traveller information and traffic management~orangebook_issue2_print

Sponsored by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise

Smar

t H

ighw

ays

IS

SU

E 1

2

005

ITS Orange Book™Smart Highways iii

Table of ContentsTable of Contents ...............................................................................................................................................................iii

List of Figures .....................................................................................................................................................................ix

List of Business Process Diagrams and Tables ..............................................................................................................xi

Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................................................xiii

Preface ...............................................................................................................................................................................xv

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................................xvii

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ..............................................................................................................................xxi

Chapter 1 What is a Smart Highway? ..............................................................................................................................23

The Smart Highway Defined ...................................................................................................................................23

Peering Into the Future ...........................................................................................................................................23

Motivating Customers ................................................................................................................................23

A Customer-Centric Infrastructure .............................................................................................................26

Smart Highway Services ........................................................................................................................................27

Traffic Management ..................................................................................................................................27

Avoiding and Managing Incidents ..............................................................................................................27

Traveler Information ...................................................................................................................................27

Synergy of Traveler Information and Traffic Management .........................................................................28

Payment Systems .....................................................................................................................................28

Commercial Vehicle Operations ................................................................................................................28

Customer Service .....................................................................................................................................28

Back-Office Functions ...............................................................................................................................29

Process Management .............................................................................................................................................30

Enterprise Resource Planning ...................................................................................................................30

Customer Relationship Management ........................................................................................................31

Smart Highways — Today ......................................................................................................................................31

Drivers .......................................................................................................................................................31

Vehicles: More Performance .....................................................................................................................31

Vehicles: More Information ........................................................................................................................31

Infrastructure .............................................................................................................................................32

The Current State-of-the-Art ...................................................................................................................................32

Incident Management ...............................................................................................................................33

ITS Orange Book™ Smart Highways

Verification .................................................................................................................................................34

Sending Information, Internally and Externally ..........................................................................................34

Incident Response and Clearance ............................................................................................................34

On-the-Scene Incident Management .........................................................................................................35

Local Incident Management Activities .......................................................................................................35

Role of Roadway Design ...........................................................................................................................35

Payment Systems .....................................................................................................................................36

Additional Payment Mechanisms ..............................................................................................................38

Mobile Commerce .....................................................................................................................................38

Flow Management ..................................................................................................................................................38

Safety and Security ...................................................................................................................................40

Traveler/Service Information .....................................................................................................................42

Situational Awareness ...............................................................................................................................44

Moving Toward Smart Highways ............................................................................................................................49

Future-Proofing ..........................................................................................................................................50

Transitioning ..............................................................................................................................................51

Interoperability ...........................................................................................................................................51

System Architectures .................................................................................................................................51

Designing in the Smarts ............................................................................................................................52

Chapter 2 Needs and Issues ............................................................................................................................................55

Commonalities ........................................................................................................................................................55

Saving Lives ..............................................................................................................................................55

Travel-Time Reliability ...............................................................................................................................56

Saving Money ............................................................................................................................................57

Improved Quality of Life .............................................................................................................................57

Cutting-Edge Technology vs. Reliability ...................................................................................................57

Constituent Perspectives ........................................................................................................................................57

Infrastructure Owner-Operator ..................................................................................................................57

Driver and Passenger Perspective ............................................................................................................58

Private-Sector Perspective .......................................................................................................................59

How Do Infrastructure Operators and the Automotive Industry Collaborate? ............................................60

Chapter 3 Benefits and Impacts .......................................................................................................................................63

iv

ITS Orange Book™Smart Highways

High-level Benefits and Impacts .............................................................................................................................63

Fewer Accidents and Fatalities ..................................................................................................................63

Automobile Safety ....................................................................................................................................64

Enhancing the Environment ......................................................................................................................65

Saving Time ...............................................................................................................................................65

Saving Money ............................................................................................................................................66

Commercial Vehicle Operations ................................................................................................................67

Improving the Travel Experience ............................................................................................................................67

Infotainment ...............................................................................................................................................67

Service Delivery: Options ..........................................................................................................................67

Funding Smart Highways .......................................................................................................................................68

Paying for Use ...........................................................................................................................................68

The Shadow Option ..................................................................................................................................68

Other Payment Considerations .................................................................................................................68

Private Industry Perspective – IT/ITS Industry .......................................................................................................68

Direct Value Benefits .................................................................................................................................69

Indirect Value Benefits ...............................................................................................................................69

Private Industry Perspective – Automotive Industry ..............................................................................................70

Economic Benefits .....................................................................................................................................70

Supply Chains ...........................................................................................................................................70

Telematics ..................................................................................................................................................71

Software Applications ................................................................................................................................74

Telecommunications ..................................................................................................................................75

Information Service Providers – Content ...................................................................................................76

Business Models .......................................................................................................................................76

Chapter 4 Smart Highway Elements ................................................................................................................................79

The Systems View ..................................................................................................................................................79

The Smart Vehicle ....................................................................................................................................79

The Smart Roadway ..................................................................................................................................80

Communications ........................................................................................................................................80

What Can Be Done? ..................................................................................................................................80

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration ...........................................................................................................................81

v


On-Board Units .........................................................................................................................................81

Dedicated Short-Range Communications .................................................................................................81

Safety Systems ..........................................................................................................................................83

Convenience Systems ...............................................................................................................................88

Commercial Systems .................................................................................................................................88

Integration of Smart Highway Elements .................................................................................................................89

What can be done today and tomorrow? ...................................................................................................89

Chickens or Eggs – What to Do When You Have to Choose ....................................................................92

Chapter 5 Smart Highway Business Model ....................................................................................................................95

What is a Business Model? ....................................................................................................................................95

Why Should a Business Model Be Used? ..............................................................................................................95

How Should a Business Model Be Used? ..............................................................................................................95

Key Components: Smart Highway Business Model ...............................................................................................96

Market, Customer, and Enterprise Objectives ...........................................................................................97

Strategy, Goals, and Business Objectives .................................................................................................97

Plan Product and Service Offerings ..........................................................................................................98

Sales and Marketing ..................................................................................................................................98

Production and Delivery ..........................................................................................................................100

Invoice and Service Customers ...............................................................................................................102

Internal Resources or Private Partners and Third Parties ....................................................................................104

Business Process Analysis – Production and Delivery of Potential Smart Highway Applications ........................104

Mobile Traveler Services .........................................................................................................................104

Location-Based Services .........................................................................................................................104

Predictive Travel Time .............................................................................................................................106

Technologies and Vendors ......................................................................................................................109

Common Infrastructure – Multiple Service Providers .......................................................................................... 110

VICS ....................................................................................................................................................... 110

U.S. Electrical Generation/Supply .......................................................................................................... 111

Trafficmaster ............................................................................................................................................ 111

Chapter 6 Implementation and Deployment .................................................................................................................113

Deployment Focus ................................................................................................................................................ 113

Who Are Smart Highways For? ............................................................................................................................ 113

vi


Drivers ..................................................................................................................................................... 113

Highway Owners ..................................................................................................................................... 114

Third-Party Product and Service Providers ............................................................................................. 114

The Smart Highway Vision ................................................................................................................................... 114

Smart Highway Rationale ..................................................................................................................................... 116

Highway Management with Performance Monitoring Measures ............................................................. 116

Maximizing and Preserving Road Value .................................................................................................. 117

Performance Monitoring in Concession Contracts .................................................................................. 117

Two Implementation Approaches ......................................................................................................................... 118

The Retail Store ...................................................................................................................................... 118

“Full Monty” vs. the A la Carte Model ....................................................................................................... 119

Selling Smart Highways – A Business Case Template .........................................................................................120

Implementation Contract Models: Different Models for Different Purposes ..........................................................122

Sample Implementation Models ..............................................................................................................125

Public/Private Partnerships .....................................................................................................................130

External Requirements and Constraints ...............................................................................................................130

Potential Legal and Legislative Constraints .............................................................................................130

Standardization ........................................................................................................................................131

Regional Issues (Limiting Scope) ............................................................................................................131

Chapter 7 Summary and Conclusions ..........................................................................................................................133

Implementation ........................................................................................................................................134

Management and Operations .................................................................................................................135

Performance ............................................................................................................................................137

Additional References ....................................................................................................................................................139

Contributors .....................................................................................................................................................................141

vii


This page is left blank intentionally.


List of Figures

ix

Figures

Figure 1. Mercedes-Benz S-Class .....................................................................................................................................25

Figure 2. Michigan DOT’s Strawman VII Vision .................................................................................................................33

Figure 3. Open Road Tolling Gantries – Autopista Central, Santiago Chile ........................................................................37

Figure 4. Example of Lane Management and Speed Control Technology ..........................................................................39

Figure 5. 511 Road Sign .....................................................................................................................................................43

Figure 6. TMC for Vespucio Norte Express in Santiago, Chile ...........................................................................................45

Figure 7. Integrated Road Safety Program .........................................................................................................................64

Figure 8. Explanation of OnStar System .............................................................................................................................73

Figure 9. Integrated Telematics Solution - OEM ..................................................................................................................74

Figure 10. Telematics Mobile Device Integration -PDA .......................................................................................................75

Figure 11. Sample Vehicle/Infrastructure Communication Scheme ....................................................................................79

Figure 12. High Level VII Concept ......................................................................................................................................81

Figure 13. DSRC Performance Envelopes .........................................................................................................................82

Figure 14. Heads-Up Display ..............................................................................................................................................83

Figure 15. Process Classification Framework .....................................................................................................................96

Figure 16. Business Model ..................................................................................................................................................97

Figure 17. OmniAir Players ..............................................................................................................................................129

ITS Orange Book™Smart Highwaysxi

List of Business Process Diagrams and TablesBusiness Process Diagrams TOC

Diagram 1. Market and Sell .................................................................................................................................................99

Diagram 2. Invoice and Service the Customer .................................................................................................................103

Diagram 3. Location-Based Services ................................................................................................................................105

Diagram 4. LBS Data Tracking and Consolidation ...........................................................................................................107

Diagram 5. Request for Alternate Route ...........................................................................................................................107

Diagram 7. Predictive Travel Time: Combining Production Information with Near Real-Time Data .................................108

Diagram 6. Predictive Travel Time: Data Stream .............................................................................................................108

Diagram 8. Predictive Travel Time: Improving Operational Conditions ............................................................................109

Tables

Table 1. Disease Burden (DALYs* lost) for 10 Leading Causes ..........................................................................................55

Table 2. Effective Traffic Remedies Survey .........................................................................................................................56

Table 3. Smart Highway Integrated System Capabilities .....................................................................................................90

Table 4. Highway/Vehicle Capability Matrix .........................................................................................................................93

Table 5. Alternate Contracting Vehicles for Smart Highway Development .......................................................................123

Table 6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternate Contracting Vehicles ....................................................................124


Acknowledgements

ITS Orange Book – Smart Highways, Workshop Group Photo

Left to right: Kan Chen, Tip Franklin, Bob McQueen, Randy Doi, John Benda, Susan Kuca, Jim Schultz, Haniph Latchman, Chris Warren, Steve Underwood, Judy Kincaid, Tom Delaney, John Bonds, Sue Gratch, Armand Ciccarelli, Amando Madan, Mike Akridge, Chris Wilson, Luis Hevia, Lee Bonds, Dan Himes, and Doug Henderson

Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise has commissioned this ITS Orange Book™ on the topic of smart highways as part of its ongoing efforts to provide its customers with a travel experience that is safe, reliable, efficient and customer friendly. This document is but one element of the Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise’s continuing effort to set the standard for the prototype user financed highway system for the 21st century.

This document is a direct result of the Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise’s vision and the collaborative efforts of diverse experts from a variety of fields pertinent to smart highways. These individuals who were so generous with their time and expertise are listed in the Contributors section at the end of this ITS Orange Book™.

xiii


PrefaceWelcome to the second in the series of PBS&J ITS Orange Books™, in which we explore the state of the art and practice with respect to smart highways. The delivery of a range of user-friendly services that complement a highway’s physical assets is a hot topic in the world of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and is central to the activities associated with the integration of vehicles and roadside infrastructure, and the provision of a range of information services.

The PBS&J ITS Orange Book™ program was conceived as a platform for the discussion of specialist topics related to the application of information and telecommunication technologies in transportation. Inspired by IBM’s highly successful RedBook™ program that addresses information technology subjects, each ITS Orange Book™ is the compilation of the knowledge and best-thinking of an array of experts in the selected fields.

In four structured phases, these leaders collaborate (using all the tools of sophisticated collaborative technology) to survey the ITS worldwide arena. Their task is to identify, define, and assess existing and emerging technologies; explore their current and potential applications; and present their findings. The document that results, we believe, offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date look at the planning, development, implementation, and ITS operations in practice around the world.

Each ITS Orange Book™ originates as a hot-topic suggestion from the ITS community at large; one of the various activity centers for ITS research and knowledge-sharing around the world; a PBS&J client, or PBS&J professional. PBS&J then polls the ITS community to ascertain the level of interest in the subject before negotiating with relevant co-sponsors. Once interest has been established, prospective participants identified, and sponsorship arrangements put in place, the four-step development process can begin.

Segment A – Setting the Scene for the ITS Orange Book™

Teleconferencing and real-time web collaboration tools bring 20-30 participants together for the introductory session. Background information is exchanged, interests and perspectives are established, and then, to orient the group to the theme of the book, a concise presentation frames the proposed issues. In the facilitated discussion

that follows, additional perspectives and input sharpen and expand objectives. This segment concludes with a joint definition and agreement on the outline of the proposed ITS Orange Book™ and a commitment by participants to fully support the remainder of the process.

Segment B – Defining the ITS Orange Book™

A smaller group of 12-15 agree to meet in an intensive two-day workshop to finalize the ITS Orange Book™ outline and to create a detailed road map for its structure and content. In combinations of smaller working groups and larger plenary discussion sessions, the participants design an English version of the work product that captures the essence of the proposed ITS Orange Book™. This is used to guide the development and editing teams during the next segment, when the ITS Orange Book™ is created.

Segment C – Developing and Reviewing the ITS Orange Book™

PBS&J staff and selected program participants team in a small group to create the first draft. Then, again using collaboration technologies, 20-30 participants review the draft together to refine the work product. Peer review is invited for final comments and suggestions. Once the content has been finalized, PBS&J taps its internal resources for formatting and graphics treatments, and final editing. The ITS Orange Book™ is then ready for publication.

Segment D – Rolling Out the ITS Orange Book™

Once the ITS Orange Book™ has been published, the job of communicating results, disseminating knowledge, and stimulating further focus on its theme begins. The ITS Orange Book™ is published in print and electronically, and distributed to a range of ITS professionals. To provide a forum for discussion, a workshop or seminar is themed around the contents. This may be a stand-alone, purpose-driven event, or part of a larger special session or discussion panel.

Working with academic institutions and other interested parties, PBS&J coordinates and organizes the ITS Orange Book™ program and directs the timely publication of results, both online and in publications. The online version

xv


of the ITS Orange Book™ is designed to enable program participants to review the edited version to ensure that the editing team has not altered the sense of the material.

The first ITS Orange Book™, on Predictive Travel Time, was developed in collaboration with TrafficCast, ITS America - SIGIRL, and The ATLANTIC Project, and has been expanded and updated several times. The latest version is available in electronic form at http://www.pbsj.com/itsorangebook/.

xvi

To suggest a hot topic for an upcoming ITS Orange Book™, to learn how to participate in the development of an ITS Orange Book™, or for general information about the program, please contact Susan Kuca at PBS&J at 407.806.4140 or [email protected].

Kan Chen, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, is a senior advisor to PBS&J’s IMS team and serves as editor of the ITS Orange Book™ series on an ongoing basis. Anyone interested in contacting Kan to discuss this or any future ITS Orange Book™ should e-mail him at: [email protected].


