2004 Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Projects Book, Online Version

Section One: Introduction

Surface transportation systems in the United States today face a number of significant challenges. Congestion and safety continue to present serious problems in spite of the nation’s superb roadway systems. Congestion imposes an exorbitant cost on productivity, costing the nation an estimated $40 billion per year. Vehicle crashes cause another $150 billion burden to the economy, and result in the loss of 41,000 lives annually. Inefficient surface transportation, whether in privately owned vehicles, commercial motor carriers, or public transit vehicles, constitutes a burden on the nation’s quality of life through wasted energy, increased emissions and serious threats to public safety.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) offer technology-based solutions to the compelling challenges confronting the nation’s surface transportation systems, while concurrently establishing the basis for dealing with future demands through a strategic, intermodal view of transportation. ITS applications offer proven and emerging technologies in fields such as data processing, communications, control, navigation, electronics and the supporting hardware and software systems capable of addressing transportation challenges. While ITS technology applications alone cannot completely satisfy growing transportation needs, they provide the means to revise current approaches to problem solving, and they improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing systems. When deployed and integrated effectively, ITS technologies will enable the surface transportation system to operate as multimodal, multi-jurisdictional entities providing meaningful benefits, including more efficient use of infrastructure and energy resources, complemented by measurable improvements in safety, mobility, productivity and accessibility.

With the enactment of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991, Congress set a new course for transportation by mandating increased efficiency and safety on the existing highway and transit infrastructure through increased emphasis on intermodalism - the seamless integration of multiple modes of transportation. In response to ISTEA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) initiated a multi-faceted ITS program involving research and field operational testing of promising ITS applications. With the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) in June 1998, Congress reaffirmed U.S. DOT’s role in continuing the development of ITS technologies, and in launching the transition to nationwide, integrated deployment of ITS applications to foster the management of multiple transportation resources as unified systems delivering increased efficiency, safety and customer satisfaction.

Previous editions of this document catalogued ITS projects authorized under ISTEA. The 1999 edition addressed program direction during the transition year in which TEA-21 was enacted - 1998. That edition also addressed the restructuring of the ITS Program from the program areas established during the ISTEA era into the new organization reflecting Congressional direction in TEA-21, which emphasizes deployment and integration of ITS. The advent of TEA-21 catalyzed a restructuring of ITS Program activities into Intelligent Infrastructure categories and the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative. The current edition of this document continues to categorize both legacy projects, originating under ISTEA, and those begun since the enactment of TEA-21, according to this restructured program organization. For continuity and completeness, a brief description of the program realignment is presented in the following narrative.

The program reorientation reflects the evolution of emphasis to deployments whose outputs are infrastructure and/or vehicles. Metropolitan ITS Infrastructure inherits the research in Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS). Rural ITS Infrastructure encompasses the activities of the Advanced Rural Transportation Systems (ARTS) Program that includes the application of technologies under development for Metropolitan and Commercial Vehicle Infrastructure that are adaptable to rural community needs. The Commercial Vehicle ITS Infrastructure continues to build on the research endeavors of the Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) Program, and is heavily focused on the deployment of Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN). The Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) is focused on facilitating the accelerated deployment of advanced driver assistance systems.

The Enabling Research and Technology program area continues to provide crosscutting support to each of the four functional components comprising the program’s foundation. Figure 1 provides a crosswalk depicting the dynamics of the realignment.

Figure 1 - ITS Program Reorientation

The restructured ITS Program places emphasis in two major areas: deploying and integrating intelligent infrastructure, and testing and evaluating intelligent vehicles. Intelligent infrastructure and intelligent vehicles, working together, will provide the combinations of communications, control and information management capabilities needed to improve mobility, safety and traveler decision making in all modes of travel. Intelligent infrastructure comprises the family of technologies which enable the effective operation of ITS services in metropolitan areas, in rural/statewide settings and commercial vehicle applications. Intelligent vehicle technologies foster improvements in safety and mobility of vehicles. The Intelligent Vehicle Initiative embraces four classes of vehicles; light vehicles (ranging from passenger automobiles and vans to light trucks), transit vehicles (buses), commercial vehicles (trucks and interstate buses), and specialty vehicles (emergency response, enforcement and maintenance vehicles).

Within this restructuring, intelligent infrastructure and intelligent vehicle program development objectives are pursued through several program areas: metropolitan ITS infrastructure, rural ITS infrastructure, commercial vehicle ITS infrastructure, and the intelligent vehicle initiative as depicted in Figure 2. The application of intelligent infrastructure continues to evolve into additional areas which are achieving recognition as programs. Examples include Intermodal Freight and Public Safety. Advanced information and communications technologies applied across the intermodal system offer important opportunities to strengthen the links between the separate modal systems. U.S. DOT’s Intermodal Freight Program is establishing the bases for applying ITS technologies to help both the public and private sectors bridge the modal interfaces. Public safety and transportation officials recognize that, in spite of great advances in emergency services in recent years, applying information technologies to incident prevention, detection, response and management can yield great benefits.

