Will a city need all the latest technology and they will solve the traffic problems? If not, then what are the correct choices.

Technology has been playing an important role in promoting vehicular safety, reducing driving stress, comfortable travel and increased  efficiency of the whole transport system. These technologies applied in a package are called “Intelligent Transport System (ITS)”. When carefully applied the ITS will create an efficient, safe and comfortable transport system.

Often, policy-makers are in a situation where they are not properly informed on the right technological choices. The GTZ Sourcebook module  on “Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)” focuses on the choices for a city and also informs the reader of the various viable ITS options, their function and advantage. (German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) is a member of the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP – ASIA).  The project is carried out in cooperation between German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), CITYNET, UNHABITAT and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The office is based in Bangkok (Thailand).

The focus of this module on ITS is on ITS applications that support the concept of sustainable transport by encouraging the following desirable outcomes which can be expected to find general acceptance:

• Equitable access and improved mobility and including reduced demand for motorised private transport; and improve the modal split in favor of walking, transit, and cycling;
• Improved transport efficiency and productivity;
• Improved safety and security; and
• Reduced environmental impact and improved ‘liveability’, especially in congested city centres.

The module was written by Mr. Phil Sayeg and Prof. Phil Charles and updated by the authors. The authors also wrote ITS Australia’s Intelligent Transport Systems Hand- book that was published in 2003 and edit their quarterly Members’ Information Pack. They are currently contributing to the development of the first ITS Strategy for Bangkok, Thailand.

More information on the updated module (3.15 Mb) and download links are available from the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) website.

(Source: USA Today; Carkeys, UK)

Image Courtesy: USA Today

Automobile technology has exploded over the past two decades and todays cars are far more “intelligent” than the cars of the 70 and 80s.  These days there are more computers and sensors (collectively captured under the term Intelligent Vehicle, a terminology that is more familiar to those involved in Intelligent Transportation Systems) operating side by side with the driver to ensure that the vehicle operates at optimal efficiency while managing the safety of the vehicle by avoiding or alerting/warning about impending collisions.   The state of the art technology deployed in some cars can even slow down the vehicle by applying brakes without driver’s assistance, just to minimize the impact of the crash.  Now, that will soon become yesterday’s technology, thanks to vehicle safety pioneers at Volvo who are hard at work to deploy “full auto brake” and “pedestrian safety” functions.   USA Today reports on this latest vehicle technology development at the Volvo shop.

By now, collision avoidance systems that automatically apply the brakes to a speeding car have become pretty common. But while cars will suddenly slow if they detect an accident is about to happen, automakers have been hesitant to bring them to a sudden and full emergency stop.

Volvo is about to change all that. With the launch of the S60 next year, Volvo will introduce a “full auto brake” and “pedestrian safety” function. Cars will come a full stop at speeds less than about 15 miles an hour if their radar systems detect they are about to strike a car or a person. If the car is going faster, the car will try to come as close to a full stop as possible.

“If the car is traveling faster, the aim is to reduce the impact speed as much as possible. In most cases, we can reduce the collision force by about 75%,” says Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s safety expert. “Considering the large number of pedestrian fatalities that occur, if we manage to reduce the fatality risk 20 percent, this new function will make a big difference.”

Carkeys.com, a British website reports that this effort is part of Volvo’s 2020 vision, which has two goals – firstly, that nobody will be killed or injured in a new Volvo and, secondly, that the average CO2 emissions of the entire range will be below 100g/km. As part of addressing this first goal, the first step forward from the current situation regarding safety is the introduction of Collision Warning With Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Safety, both of which will be introduced in the new S60, due to be launched next year, and Volvo is also upgrading its Adaptive Cruise Control so that it now maintains a gap to the vehicle in front at speeds right down to zero, rather than the present 18mph minimum.

Further development depends on vehicles being able to communicate with each other – the idea being that they recognise it and take steps to avoid a collision regardless of what the drivers are doing – and this in turn will require a suitable infrastructure. “We believe that the key is to use systems that are already available for other purposes,” says Jan Ivarsson, Volvo’s Head of Safety Strategy. “The air around us is already charged with communication, most of it used for pleasure or convenience.

“Adding traffic safety communication to this existing architecture is a far more sensible route than trying to invent and agree on a completely new ‘language’ for communicating in the traffic environment.”

Fifty years ago, Volvo introduced seat belts, which are now a “standard” in all vehicles entering the market(s) and has been credited for saving millions of lives world over since its introduction.  Hope this new introduction can repeat the magic for the 2nd time and further cut the vehicle-related fatalities and crashes.  Click here to read the entire article.