Executive SummaryHighway as a concept dates back to the first century, when the Romans paved their conquered worlds with the roadways that cultivated civilization. The very word, in fact, points to their feat of engineering: roads were always built higher than the surrounding ground. Ever since then, engineers through time have continually and persistently looked for ways to improve this facility.

Today’s smart highway stands at the peak of this lineage. As an idea, however, it’s not entirely new; but it does encapsulate a modern perspective wherein the roadway, the vehicle, and the driver will operate as a single system. The concept also offers a window onto what’s ahead in transportation – in terms of planning, design, development, and operation of tomorrow’s transportation arteries. This is a significant benefit, because many of the technologies embedded in smart highways are in development, and in some cases, in place, right now. Such off-vehicle intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications as advanced traveler information and traffic management systems (ATIS and ATMS) and on-vehicle route guidance and concierge systems are even now making the infrastructure smarter, improving operations, and adding services to vehicles.

But to realize the ultimate potential of technology, and fulfill the defining purpose of the smart highway - to save lives, time, and money at the maximum possible rates - then we need to focus on system integration, The close interaction of roadside infrastructure and in-vehicle equipment is prerequisite to achieving advanced safety and information systems. This fully integrated support, where each component of the system complements the other, is brought about only when technology is applied coherently and effectively.

The overall objective, then, is to design, develop, and implement smart infrastructure and vehicles that take full account of the needs, operations and management of the entire system. When this is understood, the development of a smart highway brings a wide range of information and telecommunication technologies into play at many and various points in the total process of planning.

Furthermore, a holistic view of the smart highway requires us to consider more than the technologies. It is necessary to define the process behind the smart highway and how it operates from technical and business perspectives. In

particular, the business viewpoint brings new insights into the possibilities for layering information, entertainment, and safety services on top of smart infrastructure and smart services, in beneficial partnerships.

From Basics to Added Value: The Evolution of ITS

There is a wide range of current and emerging information and telecommunication technologies that can be applied to infrastructure and vehicles. Many of these are being deployed today under the auspices of ITS programs around the world. An analysis of the various international ITS programs reveals that many technologies are being applied in support of operational management objectives. It could, in fact, be argued that ITS is really the study and understanding of the basic processes that a transportation agency supports as it converts its resources into value, and the careful application of information and telecommunication technologies to the activities and work products that form the processes.

Our view has matured as we have gained implementation experience, and we now understand the close relationship between technology deployments and operational management. We know that optimum effects are achieved when the deployment of technology fully supports the operational management procedures being employed on the public sector side of the operation, and that effective business models or commercial approaches are being adopted by any private sector partners involved.

Looking at the vehicle in the smart highways equation, we see that great progress has been made with the incorporation of electronics and information technology (IT) into vehicles. The telematics industry has developed sensors and devices that make driving easier, safer, and more enjoyable. Recent efforts to establish “zero fatality,” and further progress towards preserving and enhancing the safety of the driver and occupants, will require closer integration of vehicles and infrastructure as well as better trained drivers.

An Integrated Approach

We are starting to recognize the need to treat the individual elements of the total smart highway—infrastructure, vehicle, driver, and services—as a single

xvii


system that should be integrated to be coherent and compatible. Each element should be designed and implemented to be in harmony with and fully support the best operation of itself and the other elements. The organizations and enterprises responsible for the planning, development, deployment, and operational management of the smart highway must also adopt work activities, processes, and procedures that work together to fully support the well-being of the overall system.

These two latter aspects differentiate the smart highways concept from current and previous individual applications of advanced technologies to specific needs. The integrated approach brings with it a particular set of challenges.

• The current organizational frameworks for vehicle design, development and production, infrastructure provision, and IT service development and delivery are all specialized and relatively independent of each other. This enables very effective and efficient development and delivery of the individual elements of a smart highway but does not fully support the integrated, seamless approach required for complete success in the future.

• The organizational challenge lies in coordinating and synchronizing the business activities, and commercial and policy objectives, of three very different constituencies, beginning with the establishment and maintenance of effective information exchange and dialogue. These coordinating activities will also need to address the disparate nature of the activities and work products emanating from each constituency.

For example, if you consider just the basic product life-cycle lengths (the total time that elapses during the planning, design, development, implementation, and useful life of the product, infrastructure, or service) for each of the three constituencies, the scale of the issue becomes clear. The following are average product life-cycle lengths:

• Infrastructure – 30 to 50 years

• Vehicles – 10 to 15 years

• Consumer Electronics and Cell phones – 12 to 18 months

Each constituency works at a different natural pace and with different replacement cycles in response to different needs and motivations.

Why Now?

The vital interaction between roadside infrastructure and in-vehicle equipment was recognized 15 years ago by Professor Kan Chen in a paper, Toward Motoring Smart. Kan Chen and Robert D. Ervin defined the subject as a “chicken and egg” problem – what comes first, the chicken (roadside infrastructure) or the egg (in-vehicle equipment)? This is a circular problem that has two legitimate, codependent starting points. Although a great deal of progress has been made in the development and delivery of in-vehicle information and safety systems and parallel roadside and off-vehicle deployments of advanced technology, we still face the same chicken and egg dilemma today.

A confluence of significant events suggests that this is the right time to address the problem.

• Recent activity aimed at reducing the number of people killed in road accidents in the United States has resulted in a strong realization that the most effective approaches and solutions will pivot around a solution to this circular problem and involve the introduction of devices and telecommunications facilities that support full interaction between smart vehicles and intelligent highways. The emerging Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) initiative focuses on technological and commercial approaches.

• In addition, there is a renewed desire for cooperation and coordination between the key participants. Recent publications and presentations indicate that potential approaches may lie in encouraging the public sector to make significant investments in off-vehicle infrastructure, while the private-sector automotive and automotive electronics industries take the lead by defining plans for on-vehicle devices and equipment. The emergence of a national dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) standard at 5.9 GHz (DSRC WAVE), capable of delivering high-bandwidth, low-latency vehicle-to- roadside communications within a stable, predictable commercial framework, is also a significant influencing factor.

xviii


Moving Forward

It is our hope that this ITS Orange Book™ will provide information for dialogue and explain the benefits that may accrue through the operation and use of a truly smart highway. We also hope that the panoramic view of the smart highways concept presented here will influence and encourage public infrastructure operators and private automotive industry players to consider their future business directions and align them for maximum effect.

Objectives of the Smart Highways ITS Orange Book™

If we are completely successful, then we will have achieved our major objectives:

Capture the state of the art and practice – We wish to provide the community with a useful reference that provides an overview of the current state of the art and practice with regard to the various elements that support the smart highways concept.

Present a future vision – To complement the state of the art and practice, we also want to develop and deliver a clear vision that explains how a smart highway might operate from both technical and business perspectives.

Define the needs and issues – We wish to provide a clear exposition of the needs, issues, problems and objectives that can be successfully addressed through the development and operation of a smart highway.

Explore potential impacts and benefits – In succinctly describing the important benefits, values, and impacts that a smart highway could deliver, we hope to provide justification for further work and research towards its development and implementation.

Stimulate discussion – We want to provide insight and information that can contribute to the ongoing discussion about the potential for vehicle/highway interaction. We hope that the materials in this book will also help to extend and enhance the discussion to include operational management and service delivery aspects of the smart highway.

Set the scene for near-term deployment – We also hope to stimulate the deployment of smart highways through the delineation of a transition path from today to tomorrow.

This ITS Orange Book™ will be distributed to all interested parties in both hardcopy and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. Readers should keep in mind that the ITS Orange Book™ on Smart Highways is a living document. By this we mean that it will never be considered “final,” but instead will be updated as changes warrant. To this end, feedback on the content of this ITS Orange Book™ is always welcome.

xix

ITS Orange Book™Smart Highways xxi

List of Abbreviations and AcronymsAASHTO – American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

ABS – Anti-lock Braking System

ACC – Adaptive Cruise Control

ACN – Automatic Crash Notification

ALPR – Automatic License Plate Recognition

APQC – American Productivity and Quality Center

ATIS – Advanced Traveler Information System

ATMS – Advanced Traffic Management System

BOT – Build-operate-transfer

CCTV – Closed Circuit Television

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CVO – Commerce/Commercial Vehicle Operations

DALYs – Disability Adjusted Life Years

DBMS – Database Management System

DMS – Dynamic Message Signs

DOT – Department of Transportation

DSRC – Dedicated Short-Range Communications

DSS – Decision Support System

EDR – Event Data Recorder

ERM – Enterprise Resource Management

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

ESAL – Equivalent Single-Axle Load

ETC – Electronic Toll Collection

FCC – Federal Communications Commission

FHWA – Federal Highway Administration

GASB – Government Accounting Standards Board

GIS – Geographic Information System

GM – General Motors

GPS – Global Positioning System

HAR – Highway Advisory Radio

HOV – High Occupancy Vehicle

HPMS – Highway Performance Monitoring System

HUD – Heads-Up Display

ISP – Information Service Provider

IT – Information Technology

ITS – Intelligent Transportation Systems

IVHS – Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems

IVI – Intelligent Vehicle Initiative

IVR – Integrated Voice Response

JIT – Just-in-Time

LBS – Location-Based Service

LCS – Lane Control Signals

LDA – Lane Departure Avoidance

LKS – Lane-Keeping System

LOS – Level of Service

MDSS – Maintenance Decision Support System

MMS – Maintenance Management System

NAHSC – National Automated Highway Systems Consortium

OBU – Onboard Unit

OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer

ORT – Open Road Tolling

PDA – Personal Digital Assistant

PPI – Planned Product Improvement

R&D – Research and Development

RFID – Radio Frequency Identification

RFP – Request for Proposal

ROI – Return on Investment

RTMS – Remote Traffic Microwave System

RWIS – Road Weather Information System

SLA – Service Level Agreement

SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

TMC – Traffic Management Center

USDOT – United States Department of Transportaton

VII – Vehicle Infrastructure Integration

VMS – Variable Message Signs

WHO – World Health Organization

ITS Orange Book™Smart Highways 23

Chapter 1What is a Smart Highway?

This chapter takes a two-part look at smart highways. First, it sets out a vision for a smart highway, its features and potential services to customers. Second, it places the vision within the context of where we are today in light on where we need to go. In so doing, a road map to the future can be identified and implemented in a focused and programmatic way.

The Smart Highway Defined

A smart highway is a blend of services and infrastructure that enables an operator to provide customer-centric service. Characteristically it:

• Views the driver, vehicle, and highway infrastructure as a single system, not separate entities.

• Provides a process view of planning, design, development, and operation of a highway facility.

• Takes into account operational and management needs of the whole system.

• Applies technology in a coherent manner so that complete integration of system components is supported.

• Facilitates migration from a data-poor to a data-rich environment.

• Is a multigenerational endeavor.

A smart highway is important to the community.

It saves lives. Vehicle infrastructure interaction is crucial to enhancing safety levels.

It saves time. Effective operational and demand management reduces time lost in congestion.

It saves money. Efficient back-office operations can streamline expenses. New partnerships can share costs and introduce new sources of revenue.

There are three primary components to a smart highway: drivers, vehicles, and infrastructure. A wide variety of third-party commercial companies are involved in providing vehicles and infrastructure. Today, these components coexist, but with limited coordination and interoperability, particularly between the auto industry and infrastructure

operators. In the future, a smart highway will involve a more holistic approach to driving, communications, and operations, in which drivers are not simply regarded as users, but as customers for a range of “smart” services that meet their travel needs.

Peering Into the Future

Motivating Customers

The technological capabilities and services of a smart highway are associated with vehicles and the infrastructure, but customer (driver) acceptance and usage will be the measuring stick for success. For a customer to recognize the value of the smart highway and maximize personal benefits from using it, some incentives and disincentives must be explored in conjunction with technological innovation.

Driver education will play a key role. While the smart highway will offer unprecedented safety, mobility, and services, individual drivers must know how to use it. To the greatest extent possible, smart highway services and applications must be intuitive and transparent to the driver. Although technological services and capabilities will be available through the vehicle and roadside infrastructure, the smart highway environment will not be fully automated (at least not for many years) and customers will remain responsible for the vehicle they are driving. More so than today, customers must understand the increased capabilities (e.g., collision avoidance systems) and limitations of their vehicles and drive within the safe limits of their vehicles, the infrastructure, and their own abilities.

Consequently, we envision that new driver education classes and programs will teach how to properly use the smart highway (e.g., weaving, passing, following, merging, etc.) while taking advantage of the enhanced capabilities of vehicles. Whether these driver education classes will be provided by infrastructure operators, auto manufacturers, departments of motor vehicles, the auto insurance industry, third-party certification companies, or some combination of these or other entities, remains to be seen.

ITS Orange Book™ Smart Highways24

Carrots...

Taking this one step further, we envision that insurers will reward positive driving behaviors, provide incentives to the insured whose vehicles are smart-highway-ready, and offer driver education classes. The primary incentive may be reduced insurance premiums, funded by lowering the level of claims (e.g., “no claims” discounts). In the early days, lack of a critical mass of smart highway mileage may necessitate some pilot no-claims-programs involving the auto industry, health and safety regulators, and safety advocacy groups.

The future deployment of smart highways will be dependent upon demonstrated success in improving safety and mobility. While the smart highway will endeavor to create a safer driving environment than that of a regular road, bad driving undermines those efforts. Excessive speed, aggressive driving, and lack of courtesy will diminish the smart highway experience for all drivers and may lead to an increased frequency of severe and fatal crashes. In order to discourage poor driving behaviors on smart highway “cooperative driving zones” (areas where the vehicle depends on the driver as well as smart highway infrastructure), the consequences for exhibiting such behaviors must be greater.

... and Sticks

Smart highways must enforce laws relating to unsafe driving behaviors and pursue new legislation where existing policies fall short of smart highway goals. In addition to traditional penalties, smart highway penalties may include more punitive fines, driver education classes, and suspension of smart highway driving privileges.

While the use of automated enforcement and automated generation of citations is logical in a smart highway context, and worthy of exploration, it may raise issues of privacy and motivation. Customers, highway operators, and legislators will have to evaluate the trade-off between privacy and such benefits of enforcement as improved safety and reduced travel time.

Several jurisdictions have encountered issues related to red light and photo radar systems because they are perceived as snooping, revenue generation devices, rather than proven safety enhancement tools. Customer attitudes with regard to what is private can change in relationship to perceived benefit. The Washington Area Metro Transit system has successfully managed

to achieve a high level of customer registration for its SmartTrip payment system because the optional registration (provision of personal identification) provides for free replacement of unused card balance when a card is lost or stolen. The fact that customer registration also gives the ability to precisely track customer travel patterns appears to be an acceptable trade-off.

Outfitting Vehicles

Vehicles on the smart highway, properly equipped, will talk to each other, and to the roadway itself. This “total” communication works to promote safe vehicle separation, maximized throughput, and steadily maintained speeds, all of which enhance safety while increasing mobility.

In this vision of the future, vehicles will be equipped with some sort of vehicle locating technology (e.g., a global positioning system [GPS] unit), as well as a communications transceiver (Wi-Fi, DSRC, etc.) which, in conjunction with the vehicle’s built-in sensor array and electronic bus, will form the core of an onboard sensor system. Vehicles already rely on an array of sensors for their operation and maintenance. These sensors know, for example, when traction control or the anti-lock braking system (ABS) is activated. This data, when coupled with additional location-related information grabbed by vehicle-locating technology (including vehicle position, speed, direction of travel, etc.), can turn the vehicle into a probe from which invaluable transportation and non-transportation information can be gathered by transportation agencies and private -sector entities.

Many of today’s vehicles already possess the connectivity needed for an improved driving experience. Figure 1 shows a Mercedes-Benz S-Class detailing communication features. Future applications for vehicle communication and connectivity include:

• Heads-up display (HUD).

• Expanded voice recognition.

