field of connected vehicles have opened up for a new type of data source, as the status of a connected vehicle and its surroundings can be communicated at arbitrary locations. Hence, by the use of connected vehicles in variable speed limit systems there is a potential of reducing the amount of roadside equipment. It is even possible to control the connected vehicles towards the current speed limit without the use of variable message signs. This allows for the application of variable speed limits at arbitrary locations. The aim of this thesis is to examine how connected vehicles can be used to improve the efficiency of variable speed limit systems. The thesis contribute with new and improved methods using connected vehicles in all three parts of a variable speed limit system. The suggested methods are evaluated by microscopic traffic simulation. The overall conclusion is that the use of connected vehicles in variable speed limit systems can contribute to improvements in traffic efficiency compared to existing systems. The six papers included in the thesis can be summarized as follows. First, it is shown that traditional variable speed limit systems can be effective for improving the traffic conditions on the motorway and the results can be comparable to more costly alterations by reconstruction of the infrastructure to increase the capacity. Next, the usefulness of connected vehicles for application and control of the speed limits in an existing variable speed limit system is investigated. It is concluded that the design of the control algorithm and the accuracy of the estimated traffic conditions have a great effect on the final outcome of the system. The design of the control algorithm is then examined by evaluation of a number of control algorithms with respect to safety, efficiency and environmental impacts. The main benefits and drawbacks of the algorithms are highlighted and desirable characteristics to include when designing a control algorithm are identified. In two studies, methods making use of connected vehicles for estimating the traffic conditions are proposed. The results show that connected vehicles are useful for improving the accuracy of the estimated traffic conditions through the inclusion of more detailed information and information at locations where detector measurements are not available. Finally, a variable speed limit system is proposed in which connected vehicles play a central role in the estimation of the traffic conditions, as well as in the control algorithm and for application of the speed limit. The system is shown to be useful for improving traffic efficiency during an incident at an arbitrary location along the controlled road.

The environmental challenges facing humankind can most effectively be met through environmental integration—incorporating environmental considerations into everyday human thinking, behavior, and practices, at both the individual and collective levels. Increasingly people and organizations throughout the world are taking the environment into account, but at the same time there is insufficient integration of attitudes, policies, and programs. People and groups have different, and often conflicting, views and interpretations of what is desirable or required to protect the environment. Environmental Integration looks at the ways that governments can play a crucial role in advancing, promoting, and shaping a singular, integrated environmental policy.

This collection explores the opportunities for and possible implications of coordination between two of the major pieces of emerging infrastructure in the United States: Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the National Information Infrastructure (NII). This collection explores the opportunities for and possible implications of coordination between two of the major pieces of emerging infrastructure in the United States: Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Based on a recent workshop that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, MIT, and Harvard, Converging Infrastructures frames the programmatic, organizational, and technical issues involved.