The next *IntelliDrive^SM Working Group Meeting will take place October 29-30th at the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby/Detroit Downtown Hotel.  The purpose of this meeting is for the major partners and stakeholders to present future plans and focus areas of the program and to discuss stakeholder involvement in all focus areas.  On the first day, each of the major partners (the states, auto industry, and USDOT) will discuss their upcoming plans, projects and focus areas. Day one will end with a facilitated discussion of the Working Group structure and stakeholder involvement to accommodate new focus areas including environmental applications, mobility applications based on various communications systems, and inclusion of aftermarket devices and applications.  Day two will include breakout sessions on specific focus areas for the program, including safety, mobility, and environment.

Who should attend?  The Working Group meeting will be open to members as well as other interested participants.

Date:  October 29-30, 2009 Oct 29th full day; Oct 30th half day, ending by 11:30 AM.

Location:  Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby/Detroit Downtown Hotel.

525 West Lafayette Blvd, Detroit, Michigan, 48226

Tel: 1-313-963-5600

Registration:  Registration for this event is free.  However, a registration form must be completed by October 23 and sent to Brei Whitty at bwhitty@itsa.org in order to attend.

Click here for a registration form.

Hotel Info – Link

Airport to Hotel Transportation Information – Link

*IntelliDrive is a registered service mark of the US Department of Transportation. IntelliDrive was formerly known as the Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) program. More information about the program is available at www.intellidrive.org.

The proceedings from the recently held Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive are now available online for your perusal and downloading.   The Workshop was held at the Holiday Inn, Gaithersburg, Maryland on July 30, 2009.

For those who are not in the know, the Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) Joint Military/Civilian Workshop on IntelliDrive^sm is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and it is supported by the Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (DOT ITS JPO), the Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America); and the Intelligent Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (ISD NIST)

Please link to the IVTT website at www.Intelligent-Vehicle.com and go to the “Prior Events” tab and then click on “Workshop 2009” to access the Presentations and other Workshop information. (Alternatively, you can copy paste the following link: http://www.intelligent-vehicle.com/index.php/events-2009). Or you can simply click each of the following hyperlinked files to simply download them.

• Agenda 31 March 09.pdf
• Presentation 01 Scott Welcome.pdf
• Presentation 02 Finkelstein IVTT Technological Transformation.pdf
• Presentation 03 Dumas Intelligent Vehicle Technology In DARPA.pdf
• Presentation 04 Wilcox Robotic Systems Joint Project office.pdf
• Presentation 05 Rossi Emerging Intelligent Vehicles In FCS.pdf
• Presentation 06 Govers Guardium UGV.pdf
• Presentation 07 Shoemaker Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Research.pdf
• Presentation 08 Scott Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle Technology At NIST.pdf
• Presentation 09 Schmidt Intelligent Vehicles And IntelliDrive.pdf
• Presentation 10 Fitch Intelligent Vehicle Perception And Autonomy.pdf
• Presentation 11 Pilutti Autonomous Vehicles And Collision Avoidance.pdf
• Presentation 12 Schmitt Intelligent Commercial Vehicles.pdf
• Presentation 13 Langer Autonomous Driving At VW.pdf
• Presentation 14 McBride Autonomous Vehicle Research At Ford.pdf
• Presentation 15 Rajkumar Making Autonomous Driving Real.pdf
• Presentation 16 Kern Intelligent Cars Trucks And Buses.pdf
• Presentation 17 Snyder Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles Now.pdf
• Presentation 18 McCormick Connected Vehicle Proving Center.pdf
• Presentation 19 Dallas Robotics Technology Consortium.pdf
• Presentation 20 Bishop Intelligent Vehicles Global Perspective.pdf
• Presentation 21 Albus Intelligent Vehicle Technology Gaps.pdf
• Presentation 22 Ayyub Intelligent Vehicles Towards Cognition.pdf
• Presentation 23 Finkelstein IVTT Roadmap.pdf
• Registrants List.pdf

The workshop was deemed a great success, and the DOT’s developing IntelliDrive system of systems can help satisfy the DOD’s needs for complex networks of sensors, vehicles, communications, and control centers. Please stay tuned to your website for the announcement(s) regarding the next event.

Do not forget to thank, Dr. Bob Finkelstein, the manager of IVTT Program for making these presentations publicly available.

Advancing Traffic Signal Management Programs through Regional Collaboration

Description

This T3 webinar will explore Regional Traffic Signal Management Programs from an intuitional and organizational perspective. Over the last decade, Regional Traffic Signal Management Programs have developed in many metropolitan areas with the primary objective of improving traffic signal timing. How successful have these programs been at achieving and sustaining this objective? What types of organizational structures, funding, and technology facilitate the operation of the system? There are many approaches to starting, organizing, and sustaining regional programs; a cross section of these, will be explored from the perspective of State DOTs, Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Local Agencies. The activities, funding sources and champions that sustain regional programs are as diverse as the regions themselves; exploring and discussing these is an important step in improving and advancing traffic signal operations nationally.