• Autonomous navigation integrated with real-time traffic information.

• Automatic crash notification (ACN) incorporating predictive methods for determining injury type and severity.

• Driver alertness systems.


Fig

ure

1. M

erce

des

-Ben

z S

-Cla

ss (

18 o

r m

ore

an

ten

nas

th

at r

ecei

ve s

ign

als

for

ente

rtai

nm

ent,

cel

l ph

on

es a

nd

nav

igat

ion

)

source: www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/automobiles/14cars.html


The Interplay of “Dumb” with “Smart”

A “dumb” vehicle – one that only communicates intention via indicators, hazard lights, horn, headlights or the human hand of its operator - offers limited support to the driver, and little assistance to the other drivers on the road.

This dumb vehicle is also cut off from sensors designed to communicate data directly from the roadside infrastructure to the vehicle. The ability of a customer to become a smart traveler is incrementally improved by the degree of automated exchange of information between vehicles, and between vehicles and roadside infrastructure. Potential smart highway applications (such as intersection-collision-avoidance and vehicle-pedestrian-collision-avoidance) are optimized when both vehicles and roadside infrastructure get “smarter.”

While it is important to understand the elements involved in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, these elements must be understood within the context of overall management and operations. Any organization aspiring to get the most from its smart highway investment must also analyze its organizational and management techniques. The first step is to understand the business processes and operations fundamental to the operation of the organization, and then evaluate how each should be structured and managed to maximize value for both the enterprise and its customers.

Nor should low-tech be overlooked in the development of a smart highway strategy. When used in conjunction with high-tech devices and effective management techniques, traditional devices and methodologies contribute to a comprehensive approach to satisfying various constituent needs (e.g., improved safety). There will be varying levels of smart and dumb cars traveling on a smart highway, and a mix of high-tech and low-tech features is necessary to service them. This point should not be overlooked, as the development of a smart highway - and smart vehicles, for that matter - will be a migratory process. Owner-operators typically need to maximize their sunk investment while incrementally deploying new smart highway components.

A Customer-Centric Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the third major component of the smart highway. It must allow communication to the vehicle, provide services to customers, and give the highway operator access to data.

Adding Services to Infrastructure

The concept of an interactive “intelligent” roadway – made possible by sensors networked throughout a highway’s infrastructure - has been around for quite a while in one form or another. Its origins lie in intelligent vehicle highway systems (IVHS), a term coined in1988 that has since given way to intelligent transportation system (ITS).

Great strides in the area of embedded devices, such as dynamic message signs (DMS), lane control signs, and closed circuit television (CCTV), have already occurred. These devices are typically connected to each other and a traffic management center (TMC) through wireless and wire-line technology. This focus on combining asphalt, concrete, and steel with telecommunication networks has led to higher levels of highway efficiency and safety.

A smart highway, however, shifts attention to the customer. With the universe of possibilities made possible by adding or combining technologies, toll authorities and highway operators can offer services that go beyond the physical asset. In fact, the roadway itself moves from center stage to become one part of a package that meets customized needs.

With well-positioned sensors, interactive and dynamic roadside communication, and an extensive telecommunications backbone, a smart highway puts smarter travel within reach of the individual. Given accurate and timely information, customers can make better decisions before and during trips. They will have more choices about speed of travel, alternate routes, or ways to avoid traffic. They can plan around weather and/or infrastructure-related hazards. A smart highway contains the “intelligence” that allows for flexible decision-making, to deliver not only a safer, but a more efficient and convenient travel experience. This is the ultimate goal of a networked infrastructure.

Just as this view transcends traditional notions of an interactive roadway, it also puts the infrastructure’s operator in a new role. Now, to find the right blend of services that will appeal to its constituents, the highway authority must work to understand its issues, problems, and objectives. Thus, marketing becomes as important as maintenance.

In this complex system, moreover, “constituent” takes on multiple definitions. Certainly the driver is a key customer. But so are insurers, and automobile manufacturers and


their subcontractors, and information technology vendors and providers. As essential contributors to the smart highway, their objectives need to be considered.

If the goal is to continually supply relevant and user-friendly services that complement the physical asset (and thereby maximize its investment) then the operator must be ready to poll a range of customers…again and again. Constituent needs will change as ever-evolving technology brings new features and new customer demands, or as the operator itself wishes to strengthen or expand the “smartness” of its roadway.

Business Outsourcing

From budgetary and operational perspectives, an enterprise will benefit most by evaluating and understanding what it does best, and considering what services the private sector is more suitable to manage and/or provide. Outsourcing enables an enterprise to take advantage of evolving technologies, which the private sector typically more readily pursues. By establishing service-level agreements for its providers, an enterprise can monitor operational effectiveness while the private sector conducts the necessary investment, research, and development to maintain its competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Smart Highway Services

From a broad perspective smart highway services can, in one form or another, be placed within the traditional disciplines of traffic management, traveler information, payment systems, commercial vehicle operations (CVO), and such business units as customer service, information services, and retail services. In order to achieve optimal delivery and management of smart highway services, the enterprise must also look at its business processes, largely through enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM).

Traffic Management

Simply put, traffic management is all about collecting and using traffic data to proactively influence and manage traffic flow. The better a system can collect and disseminate information in real time among TMC personnel and highway customers, the more effective management will become. “Information” is used purposely here instead of “data,” as data must be shaped in order

for it to be useful. The challenge for traffic management on the smart highway will be migrating from a “data-poor” to a “data-rich” environment.

Vehicle probes and sensors will collect raw data; fully leveraging these vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle technologies will be crucial in manufacturing and communicating decision-quality information.

Avoiding and Managing Incidents

Incident management is the face of traffic management the traveling public sees most often and reacts most viscerally to. Four steps (detection, verification, response, and clearance) typically lead to the resumption of traffic flow, which may also be considered the final phase of incident management. The primary goal of a smart highway, however, is incident avoidance, a state most likely achieved when accurate and timely information can be provided to drivers, in a format that is easy to understand and convenient to use.

Incident avoidance involves physical roadway attributes - signage and lane configurations - as well as information delivered to drivers via onboard units (OBU) from roadside infrastructure and other vehicles. If an eastbound vehicle can inform a westbound vehicle of an oncoming hazard ahead, the westbound driver can proceed with greater caution. The exact nature of the hazard does not necessarily have to be stated; however, the more detail communicated between vehicles or from a TMC to a driver’s OBU, the better the chances for incident avoidance. Greater automation of the communication process should decrease the number of incidents, as well as the chances for exacerbating existing incidents.

Traveler Information

A driver wants to know the cost, best route, travel time be alternatives, and in a larger sense, “how the road works.” In short, the customer wants a user manual for the road.

The best traveler information reduces the degree of uncertainty a driver faces when making decisions. Whether it be for the commuter looking for time savings, a leisure traveler mapping the most aesthetic route, or a commercial operator searching for food or lodging, traveler information must be presented in a way that is decision-quality if it is to be appealing. The traditional perspective of the owner-operator is to provide information that is beneficial on a mass scale. On the horizon of the smart highway, however, is the ability to provide the


information the driver wants to receive. Private-sector partners will be the purveyors of these subscriber-based services that will, simultaneously, make the smart highway operator “customer-centric.”

Synergy of Traveler Information and Traffic Management

Traveler information is a potential traffic management tool.

There are two major approaches to an efficient transportation network: provide transportation capacity to meet demand, or attempt to modify or manage demand to match available capacity. A smart highway has the tools to satisfy both: dynamic road geometry, where the characteristics of the road are changed to facilitate traffic flow; controlled lane departure; and distance- keeping, where distance between vehicles is monitored and automatically adjusted to ensure appropriate spacing.

Smart highways can also manage demand through incentives (toll roads, particularly, can configure different rates dynamically via electronic-payment-system technology) that persuade users to travel during non-peak periods. Information becomes a management tool when customers are alerted, prior to and during their trips, to high congestion, or the fact that the cost of travel changes during specific peak periods.

Payment Systems

Electronic payment systems are integral to smart highway safety, customer convenience, and demand management. Open road tolling (ORT), for example, is made possible by electronic payment transponders (RFID and Infrared) and video cameras. Roads become safer when fewer toll plazas inhabit the infrastructure, because there are fewer opportunities for collisions. Reducing the number of plazas also increases the safety of toll agency personnel, who often cross the roadway at these sites for operations and maintenance purposes.

Electronic payment devices also make it easier for customers to purchase payment media (e.g., transponders and smart cards) conveniently; while grocery shopping, for example, or over the Internet. This, in turn, reduces congestion at points of payment.

Electronic payment systems also support variable pricing, as noted above, and enable toll agencies to charge preferred rates for smart vehicles.

Finally, electronic payment systems free the transportation agency to concentrate on its core mission when the agency outsources payment processing, since there are many private-sector businesses well-qualified to handle transaction reconciliation and settlement.

Commercial Vehicle Operations

The Commercial Motor Carrier Safety Administration aims to reduce commercial vehicle fatalities by 50 percent by 2010 and to reduce the number of persons injured in these crashes by 20 percent by 2008. Electronic screening systems, electronic credentialing, and the exchange of safety information can assist in reaching these goals.

Electronic screening systems enable commercial vehicles with good safety and legal status to bypass weigh stations and road inspection. Weigh-in-motion equipment minimizes vehicle stoppage. Safety-information-exchange technologies bring up-to-date motor carrier safety information to enforcement officers at the roadside. Electronic credentialing systems provide electronic administration of interstate registration, fuel tax payment, and other credentials. By automating the processing of this credential information, traffic flow is improved and customer satisfaction among commercial vehicle operators is increased.

And for the manager, the ability to track the location of any vehicle in the fleet while on the smart highway is a valued service.

Customer Service

Good customer service continuously and consistently gives customers what they want and need. It implies a commitment to learning about their needs and wants, and developing plans to implement customer-friendly processes.

Customer service on the smart highway means improving safety and providing predictive travel time on a large scale. At its best, a smart highway will guarantee travel time. If this promise is not realized, customers will receive some type of discount (for toll roads) or redeemable benefit (e.g., a discounted parking fee or gasoline purchase) from a private partner.

Superior customer service, however, also means service customized to the individual. This necessitates understanding personal preferences in terms of


services and how they are delivered. The menu can include navigation assistance, offering products and services based on vehicle location (position commerce), infotainment, and real-time data pertinent to key areas of interest (such as the weather). The toll road or highway operator that selectively partners with a private sector collaborator will be well-suited to delivering tailored customer services.

If smart highways are customer-centric, it’s fundamental to remember that these are paying customers. Minimum standards for responding to inquiries (phone, mail, e-mail, in-person) are essential, together with an obligation to provide accurate, timely, and personalized information. Customer travel times, plaza service guarantees and an effective complaints process with clearly identified staff responsibilities are all basic ingredients of a customer service program.

Convenience is another aspect of superior customer service. For toll road operators, this means involving merchants in the supply chain so that customers can obtain payment media (e.g., transponders) at such popular venues as grocery stores and gas stations.

To consistently exceed expectations, it must be recognized that every facet of the enterprise’s business touches the customer, and performance in all operations affects the customers’ opinion of your service. Superior customer service, then, goes well beyond face-to-face interactions.

Back-Office Functions

Though never seen by the customer, an efficient back-office greatly improves the consistency and satisfaction of the customer experience, as well as the effective management of enterprise operations. Some key back office components and issues include:

Transaction Processing

Transaction processing must be efficient, accurate, and secure. In a smart highway environment, cash transactions will be eliminated, an increasing array of services will be charged to customer accounts, and clearinghouse activities may become more complex. This will raise the importance of transaction processing in the suite of back-office functions. Consortia such as PassKey, E-ZPass, and ORANGES combine toll and nontoll transactions, and in so doing have introduced nontoll agencies to the clearinghouse process. The next evolution

in customer service will add transactions that are non-transportation in nature, such as food and retail services. Thus transaction processing, already a mature function in the traditional toll agency environment, will become increasingly complex.

Violation Enforcement Processing

Violation enforcement is closely related to transaction processing. Violations may stem from an inadvertent error by an unfamiliar driver, or result from a deliberate action to avoid payment. The extent to which violations are enforced is a judgment of individual operators, with repeat offenders being the most obvious target. Enforcement of violations is incumbent on any infrastructure operator where tolls are the major revenue stream. To do otherwise places an unfair burden on the majority of customers who pay. In a smart highway environment, the use of technology to enforce violations is both logical and necessary, given the likely combination of higher travel speeds, the technology-rich environment, and the low (or eliminated) dependence on human presence. One option is to amend local enforcement laws to enable citations to be issued based on electronic means alone.

Finance and Accounting

For a smart highway, timely disbursement of funds to participating agencies and third-party service providers is very important, as is keeping accurate records justifying the size of transfers.

Invoicing

In a smart highway environment, some form of invoicing will be necessary for all revenue collection and subscriber services. Typically, this will occur when funds are drawn from the credit cards linked to customer accounts. The frequency of invoicing will depend on a number of factors, such as the frequency of use and business rules regarding minimum balance.

Data Sharing

Data sharing refers to the wealth of information that a smart highway can potentially capture regarding customers, behaviors, trends, and preferences. This data will be invaluable for optimizing operations and for planning upgrades, and may also be of interest to other operational entities, partner agencies, and organizations. Subject to business rules and privacy policies, there may even be a requirement to share some of this data (e.g., travel patterns/demographic information for customers


using retail outlets that are part of the smart highway). Equally, there may be reasons for not sharing data with traditional partner agencies that may draw some competitive advantage from such data.

Business Rules

All user-financed highway operators have business rules that are applied by back offices to transaction processing and violation enforcement. These business rules, which may be refined, updated, and replaced to suit customer and operational needs, are intended to provide a consistent and transparent basis for operational management of the ETC system. As a smart highway will likely be highly electronic and automated, business rules may change to encourage upfront commitment , deliver partner discounts and incentives, or focus on violations. Business rules, however, must drive technology and not vice-versa.

Privacy Policies

As with any public or private entity, the smart highway will gather extensive information and maintain databases regarding its customers, their behaviors, trends, and preferences. Specifically, this data will contain financial records and the ability to track customers. Such data carries the responsibility to protect the privacy of its customers and to develop policies regarding access. Under certain circumstances, the smart highway may gather information for resale to other organizations, and the operator will again need to formulate guidelines. Perhaps most important will be policies regarding how to respond to leaks or suspected leaks of private information.

Process Management

Process management is the application of knowledge and tools to define, visualize, measure, and improve upon current processes, to better meet customers’ needs.

Enterprise Resource Planning

A smart highway is potentially a rich repository of customer information. It is not enough to simply collect data and provide services, however; it is the provision of decision-quality data to internal (e.g., highway operations and maintenance) and external (e.g., drivers) customers that will define the value of a smart highway.

The organization, then, must be willing to look at how it conducts its business across all departments, and be ready to make the changes across the enterprise that will let it take full advantage of the opportunities presented by an intelligent system.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) unifies an organization’s planning, operations, maintenance, and marketing. Effective ERP requires that an organization review its business processes for efficiency and effectiveness, improve those processes, and then integrate and automate them enterprisewide. ERP largely involves back-office systems (such as the technology used in a TMC) where there is typically no direct contact with the customer.

Because a smart highway touches so many aspects of an organization, it makes sense to review the organization’s current business processes and understand how improvement will enable the enterprise to take full advantage of the smart highway.

Maximizing ROI

This process often reveals the need for new ways of doing business, as well as the need for new roles. For example, a network manager can oversee the collection, dissemination, and management of data collected by the smart highway, which will help the enterprise transition from data poor to data rich.

To maximize ROI, an ERP system typically involves management information systems that communicate and streamline data to all relevant departments in an automated way. Taking into account the information and services provided by the smart highway, and building them into the organization’s business processes, will optimize ERP efforts.