Figure 2

The metropolitan ITS infrastructure program area is focused on deployment and integration of technologies in that setting. The rural ITS infrastructure program area emphasizes deployment of high potential technologies in rural environments. Commercial vehicle ITS infrastructure program objectives are directed at safety and administrative regulation of interstate trucking. Intelligent vehicle program objectives are centered on in-vehicle safety systems for all classes of vehicles in all geographic environments.

There are no specific ITS applications which hold the potential for addressing all of the current or projected transportation system needs. The potential for success lies in developing a national transportation system incorporating integrated and interoperable ITS services. The ITS Program envisions a gradual and growing interaction between infrastructure and vehicles depicted in Figure 2 to produce increased benefits in mobility and traveler safety.

In September 2002, ITS-A and U.S. DOT published a supplement to the National ITS Program Plan: A Ten-Year Vision titled Homeland Security and ITS (Using Intelligent Transportation Systems to Improve and Support Homeland Security). The Ten-Year Vision prescribes a broad set of policy, program and research activities, including necessary institutional reforms, enabled by ITS technologies, designed to advance the safety, security and efficiency of the surface transportation system.

These documents satisfy Congressional direction in TEA-21 to update the National ITS Program Plan published in 1995, and address ITS deployment and research challenges for stakeholders at all levels of government and the private sector.

Within the restructured framework, the ITS Program is focused on activities impacting both near term and long term horizons.

Near Term. Through the effective period of TEA-21, the program continues to focus on facilitating integrated deployment of ITS components in the defined infrastructure categories.

- Metropolitan ITS Infrastructure will integrate various components of advanced traffic management, traveler information, and public transportation systems to achieve improved efficiency and safety and providing enhanced information and travel options for the public.

- Commercial Vehicle ITS Infrastructure is oriented on integrating technology applications for improving commercial vehicle safety, enhancing efficiency and facilitating regulatory processes for the trucking industry and government agencies. The principal instrument of this component is known as Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN), a system of information systems that link the nodes supporting communications among carriers and agencies.

- Rural ITS Infrastructure is characterized by a framework of seven development tracks such as Surface Transportation Weather and Winter Mobility and Rural Transit Mobility. ITS technologies are demonstrating exceptional effectiveness and customer acceptance for applications that promote rural safety and mobility.

The development of a robust market fueled by private sector investment is dependent on a critical mass of basic ITS infrastructure. While in the era of ISTEA, the National ITS Program focused principally on research, technology development, and field testing, the focus of TEA-21 will continue this legacy by building on successes to deploy ITS infrastructure.

A critical challenge in achieving a seamless, intermodal transportation system is ensuring interoperability through the use of the National ITS Architecture and the adoption of open, non-proprietary ITS standards.

U.S. DOT is employing several strategies to address the challenges confronting successful deployment and integration of ITS infrastructure and the development of intelligent vehicles:

- Accelerating the development of standards;
- Providing ITS training and education to enhance knowledge, skills and abilities;
- Conducting research in infrastructure and vehicle technologies;
- Providing ITS deployment guidance and technical assistance;
- Providing assistance and conducting seminars and workshops to support achieving consistency with the National ITS Architecture and Standards;
- Showcasing the benefits of integration in modal deployments;
- Evaluating the program.

Long Term. The long-term focus will be directed at supporting research, development and testing of advanced technologies demonstrating potential for deployment in the five-to-twenty-year horizon. The in-vehicle component of this effort will be consolidated into a single Intelligent Vehicle Initiative centered heavily on applying driver assistance and control intervention systems to reduce vehicle crashes. A companion effort seeks to integrate driving assistance and motorist information functions to facilitate information processing, decision making and more effective vehicle operation.

This document describes ITS projects, tests, and studies initiated through September 30, 2003, that partially or totally have been financed from Federal ITS funds. Projects identified as “Other” were earmarked activities originating during the period of ISTEA authorization. Projects identified as “Deployment/Integration” were initiated under TEA-21, and represent Congressionally-directed activities appropriated in the ITS Deployment Program. However, the Completed Projects sections, which are located at the end of each chapter, include projects that were actually finished as of September 30, 2003, plus those projects anticipated to be completed by the end of December 2003. The purpose of this report is not to account for all Federal funds made available for ITS activities, but rather to describe all major projects, tests, and studies for each ITS program area. On-going projects are presented in groupings by project type in each infrastructure category and subcategory or program area. The order of presentation, to the extent that current project activity allows, starts with research and development, followed by field operational tests, and concludes with deployments. The completed projects are displayed alphabetically without regard to type.

Throughout this report, U.S. DOT administrations are identified as follows: FHWA-Federal Highway Administration; within FHWA the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) is the focal point for research; FRA-Federal Railroad Administration; FTA-Federal Transit Administration; and NHTSA-National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Effective January 1, 2000, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) was activated and assumed sponsorship of Commercial Vehicle Operations projects as well as the truck platform activities of the IVI Program. Although these organizations may not be explicitly listed as partners in projects, it is understood that at least one U.S. DOT administration is involved in each partnership for projects operating with partnership arrangements.