The webinar will include brief presentations describing each regional traffic signal program followed by a Question & Answer discussion of questions submitted by webinar participants.

Audience

Politicians, managers and practitioners interested in improving traffic signal management, operations and maintenance practices to reduce the impacts of traffic signals on climate change, improve the quality of life of customers and advancing a world class transportation system that interoperates across multiple modes and facilities.

Learning Objectives

• Identify approaches to “sell” regional traffic signal programs as a viable strategy to improve traffic signal operations.
• Identify organizational structures and methods of overcoming institutional barriers to the formation of regional traffic signal management programs.
• List activities that promote regional collaboration among traffic signal operators.
• Identify how planning organizations and agencies that manage and operate traffic signals can work collaboratively to improve traffic signal operations.
• List the benefits of regional traffic signal operations.
• Identify emerging strategies for measuring performance and prioritizing regional objectives and projects.

Federal Host:

Eddie Curtis, FHWA Resource Center & Office of Operations

Eddie Curtis is a Traffic Management Specialist with the FHWA Resource Center and Headquarters Office of Operations. He manages the Arterial Management Program responsible for providing research, guidance and outreach to advance arterial operations and traffic signal management. Via the Resource center Mr. Curtis provides training and technical assistance on issues related to traffic signal management, operations and ACS-Lite. He has 14 years of experience in traffic signal operations and has held positions with the City of Los Angeles and PB Farradyne. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from California State University Los Angeles and is a licensed P.E. in the states of California.

Presenters:

State Department of Transportation Perspective on Regional Traffic Signal Management

• North Carolina Department of Transportation

Greg Fuller, North Carolina DOT — ITS & State Signals Engineer

• Metropolitan Planning Organization Perspective

Jim Poston, Regional Transportation Commission (RTC)

Metropolitan Planning Organization Perspective

• Ron Achelpohl — Mid-America Regional Council — Operation Green Light Kansas City

Ronald Achelpohl is the Assistant Director of Transportation for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC). He is responsible for a variety of initiatives related to the funding, operation and management of transportation systems in the Kansas City area including:

• • Project Manager for Operation Green Light; an initiative to enhance the coordination of traffic signals to improve traffic flow and air quality throughout the region;
  • Program Manager for the regional Congestion Management System to ensure that regional decision-makers have solid information about the impacts of congestion as they make major transportation investment decisions;
  • Oversight of regional transportation safety programs;
  • Oversight of the Regional Intelligent Systems Architecture;
  • Oversight of the regional Transportation Improvement Program;
  • Oversight of the regional RIDESHARE program; and
  • Other initiatives involving Intelligent Transportation Systems, Travel Demand Management, freight transportation, transportation finance and transportation policy.

Ronald has held previous positions in MARC and the Missouri Department of Transportation and has earned a Master of Science, Engineering Management from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Ronald is a Registered Professional Engineer in Missouri and a member of the American Public Works Association, the Institute of Traffic Engineers, and ITS America, Heartland Chapter.

Professional Organization Perspective

• Institute of Transportation Engineers, Douglas Noble, P.E., PTOE

Douglas Noble is the Senior Director — Management and Operations at the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He is responsible for the integration of transportation management and operations issues into ITE programs and publications. Doug has more than 20 years of experience in project development, financial management and administration in the transportation engineering field with an emphasis in project management, organizational development and change management, traffic engineering, transportation operations, neighborhood traffic management and planned special events.

Doug’s professional background spans both the public and private sectors: He has been the Chief Traffic Engineer for Washington, DC and prior to that a principal transportation engineer for the consulting engineering firm Parsons Transportation Group in its Washington office. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University, and an M.S.E. in transportation systems from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to being registered as a Professional Engineer, Doug has received certification as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer™ and is a Fellow of the Institute.

Where is the “IT” in ITS?

Description

IT and ITS have a common technical framework and similar technical challenges. As such, practitioners in both fields have much to gain by partnering together. The Oregon and New Hampshire State Departments of Transportation will present their experiences in bringing these different organizational groups together to promote efficient and successful ITS project deployment based on systems engineering principles. Each agency will share their successes, challenges, and lessons learned with the organizational and technical issues these new partnerships engender. Representatives from both agencies will discuss the ways that IT and ITS staff in program offices collaborate to support ITS deployments, making this an informative and interesting session and providing the audience with practical steps for initiating and maintaining collaborative, cross-departmental work partnerships.