Maintenance and asset management provide an example of this re-evaluation. Once roadside sensors are integrated into the highway, the electronic data can automatically be fed into the asset management system. The need and frequency of on-site human inspection is reduced, while the evaluation process for replacing equipment is expedited. This is only one simple example of how data instantly collected from a smart highway and immediately fed into the enterprise’s database can change the way a current activity is carried out.


Customer Relationship Management

While ERP typically involves back-office functions, CRM generally refers to the processes and systems that interface with the customer. Successful CRM provides the means to reliably deliver information and services to customers, which is key to any system striving to provide maximum value.

The major areas of focus for CRM are related to service-automated processes, self-service, and personal information gathering and processing. Successful CRM will integrate and automate all customer-serving processes, although customer service and marketing information systems will tend to be the heavy users. Call centers use CRM software to store customer and enterprise data. Marketing departments rely upon this data to understand the demographics of the customers using the smart highway, and tie customer feedback and prominent customer issues into the marketing strategy.

CRM also enables customer self-service through a variety of communication channels, including cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and OBUs.

At any time, smart highway customers may retrieve information about anticipated travel time or road pricing (particularly if pricing is variable). The more options the enterprise provides to access this information (e.g., Internet, integrated voice response [IVR], onboard subscriber-based navigation system, or customer service agent), the more customer segments it can satisfy. The challenge within the enterprise is to use the data generated by the smart highway in a timely and consistent way, regardless of the communication channel.

Smart Highways — Today

Smart highways, when defined as a true blend of services and infrastructure, do not exist today. While a range of smart highway services can be found in some locations, these discrete services are not operating within a comprehensive customer-service culture envisioned in the ideal environment. In today’s conditions, too much time and energy is spent trying to aggregate data from disparate systems, yielding systems that are still more data poor than data rich.

Drivers

Today, getting a driver’s license is fairly easy; the training required is minimal. Driver education is sometimes offered by high schools, but the majority of American drivers learn their “skills” from parents, or friends. Control techniques for driving in unsafe conditions can be learned in classes offered by local police departments; yet how many average drivers avail themselves of this training? In reality, advanced driving ability remains the unique skill of the professional driver - or a byproduct of a session of defensive-driving mandated by the courts as a penalty to violators.

Clearly, this unstructured approach to “learning how to drive” discourages high standards of ability.

Vehicles: More Performance

It has been said that today’s cars have more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed on the moon. GPS, onboard navigation, real-time traffic information, emergency call, and a spectrum of entertainment services can be found in new cars, or are available for retrofit. Even as they become standard features, they provide limited ways for vehicles to communicate with the infrastructure and little, if any, functionality for vehicles to communicate with each other.

Most automobile makers have already developed smart vehicles, especially within their luxury lines. Software will change radio stations, adjust the climate, or make a phone call at the sound of the driver’s voice. Blind-spot sensors stationed on the car will alert the driver when he is about to bump into something.

Also commonplace is electronic traction control, a system that ties a computer into the anti-lock brakes to limit wheel slip. Many cars offer the next-generation electronic stability control technology that automatically corrects the vehicle’s course if the driver comes into a corner too quickly, brakes too abruptly, or turns the steering wheel too sharply, in addition to doing its basic job of keeping the drive wheels from slipping on rain- and snow-slicked roads.

Vehicles: More Information

Information services will be an important feature of the smart highway. Already, both XM Satellite Radio and rival Sirius Satellite Radio are expanding in-vehicle uses for their satellite services.


XM Satellite Radio recently announced it would send data services to Nissan vehicles under an expanded partnership with the automaker. It will supply such data and telematics services as in-vehicle messaging and traffic data for onboard navigation systems. Nissan already offers XM Satellite Radio’s broadcast service as an option on all Nissan and Infiniti models.

Sirius Satellite Radio plans to work with Microsoft in developing video channels that can be beamed to vehicles on the move in 2006. Combined, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio expect to reach 7.5 million customers by the end of 2005.

The Push to Safety: Vehicles and Infrastructure Working Together

The National Automated Highway Systems Consortium (NAHSC), a consortium of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and nine other public and private organizations, demonstrated automated vehicle prototypes on a 12 kilometer test section of Interstate 15 in San Diego in 1998. The expectation at that time was for future automated highway systems that would double or even triple the capacity of highways by increasing speeds and shortening distances between vehicles, and improve highway safety by eliminating accidents from human error.

However, the NAHSC disbanded, and new developments in the field of smart vehicles became the focus of the USDOT Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI). Recognizing the importance of smart vehicles and the potential for unintended consequences if human factors are not placed at the center of their design, USDOT launched the initiative in 1997 with the aim of accelerating the development, availability, and use of integrated in-vehicle systems that help drivers to operate more safely and effectively.

Infrastructure

The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program is a coalition of the USDOT, the automotive industry and state DOTs. VII follows from IVI, and recognizes that major improvements in safety require cooperation between the vehicle and the roadway.

The goal of VII is to: “Achieve nationwide deployment of a communications infrastructure on the roadways and in all production vehicles and to enable a number of key safety and operational services that would take advantage of this capability.”

According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), advances in technology, along with the convergence of a number of trends and events, have made possible the development of a concept for creating a symbiotic relationship between vehicles and existing transportation (primarily roadside) infrastructure.

• Automobile manufacturers are putting more sensors in vehicles to support their safe operation and maintenance.

• Ongoing activity by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the standards development organizations is moving us to vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications systems, primarily via DSRC at 5.9 GHz.

The VII initiative aims to surround the major highways in and around metropolitan areas with continuous broadband wireless Internet access, to support a wide range of vehicle-oriented public and commercial high-speed mobile wireless applications. Services will be available to many sectors: transportation, shipping, communications, automotive telematics, entertainment, and homeland security. As part of the this project, technology is being considered that would give vehicles real-time information about vehicles running in neighboring lanes, and about incidents and work zones ahead. This network would become a literal probe capable of collecting travel times, speeds, roadway and weather conditions, and transmit the data to public agencies (and likely private entities) for traveler information and traffic management.

Deployment of the VII initiative will be achieved via the cooperation of vehicle manufacturers, who will install OBUs in new vehicles . Federal, state, and local transportation agencies will also plan for and deploy the necessary roadside infrastructure.

The Current State-of-the-Art

Although physical infrastructure is the core of any highway, smart or otherwise, operators must now consider the range of tools available for improving both transportation services and system performance. Figure 2, Michigan DOT’s strawman concept for VII details a variety of constituents and services.

This section discusses current-day tools and how they are used to support a single agency’s operations, as well as the integrated operation of multiple agencies within a


region. Generally, these services are provided separately and then consolidated in what can be a time-consuming process.

Incident Management

Here the goal is to keep traffic flowing quickly and smoothly when incidents occur, to prevent backups, and reduce the congestion, that may lead to secondary incidents. The following expands upon the key steps in incident management referenced earlier in this chapter.

Detection

Detection/surveillance systems support the roadway and collect the data needed for system operators to understand traffic conditions in real time. The sensors may collect data such as volume, speeds, and travel times, or provide video images via CCTV. The data collected feeds the system control and traveler information dissemination functions, allowing operators to intervene when appropriate. The data may also be stored (archived or warehoused) for future analysis and evaluation.

Typically, the following information is captured:

• The roadway where the incident occurred.

• The location (cross street, milepost, or incident reference system) of the incident.

• The number of vehicles involved.

• The severity of the incident (stalled vehicle, property damage only, injuries, etc.).

• The source reporting the incident.

• The number of lanes blocked.

• The potential duration of the blockage.

Sources of traffic and incident data can include:

• Incident detection system, remote traffic microwave system (RTMS), or other traffic detectors (spot speed-based information).

• Probe-based data collection (link travel times and wide area network developed speeds/travel times).

Figure 2. Michigan DOT’s Strawman VII Vision


It is generally believed that penetrations of probe vehicles between two and ten percent can provide accurate real-time traffic-condition data for limited access roadways. This probe-based traffic information is likely to be more accurate and less expensive than other currently available sources of data, which include:

• Motorist reports of incident (911, state highway patrol).

• Reporting by motorist assistance/service patrol employees.

• DOT employee reports.

• *999 cellular road emergency (could be encompassed within 511 system – reports to data service provider).

• Police patrol reports.

• Traffic reporting services (including information from helicopter-based traffic reporters).

Although available monitoring methods and systems are able to provide much of the data necessary for traffic management and traveler information, gaps in geographic coverage, accuracy, and dependability persist. Based on what has been learned about probe-oriented traffic-data-collection solutions, it is widely believed that significant opportunities may exist for these technologies to cost-effectively complement, and in some cases replace, traditional traffic data collection resources.

By using various vehicle-locating technologies, the vehicle itself can become an important surveillance tool for monitoring the roadway network. Vehicles acting as probes can provide data about traffic conditions on each link traversed. When sent to a central computer, where it can be merged with input from other sources, this data allows managers to form an accurate representation of actual conditions in the transportation system. Probe surveillance can typically provide the following information:

• Link speeds.

• Link travel times.

• Origin and destination of vehicles traveling through the system.

Verification

Quick and accurate incident verification reduces the time spent in deploying responders to the scene. Operations personnel may verify incidents and communicate with people at the site, or provide details to emergency agency dispatchers. Verification methods include:

• Field units (e.g., emergency services or operator employee) at the incident site.

• CCTV images.

• Communication with helicopters operated by police, media, or information service providers (ISPs).

• Combining or fusing information from multiple cellular calls.

• Airborne platforms or satellites.

Sending Information, Internally and Externally

To facilitate a regionwide view of the transportation network, an integrated transportation management system shares information (automated and manually) between systems and coordinates management activities among transportation agencies and related entities. The types of agencies and other entities that need to be involved in such data-sharing provide services along a variety of different transportation facilities, including highways, arterial streets, transit (bus and rail), toll facilities (e.g., bridges and tunnels), emergency service providers, and ISPs. To support such interagency communication, involved parties should take an active interest in using the National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol suite of standard communications protocols and data definitions that have been designed to accommodate the diverse needs of various subsystems and user services of the national ITS architecture.

On a more basic level, internal communications are needed; on-the-scene communication by incident responders, as well as the notification of key staff via pager, text messaging, and Blackberry.

Incident Response and Clearance

There is no single approach to use when dealing with different types of incidents along facilities (e.g., the routine two-vehicle collisions or stalled vehicle, versus. more complex, major events, such as a multiple-vehicle accident involving fatalities and/or serious injuries, with


major structural or property damage). There are also issues that must be dealt with by all agencies when responding to incidents.

On-the-Scene Incident Management

Issues that must be handled by agency staff responding to an incident include:

• First responders setting protection and reporting lane status.

• Unified command dictating the game plan and coordinating with incident responders regarding:

° Information about types/number of vehicles involved.

° Arrival/departure time of police, tow trucks, ambulance, etc. (includes collection of time stamps to support contractual obligations/audits of performance).

Local Incident Management Activities

Local incident management can include the establishment of traffic control via lane-control signage. Although not widely used in the United States (one exception is in San Antonio, Texas, where more than 300 signals have been deployed by TransGuide), lane-control signals (LCS) have been used with great success in Europe to help warn drivers of oncoming congestion, work zones, and other types of events. LCS generally consists of signage deployed on gantries spanning the width of the roadway. Each sign gives information specific to its own lane, (e.g., speeds or warning lights). Another incident management technique involves establishing diversion routes on alternative roadways to send vehicles around an incident.

Role of Roadway Design

Minimizing incidents begins with roadway design. Certain elements and safety features can signal drivers to modify their speed, and can provide the basic cues that keep drivers at a safe and comfortable pace. Roadway design and road-usage elements can include:

Widening: The number of lanes can directly influence congestion and driver safety. Although widening a freeway to add lanes over several miles falls into the category of major reconstruction, there are also bottleneck situations that can remedied through lower-cost improvements.

Auxiliary Lanes: An auxiliary lane is the portion of the roadway generally available to facilitate the entry and exit of traffic from the highway, for a more uniform level of service (LOS). Improving drivers’ access to the highway results in a safer, more efficient roadway.

Improvement of Geometric Design: Improperly aligned highways with significant curvature may have several times as many accidents as a highway with good alignment. For example, Caltrans has evaluated a number of its safety projects to determine their relative effectiveness. On average, curve correction reduced 50 percent of all accidents, super-elevation correction reduced 50 percent of run-off-road accidents, and truck escape ramps reduced 75 percent of runaway truck accidents. Although it is usually difficult and costly to correct alignment deficiencies after building, implementation of such changes may prove to be cost- effective and even necessary, given the potential safety benefits.

Skid-Resistant Pavement: Pavement skid-resistance properties that result in minimized skid lengths can significantly reduce, or eliminate, the magnitude of a crash impact. Skid resistance may also keep vehicles on the roadway during aggressive horizontal and lateral movements.

For example, longitudinal grooving of pavement has been shown to dramatically cut wet pavement-related accidents. The FHWA Report “Effectiveness of Alternative Skid Reduction Measures” references two California studies where grooving of pavement reduced wet pavement accident rates by 70 percent and 73 percent, with the largest decreases in sideswipe, fixed object, and rear-end accidents.

Pavement types and textures can also affect skid resistance. Poor skid resistance on wet pavement are mainly caused by rutting, polishing, bleeding, and dirty pavements. Rutting allows water to accumulate in the wheel tracks. Polishing reduces the pavement surface microtexture, and bleeding can cover it. In both cases, the harsh surface features needed for penetrating the thin water film are diminished. Pavement surfaces will lose their skid resistance when contaminated by oil drippings, layers of dust, or organic matter. Measures to correct or improve skid resistance should result in the following characteristics: high initial skid resistance durability, the


ability to retain skid resistance with time and traffic, and minimum decrease in skid resistance with increasing speed.

Payment Systems

Electronic Toll Collection

Without exaggeration, electronic toll collection (ETC) has revolutionized toll plaza operations.

Since 1940 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, all American expressway toll operations have required vehicles to stop to pay a toll, almost always with cash. By the 1970s and 1980s, as traffic grew to multiples of design volumes, toll plaza expansion could no longer keep up with vehicle demand, and another way to process traffic was needed.

Typically, a coin toll lane required up to six or seven seconds to process a vehicle, and a staffed lane often doubled that or more. Commercial-vehicle transactions approached 30 seconds. A toll expressway with two lanes in each direction could easily require 12 to 16 toll lanes to process traffic without very long queues; with three lanes in each direction, 18 to 24 lanes would be needed. Scale became impossible to manage—approach and departure pavements exceeded 1,000 feet in length—and even if there were enough lanes to process traffic, downstream merges choked traffic flow.

Worse, as highway owners commissioned large capital expansions, it simply became impossible to build enough cash toll collection lanes. This problem appeared not only on the Illinois Tollway which, between 1991 and 1993, built several plazas with 14 or more lanes in each direction, but it has been most severe on ticket-system plazas located within interchange complexes.

Developing and Applying ETC in Phases

ETC and the ability to collect tolls from moving vehicles offered a solution, however radical it may have seemed, to toll traffic congestion. The first step was to test the technology, and concept, with the public. This was done for the first time on a large scale at the Dallas North Tollway (now the North Texas Tollway Authority). Response was immediate and positive: the public was willing to pay a five-cent surcharge to pay with a transponder. When the Dallas North Tollway opened its first dedicated lanes a year later, the public rushed to participate. The toll industry has never looked back.

The second step, ETC-only lanes, was also a huge success, since these lanes could easily process more than 1,600 vehicles per hour; in fact, they demonstrated rates of more than 2,000 vehicles per hour in Illinois and elsewhere. With adequate driver participation in ETC programs, toll lane throughput disappears as a design issue—although new problems arise, particularly in downstream merges. The transformation of plazas, which were originally intended for stop-and-go traffic, into a regulated, limited, safe, nonstop environment has been a design challenge. Problems appeared as early as the mid-1990s, and others developed as peak-hour ETC participation rates increased above 65 and 70 percent.

The third step is to build express lanes, or ORT lanes, with cash lanes on the side, similar to a highway rest area or service plaza. Express lanes are full-highway-speed lanes with geometry meeting design criteria for 55 mph or greater. ORT lanes are the same as express lanes, except they are also identical to the approach roadway: same lane width, same shoulders, same median, etc.

Express/ORT lanes improve traffic operations but present one new challenge: money. Plaza conversions can cost $10-$20 million or more, depending on the proximate roadway improvements required to safely support high-speed operations. In addition to the large capital expense, there is the lingering cost of supporting cash operations for a shrinking percentage of the toll-customer base. The real solution to providing safe, simple, nonstop toll collection while at the same time contain capital and operating costs, is to eliminate cash.

And that is the fourth and final step in this evolution. A system that relies completely on ETC or video cameras in an ORT environment (this involves an equipment gantry with electronic sensors over the highway), can effect account-based toll-collection. For new construction or re-configured free highways into fee-based smart highways, it could probably be presumed that the only type of fee collection would be through an ORT toll facility, without acceptance of cash. Figure 3 illustrates ORT gantries located in Santiago, Chile, on Autopista Central.

ORT’s Technology and Components

The in-vehicle technology used today is mature radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder technology that operates with or without self-contained power supplies. These are mounted in or on vehicles and are provided with the electronic-toll accounts. At the roadside,


ETC readers and video cameras can either identify a vehicle by noting its ETC transponder or by reading the license plate. A roadside computer (a lane controller) takes the identification and vehicle detection information and builds a financial transaction.

Video for violation enforcement has been under development since the early 1990s. Detection and machine-reading technology has evolved to the point where it also serves as a back-up ID system for those times when a transponder is forgotten, not read, or when an individual uses a toll road for a limited period of time.

The owner posts these ETC and/or video transactions to a financial database and handles account management, auditing, reconciliation, replenishment, and settlement with the customer service center, which is roughly analogous to a mobile phone store and CRM operation.

This business platform and support organization has the technology and CRM infrastructure to offer additional regional transportation services, or additional smart highway services, at relatively small costs.

Future technology changes will be fairly incremental over the next several years, and there may be a changeout in RFID technology to a national standard if a sound business case can be developed (or FHWA subsidizes it). There has been some experimentation with the use of GPS for detection technology as well. When it can reliably track vehicles without failure, GPS technology may significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for ETC roadside infrastructure. This promises a great deal of flexibility in expanding charging zones.

Figure 3. Open Road Tolling Gantries – Autopista Central, Santiago Chile


Additional Payment Mechanisms

Parking and Transit

Transponders are flexibile and convenient mechanisms for parking and transit applications, and payment systems increasingly are exploring customer requirements for inter-modal transportation.

In 1999, Dallas Fort Worth airport introduced the PassKey system, which allows a single electronic tag for payment at major airport parking facilities, toll roads, and city parking garages. Similarly, E-ZPass Plus can be used for toll roads and parking at John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International (in 2005), and LaGuardia airports in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. This automated parking system allows E-ZPass customers to use their toll tag to pay for airport parking. Future parking applications could include major event locations adjacent to freeways, giving customers a more convenient alternative than queuing in the cash payment lanes. As an additional privilege, speedy exit lanes could also be made available for toll-tag-equipped vehicles, i.e., pay to exit.

Perhaps one of the most interesting areas of inter-modal transportation is the use of smart cards. In Orlando, Florida, the Orlando Regional Alliance for Next Generation payment systems (ORANGES) project is a regional system that utilized smart cards and smart card transponders in a common payment system with a single clearinghouse for the payment of tolls, city garage parking, and bus transit.

Oyster is London’s travel contact-less smart card system. At its heart is the Oyster card, which can store season tickets or Pre Pay (pay-as-you-go travel value) for use on the Tube, buses, Docklands Light Railway, trams and National Rail services within London. While currently used to pay for transit services, consideration is being given to using the Oyster card in a smart card transponder to pay tolls associated with an expansion of the Central London congestion-charging zone, launched in 2003.

Mobile Commerce

The transponder potentially can do more than pay tolls. In fact, as the public begins to accept and use transponders and smart cards for everyday transactions, toll agencies will find more ways for their customers to pay for services, and more ways for public and private organizations to receive payments. This increase in convenience and usage will feed itself, building not only the brand of the agency, but the demand for even more use and acceptance of transponders in the marketplace

Flow Management

Lane Management Systems and Access Control

Lane management systems are overhead gantry systems that combine message signs and lights, as seen in Figure 4. In the United States, use of lane management systems is typically limited to toll plazas, reversible lane control, and use of the shoulder as a travel lane (often referred to as hard shoulder running). In Europe and Asia these systems are commonplace and sophisticated, and simulate regular traffic signs when in dynamic mode. Each lane has a corresponding sign on the gantry, which provides real-time instructions to the drivers below, including advance warning of lane closures, lane open/closed, and speed limit.

Access Control

Access control in the form of ramp metering is used extensively in the United States, especially in California and Minnesota. This technique controls the rate at which traffic can enter a mainline freeway in order to keep traffic flowing, or at least delay the onset of lower levels of service. Ramp control is usually operated during peak times and can provide bypass lanes for high occupancy vehicle (HOV) traffic. Since ramp metering holds traffic on ramps, caution is needed to ensure that backups do not

Oranges Smart Card


occur on arterial systems, to simply transfer delay from one component of the surface transportation system to another.

Speed Control

A few locations in Europe have experimented with speed control that, like ramp metering, seeks to keep mainline traffic flowing, or at least delay the onset of lower levels of service. Rather than transfer delay to ramps, the philosophy of speed control systems is to progressively and smoothly reduce speeds as traffic volumes increase at the onset of a peak period. “Section control” is the term used in the Netherlands and Germany for controlling and smoothing speeds on a particular section of the highway. Section control in the Netherlands has proven to be more effective than spot radar checks. Speed control systems may try to discourage frequent lane changing, since this behavior can also lead to traffic disruptions and flow breakdown. Speed control systems rely on the lane management system infrastructure previously described and incorporates video enforcement of speed limits.

Variable Speed Limit Signage

Variable speed limit signs (VSLs) promote driving conditions that reflect reasonable speeds given time of day, traffic conditions, weather conditions, construction

or maintenance activities, and other factors. Applications to support VSLs use traffic speed, travel time, volume detection, weather information, and road surface condition sensors to determine the appropriate driving speed, given current roadway and traffic conditions.

Predictive Travel Time

Real-time travel information is important, but in reality, all measured travel times are past tense. That is, measurements can at best describe conditions in the immediate past. And while this information is undoubtedly valuable and, if widely available, would significantly assist travelers, shippers, and fleets in determining routes, departure, and arrival times, the real value is to be able to project trip times into the future. On the whole, the prediction of segment and point-to-point travel times for road networks is critical to the long-term success of many advanced ITS applications, including route guidance systems and advanced traveler information system (ATIS). The common objective of these systems is to deliver information necessary to help individual drivers identify optimal routes based on real-time information on current/predicted traffic conditions. As such, the provision of such data will become vital to supporting

Figure 4. Example of Lane Management and Speed Control Technology


various smart highway applications. To learn more about predictive travel time, refer to Issue 1 of the Orange Book, “Predictive Travel Time,” published in 2004.

Safety and Security

Lane Departure Avoidance

Lane departure collisions are generally caused when a vehicle leaves its lane in a sideways movement, subsequently either running off the road or crashing into an oncoming vehicle head-on or, in the case of vehicles traveling in the same direction, creating a sideswipe crash. Lane departures are a major component of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s research program for collision avoidance.

Lane departure avoidance (LDA) systems act on the principle that enabling drivers to accurately recognize their environment will enhance their safety. As a result, they prompt the driver with an alert when danger exists during a lane change, or when the vehicle is having difficulty staying in its lane (e.g., due to drowsiness or other impairments that may prevent the driver from safely operating the vehicle). These systems are most widely found in trucks, due to the high costs of fatigue- and drowsiness-related crashes.

Collision avoidance technologies are generally more or less intrusive systems. In less intrusive systems, sensors inside or outside the vehicle merely warn the driver of potential danger (e.g., steering wheel vibration, lights, or noise). More intrusive systems take over partial or full control of the vehicle by making safety-enhancing adjustments, such as tightening seatbelts or activating the brakes without the driver taking action.

LDA-equipped vehicles are typically part of a cooperative system linking the vehicle to the roadway infrastructure via sensors, a guidance system, or both. LDA systems are developed to work on both straight and curved roads, in daytime and nighttime, and under a variety of inclement weather conditions.

Rumble Strips/Rumble Stripes

Rumble strips/stripes are low-tech but effective devices for reducing accidents stemming from driver inattention, drivers falling asleep, and drivers not properly perceiving road edges at night or in severe weather conditions (visibility). FHWA’s definition of rumble strips states:

A shoulder rumble strip is a longitudinal design feature installed on a paved roadway shoulder near the travel lane. It is made of a series of indented or raised elements intended to alert inattentive drivers through vibration and sound that their vehicle has left the travel lane. On divided highways, they are typically installed on the median side of the roadway as well as on the outside (right) shoulder.

According to the FHWA, rumble strips can help reduce run-off-the-road accidents by 40-50 percent. Additional information about rumble strips can be found at: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/programs/rumble.htm.

Rumble stripes are simply rumble strips with a contiguous line painted over them to better delineate the road’s edge line.

Where rumble strips are being installed for the first time or where their use might be unexpected, appropriate signs and pavement markings alerting both motorists and cyclists to their presence is advisable.

Barriers

Traditional highway guardrails and concrete barriers have served and continue to serve an important role in traffic and work zone management. A current trend, however, is to implement cable barriers where feasible.

Cable Barriers consist of a series of three or four cables, strung vertically between small posts, and are typically deployed in the median to prevent crossover accidents. The tension of the cables absorbs all the impact of the vehicle, restraining the vehicle within an approximate 10-foot deflection area and keeping it from crossing into oncoming traffic. The posts on these barriers serve only to hold up the cables and do not necessarily help restrain the vehicle. Damaged posts are pulled from their base and can be immediately replaced with very little effort. These systems have performed well and are less expensive and easier to maintain than the traditional barrier systems. In addition, the cable barrier system can be placed on slopes as steep as 6:1, whereas the guardrail and barrier wall systems are limited to 10:1 or flatter slopes.

Amber Alerts

Variable message signs (VMS) stream traveler information (controlled from the TMC), including notifications for homeland security/emergencies and AMBER alerts.


An AMBER alert is a message to the general public about a confirmed child abduction. AMBER alerts are generally initiated by an emergency management or law enforcement agency, with such information usually delivered by an agency’s TMC.

Most states have developed an agency-specific plan that describes all criteria for issuing and canceling an Amber alert, and procedures for coordination with other local agencies. Plans should conform to the recommendations of the National Amber Plan Program (http://www.missingkids.com/html/amberplan.html).

Vehicle of Interest

Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) is an image-processing technology used to identify vehicles by their license plates. The system uses some form of illumination (e.g., infrared light) and a camera to take an image of the vehicle’s license plate. Optical character recognition software analyzes the image and extracts the plate number. This data can be used to support various types of law enforcement, travel time data collection, and access management at parking facilities. Almost instantaneously after being collected at the roadside, data from the license plate reader-based system can be compared against various law enforcement databases to determine whether the vehicle that has just passed the reader is a “vehicle of interest,” which may warrant the attention of law enforcement officials. Furthermore, in extensive systems, ALPR technology could provide information concerning the movement of a particular vehicle as it moves through the traffic network.

Work Zones/Construction

The concept of work zone management is more than simply the development of lane management strategies and the set-up of the zones themselves. That is, the goal of work zone management should be to minimize the exposure of motorists to work zones to the greatest extent possible, thereby reducing congestion and crash rates. There are a number of ways to achieve this:

Reducing the Volume of Traffic Going Through the Work Zone: This is accomplished by diverting traffic to other routes, detours, or modes of transportation, thereby changing driver behavior and trip times during the life of the project.

Reducing the Length of Time Work Zones Are In Place: Early completion incentives and disincentives for restricting traffic in the contract can accomplish this.

Use of Smart Work Zones That Provide Real-time Traveler Information: These systems can warn drivers of congestion or reduced speeds ahead, and suggest alternate routes based on prevailing conditions. Such systems can be deployed to provide traveler information in work zones where permanent traffic management systems do not exist.

Work zones typically consist of portable DMS, portable traffic sensors, and portable CCTV cameras linked via wireless communications to a central workstation. Operators can use the system to monitor traffic along the section of roadway under construction, but the system can also automatically generate DMS-based messages on predefined thresholds, as well as provide congestion/incident detection alerts for traffic management staff.

Fleet and Freight Management Systems

Fleet management includes the monitoring and management of vehicles operating on the roadway. The most common component is vehicle location monitoring, either automatically via automatic vehicle location technology (e.g., GPS), or manually via radio contact with the vehicle operator, for determining schedule adherence and/or vehicle headways. Vehicle tracking is particularly important when the transport of hazardous materials in involved. These systems offer carriers the ability to track numerous vehicles and collect a multitude of data (e.g., time of departure, time of arrival, speeds exceeding a certain predetermined threshold, driver authentication, etc). If agreements can be struck between fleet management companies (with the permission of the freight fleet owners that they service) and public agencies, this data resource could significantly help in assessing roadway conditions.

The FHWA is currently studying truck travel times in freight corridors throughout the United States. Several agreements have been struck with freight carriers partnered with fleet management service providers to share real-time or near real-time data with the FHWA. The project uses data sources that are already being collected by fleet management service providers as a part of their regular operations.


Phase I of the project provided more historical rather than real-time data and was analyzed manually. Phase II, currently underway, is providing near real–time data. The project is being conducted on five interstate highways, chosen in part with help from carriers, to identify heavily traveled or otherwise significant corridors.

Phase III of the FHWA project will focus on data privacy and how this issue may affect the sharing of data. Questions such as whether or not the FHWA can give this data to state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations will be addressed. The goal of the project is to transition to a national framework and use fleet trucks as probes nationally.

Qualcomm’s Fleet Management Services

Qualcomm, headquartered in San Diego, CA, provides a wide range of wireless solutions to a variety of industries. The company’s Wireless Business Solutions Division delivers mobile solutions and services that permit fleet managers to communicate with drivers, monitor vehicle locations, and provide enhanced customer service.

OmniTRACS and OmniExpress are the company’s two mobile solutions that provide an onboard two-way wireless device coupled with a data chip installed in the truck’s engine. Both products integrate with Qualcomm’s SensorTRAC performance monitoring solution.

OmniTRACS uses Qualcomm’s nationwide two-way satellite wireless link to provide uninterrupted communications coverage throughout North America. Location information concerning the trucks is collected via either the proprietary Qualcomm Automatic Satellite Position Reporting system or more traditional GPS.

In contrast, OmniExpress uses the Sprint PCS network and GPS-enabled vehicle positioning to locate trucks. A two-way, text-based communication system is then utilized to communicate with drivers.

Traveler/Service Information

Traveler Support Information

The effective dissemination of multimodal traveler information (either static or real-time) can support users with widely varying needs. This resource gives travelers the information they need to plan effectively beforehand, as well as avoid congestion while en route. Pre-trip information is typically disseminated to the public via websites, media broadcasts, and mobile

communication devices (e.g., PDAs, pagers, and cell phones). En route traveler information has traditionally been channeled through commercial radio, DMS, and highway advisory radio (HAR). With the emergence of wireless communication, en route traveler information can also be distributed through wireless phones, web-enabled wireless phones, and a variety of other handheld devices. Regardless of how it is provided, effective traveler information must be timely, accurate, relevant and perceived to have value when followed.