This webinar is part of a webinar series on Systems Engineering for ITS projects. Many agencies use their Information Technology group as a source for systems engineering and information technology skills and as a way to build competency across different agency departments.

Audience

• Individuals involved in planning, deploying, and operating ITS
• ITS and IT staff and managers
• Human Resource and workforce development professionals

Learning Outcomes

• Understanding of the positive impact on ITS project outcomes derived from collaboration between the agency’s IT department and the ITS program office
• Steps that can be implemented to initiate cross-departmental (IT and ITS) collaboration
• Benefits of using systems engineering in the development and management of ITS projects
• Best practices for maintaining cross-departmental collaboration through the project lifecycle

Federal Host:

Mac Lister

Mac is the Manager of the ITS Professional Capacity Building Program at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office (ITS JPO). He has over 35 years of experience in the field of information systems. Before joining the ITS JPO, Mac was an ITS Specialist at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Resource Center. Before that, Mac worked as an IT manager for 25 years, the last 12 of which were for a public transit agency. His ITS areas of expertise are 511 technology/overall operations, the National ITS Architecture, ITS professional capacity building and workforce development, and systems engineering.

Mac has provided training, outreach and technical support for the National ITS Architecture and Systems Engineering programs. He has also the team leader for the FHWA‘s National Field Support team; the field co-chair for the FHWA Operations Council’s architecture and systems engineering working groups; and a member of the 511 Deployment Coalition Working Group.

Mac is a certified instructor and a master trainer for NHI. He has taught courses in ITS Software Acquisition, Systems Engineering and National ITS Architecture. He has also been an independent consultant to ITS America.

(Source: Eventbrite via Bernie Wagenblast)

Newcastle University and Imperial College would like to invite you to participate in a different sort of Workshop to help shape future research into sustainable intelligent transport.

It will be sparky; it will be challenging; it will think the unthinkable – and it will be FREE with refreshments provided.

You’ll not want to miss it, will you?

• Will the Internet and technology influence how we travel? Whether we travel at all?
• Can technology help mobility?
• How useful is “user-generated content”?
• How far can mobile Internet and Web2.0 get you? – literally
• Where is transport research going?
• Did Beethoven have a food processor?

Come and listen to new thoughts on old problems; share with us what you think matters; show us what you’re up to; join in when people ask the questions they’ve always wanted to pose on transport and the Internet; suggest the areas you think need investigation.

Proceedings will be live blogged and tweeted from the event; together with remote contributions. These will be forwarded to EPSRC as the outcome of the workshop and the SIMM final report.

If you’d like details about attending, exhibiting, making a short presentation or demonstrating a product or technology, or following the workshop online please contact Hannah Bryan:hannah.bryan@newcastle.ac.uk at Newcastle University (0191 222 6420).

This is the outline programme. It is still a work in progress, and is likely to change before the actual event, especially as we’d like your comments on it .

So, your thoughts and comments are welcome, particularly for the interactive panel sessions in the afternoon…

(Source: Green Car Congress)

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has selected Volvo Technology North America to lead the development and demonstration of an advanced Commercial Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (CVII) program. A contract awarding this program to Volvo Technology is being finalized by the state.

The program will demonstrate VII applications for commercial vehicles along key transportation corridors in the greater New York City region. Test corridors, utilizing 5.9 GHz dedicated short range communications (DSRC), include 13 miles of the New York State Thruway Authority’s I-87 Spring Valley Corridor and 42 miles of NYSDOT’s I-495 Long Island Expressway.

VII is an advanced ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) technology using infrastructure similar to that of 915 MHz based systems such as E-Z PASS but with the capability of very high-speed, high-capacity data communication using an on-board communication device that is integrated with the electronic information and control systems of the vehicle.

Visual and audible information is available to the driver from the VII network, and the vehicle can communicate information to the VII roadside infrastructure as well as other vehicles, creating smart vehicles operating along a smart highway and transportation system, NYSDOT notes.

VII development has focused almost exclusively on passenger vehicles. While a number of major light vehicle manufacturers have been directly involved with the VII technology development under the leadership of the USDOT, the commercial vehicle industry has not been sufficiently represented, NYSDOT said. The Volvo-led effort for the state of New York, funded by the I-95 Corridor Coalition in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, is the first VII program exclusively devoted to developing and demonstrating the technology for commercial vehicles.

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), in partnership with IBM and Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations (STCI), has launched a global challenge to identify innovative ideas for combating transportation congestion.