Road weather information systems (RWISs) combine technologies that collect weather and road condition information. Weather data is reported from an environmental sensor station measuring atmospheric, surface (i.e., pavement and soil), and/or hydrologic (i.e., water level) conditions. Specific data collected by such sensors for provision to travelers include:

• Atmospheric Sensors: Air temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation type and rate, visibility distance.

• Surface Sensors: Pavement temperature and condition (i.e., dry, wet, ice, freeze point, chemical concentration), and subsurface temperature.

Dissemination of Traveler Information

From a traveler’s perspective, information dissemination is one of the most important functions of transportation operations and management. Research proves that travelers both want and use real-time information about traffic conditions on the highway, as well as information about alternative routes, adverse weather and driving conditions, construction and maintenance activities, and roadway control measures. With accurate information, travelers are better able to make mode, departure time, and route choice decisions. A number of options are currently available for disseminating information to travelers.

Telephone

Understanding the importance of consistency and simplicity in providing telephone-based traveler information, the USDOT petitioned the FCC to designate a nationwide three-digit telephone number for traveler information in 1999. On July 21, 2000, the FCC designated 511 as the national traveler information number (see Figure 5).


A number of issues must be addressed when implementing a 511 service. The following system considerations are taken from the 511 Deployment Coalition’s, “511 America’s Travel Information Number, Implementation Guidelines for Launching 511 Services”, version 1.1, June 2002:

System Access Quality: The ability of the telephone system to reliably and quickly answer calls.

Hours of System Operation: The days and hours that 511 service should be available to callers.

ADA Implementation: Complying with accessibility laws and regulations.

Standards: Ensuring usage of both 511 and national ITS standards.

Number Allocation and Service Coordination: Organizing and coordinating transportation agencies in a given region to determine what 511 services will be offered, by whom, and in what geographic areas.

Interregional Interoperability: How 511 services interconnect.

Internet

In the mid-1990s there were only a handful of Internet traffic and traveler information sites. By 2004 that number surged significantly. Hoping that broader dissemination of traveler information would help to ease congestion, public agencies also began sharing their data with private ISPs via the Internet.

Developing a traveler information website can be a time-consuming process, but it is very important to have an end product that is attractive, easy to navigate, and a good source of appropriate, accurate, and timely information. Traveler information websites must be usable by a range of people, and meet a number of Americans with Disabilities Act criteria.

As most websites are developed independently, each reflects the preferences of its designers. This results in a wide range of web-site characteristics among the large number of ATIS websites. Differences include:

• The appearance and use of each site (e.g., different icons and navigation controls).

• The emphasis of each site (e.g., such as generic traveler information, tourism, promotion of local facilities, safety, road, and weather information).

• The number and types of information resources used to create the data found on various parts of the website, as well as the data quality of this information.

Whatever data resources and site-design characteristics are selected by an agency pursuing the implementation of a smart highway initiative, the development process for a traveler information website should consider the following issues:

• Is the information of high quality (i.e., accurate, timely, reliable)?

• Does the website have a high degree of availability? That is, is it working more than 99 percent of the time on an annual basis?

• Is the website accessible through the most commonly used browsers, including not only the most recent versions, but also older versions still in general circulation?

• Is the website available 24-hours per day, seven days a week?

Figure 5. 511 Road Sign


• Does the website display data in an attractive, easy-to- understand format?

• Does the website permit users to receive information in a personalized format, focusing indicated areas of particular interest?

• Is the website capable of providing an automated information feed to public agencies and commercial ISPs with an interest in the data?

Dissemination of Traveler Information via Signage

DMS can advise motorists of travel conditions so they can take appropriate action to improve the efficiency and safety of their journey. For managed lane applications, the more-limited- capability variable speed limit signs, speed warning systems, and LCS can also convey lane use and lane status information to drivers.

Dissemination of Traveler Information via Highway Advisory Radio

Although not as widespread as DMS, HAR is currently used to reach highway travelers in their vehicles. Traditionally, information has been relayed through the AM radio. Upstream of the HAR signal, users are instructed to tune their vehicle radios to a specific frequency via roadside or overhead signs. HAR is an effective tool for providing timely traffic and travel condition information to the public. Its most important advantage is that it can reach more travelers, or potential travelers, than DMS. While DMS reaches only those motorists at a particular point, and can only convey a short message, HAR can communicate with anyone within broadcast range. Further, the amount of information that can be conveyed is much greater. Its primary disadvantages are its low-power restriction, which often leads to poor signal quality (since it is affected by many outside forces such as weather), and the fact that it requires the driver to take an action, i.e., turn on the radio or change the station, or both.

Concierge and Privately-Provided Value-Added Services

A number of private providers supply traveler information services on demand as a subscription service, the most well known being General Motors’ (GM’s) OnStar. OnStar provides a wide range of services to the driver including concierge service, telephone service, remote unlocking of the car, and notification of airbag deployment. OnStar currently uses third-party wireless analog networks, and is

moving to a digital technology, which will allow the service to be expanded to handheld devices as well. Other subscription and pay-as-you-go services are becoming available that provide enhanced traveler information, dynamic routing, and other roadway information to the driver. The following are examples of privately provided traveler information services:

Westwood One/SmartRoute Systems provides local traffic and weather information to wireless, Internet, and voice portal customers. Traffic reports include information on traffic incidents, road and lane closures, construction delays, scheduled roadwork, event delays, and estimated travel times. Owned by Westwood One, SmartRoute Systems has access to traffic incident data from Metro Networks (also owned by Westwood One). Metro Networks operates a traffic information gathering and reporting operation composed of more than 2,000 reporters, 65 fixed-wing aircraft, 35 helicopters, and thousands of traffic cameras, reporting through 65 operation centers located in every major city in the United States.

Mobility Technologies (MT) operates data collection networks gathering lane-by-lane data (primarily using RTMS sensors) on travel speeds, lane occupancy, and vehicle counts along major highways. This makes it possible to calculate average speeds and travel times for the roads being monitored. The data is then transmitted to MT’s local TMC for fusion/analysis. Each TMC collects real-time event, construction, and incident data to supplement MT’s sensor-based data. This additional data is procured via a wide variety of methods, including CCTVs, aircraft, floating vehicles, and the monitoring of emergency and maintenance services frequencies.

ITIS Holdings has developed a system for the collection and analysis of traffic information that combines information from public TMCs with historic and real-time floating vehicle data (collected by ITIS) to provide real-time information and journey-time forecasts. ITIS delivers this content over a variety of delivery platforms, including Internet, digital radio, and telephone services.

Situational Awareness

Performance Management

Performance metrics can track changes in system performance over time, identify systems or corridors with poor performance, identify potential causes and


associated remedies, identify specific areas of a freeway management program or system that requires improvement, and provide information to decision- makers and the public.

Highway engineers measure roadway performance in travel time reliability and LOS. Another area bearing consideration for evaluation is the agency’s effectiveness in responding to and clearing incidents. Some incident response statistics that can be used to evaluate an agency’s incident responsiveness include:

• Time to detect

• Time to notify

• Time to clear

• Time until resultant congestion clears

Performance monitoring of the transportation network can be used as an important tool for determining the extent to which LOS agreements are being met, particularly along stretches of road designated as work zones. To this end, agencies should seek to develop guidelines that address traffic performance related to work zone management,

including the number of lanes to remain open, maximum traveler delay, and maximum/minimum speed to be maintained.

The development and distribution of such guidelines would provide agency staff/contractors with specific measures to plan and manage work zone performance. Moreover, it is anticipated that development of service level agreements (SLAs) establishing acceptable levels of performance for work zone operations and imposing disincentives for failure to maintain adequate levels of roadway performance, should have the effect of maximizing the availability of roadways during periods of construction and maintenance, while simultaneously minimizing impacts on drivers and highway workers.

Traffic Management

TMCs are the facilities through which highway agencies conduct the management and coordination of transportation resources (see Figure 6). They serve as the core of the transportation management system, where information about the transportation network (e.g., highway system) is collected, processed, and integrated

Figure 6. TMC for Vespucio Norte Express in Santiago, Chile


with other operational data and video to produce decision-quality information. TMC operators use this information to monitor the operation of the transportation network, subsequently initiating strategies to bring about improvements in network operation. Within the context of a smart highway, TMCs serve as the point of data collection and system control for elements of ITS systems, including roadway sensors, CCTVs, lane control systems, and VMS, enabling decision-makers to more effectively identify and react to all types of incidents in real time.

TMCs can help to reduce congestion and enhance roadway safety through:

• Faster incident response and reduction in incident (primarily secondary incident) rates.

• Reduction in nonrecurrent congestion.

• Enhanced communication in all aspects of transportation management (planning, design, implementation, operation, and maintenance).

• Monetary savings by sharing responsibilities between fewer staff, achieved by co-location of participating agencies at the TMC.

• Development of a more consistent, unified response to a situation, for better management of transportation resources.

Asset Management

Many public agencies have found that an asset management program helps maximize the benefits of their infrastructure maintenance program. This is especially true in that the bond rating of user-financed highways in the United States can be profoundly affected by the manner in which existing capital investments are maintained, and how their condition/performance is monitored over time.

At its most basic level, asset management can be defined as “a systematic process of maintaining, upgrading and operating physical assets cost-effectively.” (Asset Management Primer, FHWA). Although asset management is considered by many to be simply a business approach (and related software package) for monitoring/maintaining physical infrastructure, to be successful it must also be able to incorporate data from a variety of contrasting business processes, organizational structures, and information systems such as the maintenance management system (MMS). As a result, the

types of assets managed by such a system should include physical infrastructure such as pavements, bridges, and airports; human resources (personnel and knowledge); equipment and materials; and other items of value such as financial capabilities, right-of-way, computer systems, methods, technologies, and partners.

Asset management programs provide a range of benefits, including:

• More appropriately allocating available funds across the maintenance program.

• Maximizing the level of service/performance.

• Assisting agency staff in better assessing/prioritizing agency needs.

Most modern asset management systems are built around a database (Oracle, Sybase, etc.) that arms the user with a great deal of potential functionality, from a simple inventory of agency assets, to a wider system incorporating everything from safety inspection data to land management functionality. As a result, most asset management software is highly tailored to address each organization’s particular needs. One key component of most new asset management systems is a geographic information system (GIS) interface that allows for a geographic means for accessing system data (e.g., the production of maps and plans reflecting relevant agency data contained in the system’s database).

Pavement Management

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has published the following definition for pavement management systems: “A pavement management system is a tool or set of tools that assist decision makers in finding optimum strategies for providing, evaluating, and maintaining pavements in a serviceable condition over a period of time.”

In the broadest sense, pavement management covers all phases of pavement planning, programming, analysis, design, construction, and research. As implemented by most agencies, pavement management systems primarily address maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Maintenance addressed in pavement management is primarily programmed or planned preventative in nature. While pavement management systems do not typically attempt to predict where infrastructure will fail, information is collected concerning deferred maintenance or rehabilitation.


On the traffic network-oriented level, pavement management systems are generally concerned with:

1. Identifying pavement maintenance, reconstruction, and rehabilitation needs (based on the inventory of pavement the agency is responsible for managing).

2. Determining funds needed to meet those needs.

3. Selecting feasible funding options to address those needs.

4. Determining the impact of these options on the overall health of the pavement system.

5. Recommending a funding option and funding strategy.

(Pavement Management Guide 2001, AASHTO Task Force on Pavements)

Some benefits of a pavement management system include:

1. Increased accessibility to information about the road network.

2. Increasingly accurate data about the road network.

3. Ability to track the performance of maintenance conducted on select assets.

4. Selection of more effective maintenance strategies.

5. Ability to demonstrate the impact of funding-related decisions.

6. Enhanced ability to conduct needs analyses.

7. Increased ability to communicate with management, elected officials, and other organizations working with pavement.

Road/Pavement Conditions

Traditionally, DOTs have collected asset-inventory and condition information using one of a number of linear referencing methods (e.g., route name and milepost, reference point/offset, or link/node location referencing). However, with improvements in GPS technology, DOTs have begun to complement their linear references by collecting GPS-oriented data points. This change is rapidly facilitating the development of reliable baseline reference maps to locate pavement sections and inventory roadside features.

Advances in technology are rapidly resulting in embedded roadway sensors that are low cost, need very little energy, and will lead to smart road surfaces in the near future that won’t cost much more than today’s roads. Here are some examples of what these sensors can detect:

• Traction is very difficult to measure since it depends on many of a vehicle’s parameters such as suspension set-up, type of tires in use, and the weight distribution of the vehicle. In gross terms, sensors can detect when the road surface is icy, snow-covered, mud-covered, wet, or dry. Computer programs can extrapolate road sensor data to estimate the adhesion capability of the road surface and advise drivers accordingly. If this data were broadcast through DSRC to the vehicle and the vehicle had a software program that knew what type of tires the vehicle was using, the state of the suspension and load distribution, the relative wind direction and force of the wind, it could calculate in real time the instantaneous road surface adhesion factor and alert the driver when it approached low values.

• Rutting occurs when vehicles riding over the same spot on a thin surface dig grooves into the roadway; since traffic tends to fall into those “tracks,” the condition is continually exacerbated. Sensors that can detect how even the surface of the roadway is across the lane will indicate when grooves are becoming pronounced and the road needs repair. Under certain lighting conditions, a CCTV camera with specialized software can also detect rutting. A laser light projector mounted a few feet above the road surface can also detect how level the road is across the lane.

• Pavement life is very much like a vehicle’s tire life. As the road wears down the tire rubber, so does the tire wear down the road surface. Embedded sensors or indicators every few miles can be used to alert the highway maintenance engineers that the road surface will need repair or replacement.

• Drainage systems must function properly or highway safety can be adversely affected. Embedded sensors that can measure water levels and communicate to the highway operator on a continuous basis will be the key to preventing accidents due to improper drainage.


Data Fusion and Management

ITS information based on a single type of data is severely limited in usefulness. Only through access to, and integration of, multiple data sources can we optimize the accuracy and reliability of the overall picture presented by an ITS application.

Data fusion is an activity requiring the collection of all available data from a variety of resources including, but not limited to, incident/event data, traffic sensor data, and traveler-provided data, and integrates this data into a standardized database. Data fusion systems generally have the capacity to collect and combine both dynamic and static data through automated, semi-automated, and manual means of collection/fusion.

Broadly stated, the purpose of data fusion is to combine a variety of data types to estimate or predict the state of some aspect of the surface transportation network, including current/future vehicle speeds, vehicular classifications and volumes, environmental information, and transit system information. The ability to efficiently conduct such an operation is vital to the success of any smart highways program.

Warehousing of Data

ITS technologies generate tremendous amounts of data that are used primarily in real time to effect changes in operational strategy. A data warehouse provides a record of a given enterprise’s past operational activities stored in some form of a database. Data warehouses are typically designed to permit various types of analysis and reporting on past activities to gain insight into what has occurred and to facilitate decision making. Such systems provide TMC and other agency staff with the ability to monitor system performance over time for the purpose of making both operational and longer-term planning decisions concerning how the network will be managed and the manner in which capital funds will be spent. As a result, data warehouses serve as a primary tool for supporting network performance monitoring; without such a system, there would be no data for analysis and review.

Interagency Agreements for Data Sharing

Interagency sharing of information concerning the transportation network is key to enhancing smart highway operations, as well as obtaining fast and efficient responses to incidents and other events that may impact roadway LOS. For example, public safety-oriented

agencies benefit from sharing CCTV pictures for verifying and assessing incidents. Transportation agencies (via their TMCs) can also benefit from such interagency data-sharing when developing a regional picture of the transportation network that encompasses multiple agency jurisdictions. The development of such a comprehensive picture can only serve to provide both the agencies responsible for these roads, as well as drivers traversing the network, with a better understanding of conditions on a more regional level, thereby enhancing the ability of multiple agencies to coordinate operations.

Such agreements typically describe the data to be shared, the purposes for which the data can be used (including outright restrictions on data usage), term for which the data sharing agreement shall remain in effect, and an indemnification clause to protect the parties entering into the venture.

Remote Weather Information Stations and Vehicles as Weather Probes

RWISs are in common use along major limited access roadways. Currently they send their information periodically or upon demand to a TMC, where the information is used by operators for advanced traffic management system (ATMS) or ATIS purposes.

With the advent of smart vehicles, vehicles will also act as probes, receiving and transmitting information (e.g., weather conditions) to one another as well as the roadside data collection system.

Decision-Support Systems

First introduced in the 1970s, decision-support systems (DSS) are a type of interactive computerized information system that aids complex decision-making activities. DSS are interactive in that they allow users to choose between numerous options and configurations for the purpose of receiving a customized output that is tailored to their specific needs. In a more precise way, DSS is defined as “an interactive, flexible, and adaptable computer-based information system, especially developed for supporting the solution of a non-structured management problem for improved decision making. It utilizes data, provides an easy-to-use interface, and allows for the decision maker’s own insights.” DSSs are generally composed of the database management system (DBMS), the modeling system and analytical tools, and the user interface.


As part of the implementation of smart highway systems, agencies need to increase their focus on the collection, analysis, and usage of information as part of DSS. This includes the development of processes for ensuring that key decision makers are provided with the information needed to support various types of management decisions related to planning, operations, and system maintenance.

If implemented correctly, DSS should serve to improve the availability of decision-quality information and provide tools to help agencies make better operational choices. Using DSS, agencies will be able to operate and maintain the highway system better and with greater efficiency under all types of conditions.

Use of DSS Tools to Provide Improved Safety

Understanding and using IT to the greatest advantage is a critical challenge to traffic safety programs nationwide.” To this end, AASHTO has developed a set of safety-related strategies encompassing DSS whose purpose is to improve highway safety. These strategies include:

Strategy 21A: Improve the quality of safety data by establishing programs for quality assurance, incentives, and accountability within agencies responsible for collecting and managing safety data.

Strategy 21B: Provide managers and users of highway safety information with the resources needed to make the most effective use of the data.

Strategy 21C: Establish a means for coordinated collection, management, and use of safety information among organizations at all jurisdictional levels.

Strategy 21D: Establish a group of highway safety professionals trained in the analytic methods appropriate for evaluating highway safety information.

Strategy 21E: Establish and promote technical standards for highway safety information systems’ characteristics that are critical to operating effective safety management systems programs.

Use of DSS Tools to Provide Improved Roadway Weather Decision Support

Adverse weather conditions dramatically affect the nation’s surface transportation system. During bad weather 6,600 people die; 470,000 people are injured; and 544 million hours of time are lost annually. (Source: FHWA)

The development of a series of RWISs, collectively referred to as the maintenance decision support system (MDSS) for winter road maintenance decision-makers, is part of a program designed to provide highway maintenance managers with improved information about weather, road conditions, and resources so that they can respond more proactively to changing weather conditions.

The MDSS was designed with the needs of state DOTs in mind and allows maintenance managers to:

• View predicted weather conditions throughout the state.

• Become aware of the potential for deteriorating road conditions before they occur.

• Predict impacts of weather on road conditions.

• Plan treatment scenarios based on available resources including the use of chemicals and plowing of roads.

• Receive treatment recommendations based on proven rules of practice.

Moving Toward Smart Highways

The percipience of Thomas Edison is realized not only in his experiments with electricity and the perfection of the light bulb. His real genius lay in his ability to envision an infrastructure that connected homes with light bulbs to a power-generating plant, build the infrastructure with private funding, and then sell the light bulbs that depended on that infrastructure.

A smart highway can begin to approach this genius if roadside infrastructure is designed such that it can be used intuitively by drivers and it can also facilitate communication to and from vehicles.

Design

When designing a smart highway with technologies in mind, critical points of failure – those points where, if the interface or component fails, the system will no longer operate - must be identified. Availability is a key requirement for the design of the system. The design must consider reliability requirements, availability requirements, and serviceability requirements. System availability and performance play a key role in achieving customer satisfaction.


Availability can be defined as whether (or how often) a system is available for use by its intended users when they need it. Availability is the ratio between the time during which the system is operational and the total elapsed time. For example, if a system is operated from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday only, the overall system availability requirement is 36 percent (60 hours out of the168 hours) but it is 100 percent during 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. A designer could pick technologies whose downtime can be controlled to some extent to occur during the nonoperating hours. An example would be database maintenance that takes the database off-line to archive data between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. each Friday.

When a smart highway system is designed, technology replacement also must be taken into account. This is sometimes called planned product improvement (PPI). Computer modularity is a good example of PPI. When a smart highway application is designed, modularity that is linked to functionality must drive the design and the interfaces between modules must be nonproprietary.

At some point in the design of the system a “design freeze” must be declared and technology upgrades will no longer be considered until after the system is implemented and deployed. Up until the design freeze milestone, technology upgrades can be included in the design to the extent the interfaces can support them. If implementing an upgraded technology requires major interface changes to the system design, then it is too costly in both time and money to include the new technology.

Procurement

When a functional specification of the system has been finalized, a contractor is typically hired to implement the functional specification. Each functional requirement must be translated to a physical requirement through a detailed design process. Typically this is where technology gets specified and at some point the design of the system is frozen. The following issues are addressed at the detailed design level:

Standards: What standards should govern the technology selected? Should a proposed standard be adopted or should only published standards be required? Should a standard be modified to meet the special needs of the project and, if so, how much change is allowed? Selecting the right standards is difficult and involves risk if new technology is being adopted.

Project Definition: The procurement process must be based on a strong foundation of functional system requirements and work scope requirements. The two should not be mixed in one document. The functional system specification may include or be accompanied by a concept of operations document that spells out the vision for the particular project. The functional specification should clearly state what the system has to do. If there are parts of the system that are carried over from previous projects or legacy systems, then the interfaces to those legacy systems must be specified in detail usually by providing a copy of the interface control document for each interface to the systems.

Procurement Packaging: The basic procurement package contains a system functional specification, a statement of work, and a list of contract terms and conditions. This is all that is needed to procure the services of a system integrator who will finish the design and produce the build-to specifications. The system integrator may even contract to procure the physical system and then integrate it to meet the system functional specifications.

Risk Management: At every step of the implementation process, risk should be considered. There is technical risk, schedule risk, and budget risk and they are often highly dependent on each other. When a new technology is being considered, it may be associated with high risk. To mitigate the risk, the implementer can consider an alternative implementation using a lower risk technology until the new technology can be proven to work well enough. This adds cost to the project but effectively mitigates the risk that the new technology may not meet the project’s needs.

Future-Proofing

The challenge to a good system designer is to specify the system with as few interfaces as possible so entire functional pieces of the system can be replaced. This is called a modular design and supports easy upgrades to the technology. Future-proofing a design to ensure that it is not obsolete when it is fielded considers the system lifecycle, and the ROI provided by the technology in the system.

ROI: ROI is always the driving force in choosing technology. If a technology is selected without published standards to govern it, then the prudent contractor needs to spend extra money to develop a lower risk design in


parallel. At some point the cost of the extra design and implementation far outweigh the benefits of the new technology over the life of the system.

Lifecycle Planning: When procuring a system, the service life of the system must be determined. Usually in practice the service life gets extended, but the primary reason there is a service life is that at some point it will not be cost effective to upgrade the technology and it will ultimately be cheaper to design a new system. Often the needs change and make the system obsolete before the technology does. A good designer will consider how long the system should last and plan for an upward growth path to a point.

Transitioning

Typically, an existing system is ready to be replaced by a new system, but the old system continues to generate revenue and can’t be shut down. Sometimes the system is spread out over a large geographic area (e.g., Florida’s Turnpike system), and changeover will have to be done incrementally. There are three common ways to implement a new technology system concurrent with the operation of the old system.

Staged Deployment: The data interfaces between the old and the new are compatible and interoperable, so sections of the old system can be replaced while other parts continue to operate normally. This is often a good way to reduce deployment risk by opening a small part of the new system in a remote location where failure and downtime will have little or no effect on mainline operations. The bugs in the new system can be worked out before it is introduced systemwide.

Parallel Operation of Systems: Where there is one location for the system such as a TMC, both systems may run in parallel and share data. The new system is isolated from the command and control of the old system until it has been proven to be reliable. A typical progression is for the new system to operate with mirrored data from the old system with the command and control functions turned on during the hours of the day where there is a low volume of traffic or revenue with the ability to switch back to the old system at a moment’s notice.

Migration Paths: In some cases, a system cannot be replaced all at once, or even in pieces. Functions of the old system that have well-defined interfaces can be upgraded with new technology in a piecemeal

fashion, until eventually the old system has become the new system. This orderly replacement of functional components of the old system is spelled out in detail in a migration plan for the technology. Typically, a functional path (sometimes called a thread) through the system is considered for upgrade and there are usually many functional paths through the system to plan for upgrades.

Interoperability

Technology interoperability requires that standards be specified and adhered to. Interoperability can exist at the device level where different manufacturers can supply the functional equivalent using standard interfaces. At the enterprise level, large parts of the system operate with other systems, an example of which is the ability to use toll transponders issued by toll authorities throughout the state of Florida on Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise’s ETC lanes.

System Architectures

The following issues should be considered when choosing the system architecture:

Coordinated Operations: Does the system have to operate in sync with other systems? Does a common time standard need to be used across all systems that are operating together? Does the user interface need to have the same look and feel across all systems?

Interface Definition: A good design rule is to minimize the number and complexity of the interfaces both internal and external to the system. When considering what architecture to use, external interface requirements must be considered to the extent they are known. User-machine interface is a critical design issue that should be solved early through the use of mock-ups and meetings with operators. Often the user interface will drive the operational design of the system.

Component Performance Balancing: When the pieces of the system are designed and specified, somebody has to maintain the system’s perspective to keep costs and schedule on track. It makes no sense to specify a device that can measure time to nearest 100th of a second if the rest of the system can only use data to the nearest tenth of a second. This process is called component performance balancing or leveling.


Designing in the Smarts

A smart system will have the ability to monitor itself and correct itself to provide the level of service that is demanded of it.

Use of Technology for Planning and Design

When designing a smart highway or any other smart system, the design must account for the ability of machines to communicate data and act intelligently and reliably on that data. Parts of the system that involve human welfare require highly redundant fail-safe systems and often require a human to watch over it. Modeling and simulation are good ways to evaluate the effectiveness of technology and how the system that uses it will operate.

Integration of Technology into Highway Design and Operation

In most cases, technology will need to be retrofitted to a highway system with significant sunken investment. If there are opportunities for new construction, technology can be considered in the design and implementation. Use of strain gauges to measure stress on the road is an example of implementing a key sensor up front. This is particularly important for roads with a lot of heavy-vehicle traffic. A list of the highway operator’s critical safety-related issues needs to be developed and prioritized in terms of lives, cost, and travel convenience. Managers and engineers can then develop solutions that minimize the impact to the existing system.

Early Winners

Early winners should be identified and implemented first, possibly as small pilot projects that can provide valuable lessons from the deployment. Often vendors with bleeding-edge technologies will donate their goods and services for the opportunity to be associated with a public project. In return, a highway operator can grant a certain amount of latitude for the vendors to advertise their products as having been deployed on the roadway.

Blending High and Low Technology

In general, low-tech solutions should be leveraged when possible to solve a system problem. A cost-benefit analysis should be performed before using a high-tech solution and a risk-mitigation plan should be drafted. Component balancing must be done when combining high- and low-tech components along with what the overall system throughput needs are. In some cases,

a higher-tech solution is warranted if the growth plan dictates a need for higher performance later in the system’s life cycle. Again, the secret to blending high and low technology effectively in a smart highway is to pay close attention to the interfaces and make sure they are compatible and operable. Finally, consideration of the availability of spare parts for the high-tech components is essential. It makes no sense to deploy a high-tech solution if you can’t buy spare parts for it or buy them at affordable prices.

Maintenance

Technology consists of hardware and software and various flavors of middleware. All will eventually wear out and break down. Even software will break down and fail, eventually. When applying a technological solution to a system implementation, the ability to monitor how well the equipment is operating and to predict failures in sufficient time is absolutely essential to conducting preventative maintenance. When unexpected failures occur in critical parts of the system, the system must be able to heal itself quickly using redundant components that are hot standbys. For less critical failures, the breakdown must be isolated to as few replaceable units as possible, and there must be spare units on site for field replacement. The spares-and-repairs philosophy must be specified early in the development of the system employing smart highway technology, since this has a big impact on the cost of maintaining the system.

References

1. “An Examination of Fault, Unsafe Driving Acts, and Total Harm in Car – Truck Collisions.” HSIS Summary Report 7 June 2004. 14 January 2005. <http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/hsis/pubs/04085/index.htm#Top>

2. “GIS & Databases: Powerful Asset Management Tools.” Software for Road Infrastructure. December 2004, pp 15-20.

3. Hamm, Steve. “Intelligent Conversation with Your Car.” BusinessWeek Online 1 September 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2004/tc2004091_2857_tc024.htm>

4. “Maintenance Decision Support System.” Federal Highway Administration. 26 January 2005 <http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/JPODOCS/BROCHURE/13695.html>


5. Merritt, Rick. “Industry Link for Connected Cars?” EE Times 10 January 2005. 7 February 2005 <http://Eetimes.com/article/showarticle.jhtml?articleId=57300380>

6. Orion Information Services. “Motorists Can Get Real-Time Local Traffic Updates Using Simple Text Messaging, Anywhere, Anytime.” SymbianOne 27 October 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.Symbianone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1032>

7. Pisano, Paul. “Maintenance Decision Support System, MDSS.” FHWA 6 October 2002. 22 July 2005 <http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov//JPODOCS/BROCHURE/13695.html>

8. Plungis, Jeff. “Tech, Intellect Will Drive Michigan’s Auto Future.” The Detroit News Autos Insider 13 January 2005. 14 January 2005 <http://www.detnews.com/2005/autoinsider/0501/13/B01-58875.htm>

9. Power, D.J. “A Brief History of Decision Support Systems.” DSS Resources 31 May 2003. 23 March 2004. <http://dssresources.com/history/dsshistory.html>

10. Task Force on Pavements, AASHTO. Pavement Management Guide. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials: United States of America, November 2001.

11. “Tomorrow’s Safer Cars.” BusinessWeek Online 14 September 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.Businessweek.com/technology/tc_special/tc_04cars.html>

12. Underwood, Steve. Preliminary draft of material prepared for the Michigan Department of Transportation by the Center for Automotive Research. Ann Arbor, MI; 2005.


Chapter 2Needs and Issues

This chapter addresses the needs and issues facing the key constituents that use and/or provide smart highway services. These constituents include infrastructure owner-operators, the telecommunications industry, drivers and passengers, the automobile industry, local commerce/CVO, and the general public.

While the level of importance varies from constituent to constituent, the overall high-level needs relate to saving lives, time, and money. This chapter will address the shared concerns of these key constituents as well as some of the needs and issues that are constituent specific.

Commonalities

This section addresses needs and issues that are generally not exclusive to any single constituent.

Saving Lives

Road safety is a worldwide health concern. On April 14, 2004, for the first time the United Nations General Assembly discussed and adopted a resolution on improving global road safety, cosponsored by more than 50 countries.

On May 21, 2004, the 57th World Health Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on road safety and health that seeks to address the lack of safety on the

world’s roads, responsible for 1.2 million deaths and as many as 50 million injuries and disabilities annually. As a subset of these global numbers, the United States has approximately 42,000 deaths and 6.3. million crashes annually. Forty-two Member States, as well as international organizations, stressed the importance of the public health aspects of the lack of road safety and the need of active participation of the public health sector as part of a multi-sector response. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests the problem of inadequate road safety will continue to get worse, as depicted in Table 1.