“The average metropolitan commuter in the U.S. spends nearly a full work week stuck in traffic each year, wasting precious time and fuel and impacting the environment, safety conditions on roads, and economic productivity to the tune of more than 1 percent of GDP,” said ITS America President and CEO Scott Belcher. “Allowing congestion to grind cities, suburbs and supply chains to a halt every morning and afternoon is unacceptable when we have innovative tools, technologies, and strategies available to manage our transportation systems and utilize our infrastructure more effectively.”

The ITS Congestion Challenge is a global competition to identify the best and most creative ideas to effectively reduce congestion and its impacts on the economy, environment, and quality of life.

The competition is open to entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers, universities, and citizens from all fields around the globe. All ideas will be reviewed discussed and rated by an open global community, to determine the best and most creative ideas to effectively solve the consequences of traffic congestion.

The winner will be announced during the 16^th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Stockholm, Sweden, September 21 – 25, 2009, and will receive a cash investment of $50,000 USD, as well as development and implementation support to pursue turning the ideas into real-world solutions.

More information is available on the competition including key attributes winning entries will be expected to incorporate. Participants will be able to post solutions, collaborate in an open community to improve solution entries, and ultimately vote for those solutions they believe best relieve the issues caused by congestion.

Road Pricing Beyond the Technology

Sunday 20 September, 2009 @ 9.00 – 17.00

Radisson SAS Royal Viking Hotel, Vasagatan 1 SE-101 24 Stockholm, Sweden

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

(As of 4 June, 2009; Subject to Change)

Road Pricing is an economic instrument that can be part of a package of measures to address overall mobility. This is not a seminar about the technology of road pricing but about strategic objectives, policy, monitoring, measuring and managing of road pricing schemes which are the core values of IBEC. Be prepared for frank discussions!

The benefits of pricing include the immediate traffic impacts but also the economic and social benefits that effective pricing can generate. Of course these benefits vary widely depending on the type and scale of pricing. Systems that provide a « guaranteed » level of service, such as those that involve some form of variable pricing should help business and individual travellers to solve a key transportation problem of the 21st Century – reliability. Then, there are the environmental concerns; to what extent does road pricing provide a useful contribution to greenhouse gas reduction? But, it’s all got to be implemented, and road pricing has a public image problem to address also.

Key Issues

● What are the economic benefits of road pricing and how can they be measured?

● Can road pricing provide large scale and long-term economic stimulus for a 21st Century economy?

● How should we inform and consult with stakeholders?

● What about social equity – do we understand the social distribution of costs and benefits?

● How should we manage politics and public expectations?

● Are HOT lanes a step in the right direction or a dangerous distraction?

● What have we learned from current efforts at implementation?

● Where have real benefits been delivered and what have we learned from the failures?

Time Schedule

9:00 Welcome

9:15 Session 1: What each region is doing in Road Pricing

This session will provide an international survey of Road Pricing policies and activities from around the world. More than being descriptive, each speaker will put developments into context by explaining transport objectives and how pricing is seen as a tool to address the transport challenges faced.

Chaired and coordinated by Alan Stevens, TRL, UK

10:45 Break

11:00 Session 2: Deployment challenges in relation to Stakeholders

Public acceptance is crucial for road pricing success. In this session, experts from the Road Pricing community will describe the challenges of informing and consulting stakeholders, particularly transport users, about the benefits of pricing.

Coordinated by Jane Lappin, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, USA and Amy Ellen Polk, Citizant, Inc., USA

12:30 Buffet Lunch at the Fisk restaurant

13:15 Session 3: Evaluation challenges

This session will consist of presentations and discussion of Road Pricing deployment and evaluation challenges and how can these challenges be overcome. This will include a wide range of issues and all workshop attendees are invited to participate in the lively discussion that is anticipated.

Chaired and coordinated by Steve Morello, Egis Projects, France

14:45 Break

15:15 Session 4: Business case for society

This session will tackle the broad macro view of the economic and other benefits to society of road pricing and how we can tell if we are doing a “good job”.

Chaired by Kevin Borras, Thinking Highways, UK – Coordinated by Dick Mudge, Delcan, Inc., USA

16:45 Wrap-up

17:00 End of seminar

Registration Fee and Payment:

Fee: € 75 incl. taxes (approx. SEK 793 based on 5 May, 2009 exchange rates on www.xe.com).  It includes seminar materials, 3 coffee breaks and lunch at the venue restaurant.

For registration and other related event information, please contact:

Odile PIGNIER – Harmonised Events – Email: odile@harmonised-events.com

Tel: +33 (0)2 41 54 76 30 – Fax: +33 (0)2 85 52 00 08

Find more information @: www.ibec-its.org