Now a consortium of government and industry leaders have developed a “Zero Vision” for both crashes and fatalities. The objective of Zero Vision is not necessarily to eliminate highway deaths, but rather to create a culture of safety that sets a road map and a timetable to work toward that end.

Traditionally, intersection collisions have been minimized through geometric and signal-timing changes. Now the opportunity exists for owner-operators to work collaboratively with the auto industry to reach the Zero Vision goal in less time and with less cost.

1998 Disease or Injury 2020 Disease or Injury

1. Lower respiratory infections 1. Ischaemic heart disease

2. HIV/AIDS 2. Unipolar major depression

3. Perinatal conditions 3. Road traffic injuries

4. Diarrhoeal diseases 4. Cerebrovascular disease

5. Unipolar major depression 5. Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

6. Ischaemic heart disease 6. Lower respiratory infections

7. Cerebrosvascular disease 7. Tuberculosis

8. Malaria 8. War

9. Road traffic injuries 9. Diarrhoeal diseases

10. Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

10. HIV/AIDS

Table 1. Disease Burden (DALYs* lost) for 10 Leading Causes

*DALYs: Disability-Adjusted Life Years


Work zone safety is another area that affects drivers, passengers, and infrastructure owner-operators. State DOTs are increasingly challenged to meet growing traffic volumes, on road infrastructure that is often 30 to 40 years old, by conducting iterative repairs and upgrades. The most recent data available from the FHWA (year 2003) reveals that 1,028 people were killed in work zone crashes and 41,239 people were injured. It is estimated that four of five people killed in construction zones are occupants of a vehicle.

Numerous public outreach attempts and doubling of fines for speeding in work zones have been implemented to try and address the problem. Interaction between the vehicle and highway infrastructure/TMCs could be an additional tool in warning drivers of impending work zone activity.

Homeland Security

A variety of federal, state, and local constituencies are interested in the ability of smart highways to facilitate evacuations as well as to monitor the operations of bridges, tunnels, and high-traffic roadways from a security standpoint. The use of cameras and other technologies to monitor bridge structures or overpasses must be considered to protect this valuable infrastructure. The use of cameras and license plate recognition in conjunction with information databases can be deployed to monitor vehicles of interest and can potentially be used as a law enforcement tool.

Travel-Time Reliability

Travel-time reliability is one of the most important needs for all key constituents, especially for the commercial vehicle community and commuters. Predictable travel times draw drivers to a facility. The ability to reduce or eliminate unexpected delays is a major challenge for owner-operators.

It is estimated that every minute of delay costs $4 for a CVO. The growth of just-in-time (JIT) delivery has narrowed the delivery window, as inventory logistics has moved from a “push” to a “pull” system, where product deliveries react to present demand. The importance of travel time reliability is increasing for the success of corporate supply-management systems. Commercial fleets are more than willing to pay for the use of facilities that provide minimal delays and allow them to reach their final destination in the shortest time possible.

According to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute, the average annual delay (per average person in peak periods) increased almost three times in a ten-year period from 1982 to 2002. This large increment, from 16 hours of delay to 46 hours, can be attributed not only to the increase of vehicles but also to nonrecurring congestion occurrences such as breakdowns, crashes, work zones, weather, and poor traffic signal timing. The study was conducted in 85 metropolitan areas and concluded that about 50 percent of all delays are caused by nonrecurring congestion instances. The need to manage these situations appropriately and effectively must be addressed by the designers of the smart highway.

The results of an ABC News/Time Magazine/Washington Post poll of 1204 adults bears out that drivers recognize the problem of nonrecurring breakdowns. Drivers were polled regarding what they view as “Very Effective” traffic remedies. The results are summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Effective Traffic Remedies Survey

Remedy Percent Agreeing

Clear Breakdowns 66

Traffic Alerts 56

Improve Signal Timing 55

New Roads 51

Public Transit 42

Car Pooling 39

HOV Lanes 27

Adjustable Tolls 7

City-center Tolls 7

(Source: Inside ITS, March 15, 2005)

For a commuter, reliable information on travel time is a must. Current systems, such as websites displaying travel time or phone numbers to obtain traffic conditions information are reliable, but they do not generally provide alternate routes such that drivers can make informed decisions in real time.


Saving Money

Micro Level

The need to provide financial incentives to highway users and operators must be taken into consideration when designing a smart highway. Customers want their travel and safety needs properly addressed, but it is a financial benefit that usually resonates in terms of affecting behavior. A preferred toll rate or savings offered by auto insurance companies for smart vehicles are examples of potential financial benefits.

Infrastructure operators must reduce their operational costs as part of the impetus for implementing smart highways. An area where cost reduction could be achieved is in incident detection and clearing. An operator’s ability to detect and clear an incident in the least amount of time will potentially reduce operating costs.

Macro Level

The appropriate incentives are needed on a micro level to effect individual behavior. The need for appropriate incentives and strategies to change attitudes and behaviors toward smarter roadways and roadway safety (among all smart highways constituents) on a more global level is evident when the macro-economic impact of road crashes is taken into account. The drain on national economies is typically between 1 and 3 percent of gross national product per annum. Globally, estimates suggest that the economic costs of inadequate road safety amounts to $518 billion per annum. This includes direct medical costs, as well as indirect longer-term costs. The fact that economically active age groups are the most vulnerable to roadway injuries exacerbates the problem.

Improved Quality of Life

As mentioned earlier, reducing delay and providing travel time reliability is a major contributor to quality of life. As vehicle miles traveled continue to outstrip the pace of infrastructure expansion, it appears inevitable that travel times will continue to increase. Without a major shift in travel demand management (telecommuting, carpooling, modal shift, and value pricing) the quality of life will deteriorate. As we spend more and more time working and traveling we have less time to spend with our families and friends.

Given that travel times may not be reduced any time soon, knowing how long it will take to pick up a child from school or meet a spouse for lunch is important. The ability to accurately predict travel time is becoming more and more critical.

Cutting-Edge Technology vs. Reliability

Technology offers the capability to gather and process immense volumes of data and to rapidly deliver information to owner-operators and users, but motorists must have trust and confidence in the technology systems that are deployed. The technology must provide decision-quality information in terms of reliability, timeliness, and relevance or else its credibility will be undermined, and the technology will be underutilized. There is a need to convey to motorists that technology implemented on a smart highway will be accurate and reliable.

Constituent Perspectives

Infrastructure Owner-Operator

Infrastructure owner-operators include the public and private sector organizations responsible for providing, maintaining, and/or operating highway infrastructure. These include DOTs, toll authorities, and private operators. Infrastructure owner-operators recognize the need to manage existing transportation infrastructure more safely and efficiently to save lives and time, and reduce operating costs.

The need to increase mobility and travel time reliability is the primary goal of all owner-operators. Increased mobility reduces delay for all facility users and allows for the increased capacity of a facility at all hours. It is estimated that travelers in the nation’s largest 85 metropolitan areas spend 46 hours each year in peak period congestion, costing more than $63 billion. Increased mobility has a positive impact on economic vitality, and is a selling point for local municipalities trying to attract new businesses. Additionally, increased mobility can produce higher revenues for owner-operators and draw additional ridership as other facilities become more and more congested.

Users need to make informed decisions when traveling, thus information provided in real time must be accurate and relevant. Infrastructure owner-operators must ensure that this need is fulfilled, so that users with the appropriate


tools can then decide whether to get on a specific road, choose a different mode of transportation, select a different route and/or different time of travel.

Quality of Information/Data Management

A smart highway must deliver information that is timely, accurate, useful, secure, customized where desired, available, and synchronized. Information systems that can deliver dynamic content (pre-trip as well as in route) are preferred. Owner-operators must evaluate how business processes are conducted to ensure the most efficient management of data throughout the enterprise. Presenting data that is decision quality to the driver or to traffic management personnel is the goal.

Better Violation Control

The need to control the intended, authorized, or legal use of a facility is of primary importance. Weigh-in-motion technology protects the infrastructure from undue wear and tear caused by oversized/overweight vehicles, and radar or speed enforcement cameras reduce speeds with resulting beneficial impacts on traffic flow and overall system reliability.

Security cameras and cameras that feature optical character recognition protect against revenue loss due to violation (e.g., toll violation) or theft.

Violations for red light running and excessive speed are primarily the purview of the local or state police agencies. Given the demands on law enforcement resources, the use of technology to enact automatic enforcement is being more widely considered. This is an area in which the technology is less of an issue than privacy and legal issues associated with using it in this way. A smart highway can include enhanced violation control, but this service (more than most) highlights the need for a public education program that explains the benefits and safeguards associated with automatic enforcement. There is a trade-off for customers: Are they prepared to accept automatic enforcement in exchange for a higher level of safety?

Driver and Passenger Perspective

Safety

While infrastructure owner-operators generally address safety through enhanced geometrical design, operations management (incident management, speed enforcement, and signal control), and infrastructure maintenance,

responsible drivers may approach highway safety in terms of avoiding, or at least mitigating, the impact of crashes by considering a more precise indication of:

• Driving conditions such as surface conditions and visibility.

• Driver distractions including cell phone use.

• Driver impairment such as tiredness and driving under the influence.

• Vehicle fitness for purpose including roadworthiness and loading characteristics.

• Safety-related vehicle features such as braking systems, airbags, and the OnStar system.

• Enhanced driving controls including adaptive cruise control (ACC) and collision avoidance systems.

When it comes to purchasing or leasing a vehicle, drivers inevitably balance safety features against nonsafety vehicle features as well as cost. While safety features may cost more, they can also lead to reductions in the cost of vehicle insurance. Continuous driver education is also a key to improved safety. It is mutually beneficial for insurance companies and highway operators to play a role in encouraging continuous driver education.

Safety features are particularly important as the population ages. “Vision declines with age. Starting at age 20, the amount of light needed by drivers to see doubles every 13 years. By the year 2020, more than 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years of age or older. Older drivers have declining vision and slower reaction times, so they need enhanced nighttime visibility to maintain their independence and mobility.”

According to a Higher Highway Safety Standards survey released in March of 2005, 99 percent of drivers felt that bright and easy to see road markings are important to driver safety, and 94 percent felt that this should be a priority for state and local governments. By widening road lines, particularly in areas where a high degree of roadway delineation is required, drivers have an improved visibility which increases safety conditions, and ultimately leads to a reduction in the number of accidents. Studies in New Jersey, Florida, and Montana noted crash reductions where wider lines were implemented. This illustrates the point that low-tech solutions can be as much a part of a smart highway as high-tech solutions.


Privacy

The need to secure and protect a customer’s privacy must be addressed in smart highway services and operations. Operators must have the capabilities and resources to ensure that customers’ personal information is kept confidential, and they must be prepared for scrutiny by privacy groups to demonstrate that customers’ privacy is protected accordingly.

Operators must be able to assure potential smart highway users that their information will not be released or used by any governmental agency, but rather that their information is to be used only for monitoring traffic and providing services. In addition, customers must perceive that their information will not be misused.

In cases where a transportation agency will find benefit in using personal information there must be a trade-off that the customer will accept in exchange for sharing personal information. Washington Area Metro Transit, for example, offers balance protection (reimbursement of the customer’s card balance in case of loss of theft) in exchange for the customer becoming a registered cardholder, as opposed to being anonymous. The customer is willing to forego some privacy in exchange for a benefit.

An effective outreach program will be required to educate customers with regards to privacy and information utilization.

Ease of Use

A smart highway should be sufficiently intuitive so that people from all backgrounds can use it, particularly for essential services such as safety. The use of more advanced applications will be at the discretion of the individual driver, but they should also be ergonomically well designed. Smart highway features should be presented in a “plug and play” environment that allows users a common interface for a variety of functions.

Convenience

Convenience cannot be looked at from a single perspective; that is, different drivers appreciate convenience in different ways. A frequent business traveler has different needs from the casual traveler or tourist. Each must be treated differently, and services should to be developed that are customized according to each group’s needs. Supply and demand will determine which applications are economically viable.

Private-Sector Perspective

Local Commerce and Commerce Vehicle Operators

The driving motivations, or needs, for local commerce and CVO include increasing safety, decreasing delivery times, traveling with predictable trip times, decreasing expenses due to fuel purchases, decreasing or at least stabilizing insurance costs, reducing driver turnover, and training. Improving visibility with respect to location of the fleet and the location of hazardous zones and incidents are also key objectives. Many of these objectives can be met with existing and emerging technologies.

A key to successful smart highway operations is for commercial vehicles to interact more safely and efficiently with noncommercial traffic and roadside infrastructure. Commercial vehicle traffic is expected to increase on the U.S. highway system. According to a study by AASHTO, domestic freight tonnage will increase by approximately 60 percent in the next 15 years, not including import-export tonnage. Currently, the highway system handles close to 80 percent of the domestic tonnage and a reduction in tonnage hauled by trucks is not likely in the foreseeable future. The problem of truck/passenger car segmentation should be considered on some corridors. Where safety and critical path time issues are at the front, the possibility of segmenting traffic makes operational sense, even though there are significant infrastructure hurdles.

The issue of a large number of trucks on the highway system cannot be solved in a vacuum. That is, smart highways alone will not resolve this problem. Other transportation modes need improvement to alleviate the strained trucking industry. Railroads are potentially one part of the solution to a very complex problem. According to the Association of American Railroads, the average export in the United States has to travel approximately 1,000 miles before reaching a port. In Europe, this average is just a fraction of the United States. The fact that trucks have to haul tonnage large distances in the United States frequently contributes to the traffic congestion and adversely affects the commercial vehicle operations essential to a vibrant economy.

Automotive Industry

The general goal of the automotive manufacturers as a for-profit business sector is to capture as much market share as possible and maintain as much repeat


business as possible among its existing customers. Part of the strategy for achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage is to offer products and services that improve overall customer satisfaction, in a way that is cost effective. One of the ways that automotive manufacturers have sought to distinguish themselves is to provide an increasing number of interactive/real-time services such as infotainment, navigation systems, and safety enhancements that make the overall travel experience more pleasant. The ability to provide the most pleasant driving experience possible, which includes avoiding accidents and minimizing travel time, is improved to the extent that there can be communication between vehicles and between the vehicle and roadside infrastructure. Because vehicles are mass produced, the automotive industry needs to have a standard means by which vehicles can communicate with each other and the highway infrastructure. Once these standards are achieved the necessary equipment can be integrated into the automotive supply chain. Effective communication between the automotive industry and infrastructure owner-operators (highway operators and toll agencies), is the first step toward meeting this goal.

Win–win situations are beginning to emerge between equipment suppliers and the auto industry with regard to the provision of information and entertainment. The capabilities of OnStar in GM vehicles is well documented but recent developments in the relationship between satellite radio providers and the auto industry also bodes well for additional navigation and traffic information services for drivers. As recently as March 2005, Hyundai Motor Company announced it will make equipment provided by XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. a standard feature in all its models. Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. also announced deals to make its equipment available as an option on models from Land Rover and Jaguar, both owned by Ford Motor Company . It is apparent that proliferation of satellite radio throughout the automobile industry will continue due to keen competition.

Sales of navigation-equipped vehicles are also growing. J.D. Power and Associates estimates that approximately 850,000 model-year 2004 cars were sold with factory installed navigation systems; an increase of 54 percent from the 550,000 navigation-equipped vehicles sold in 2003. Navigation-equipped sales in 2003 saw an increase of 83 percent from 2002.

How Do Infrastructure Operators and the Automotive Industry Collaborate?

While owner-operators and the automotive industry can independently equip the highway infrastructure and vehicles respectively, for the smart highway to truly become a reality, unprecedented collaboration between these two key constituents is required.

Through Government-led Initiatives

In recent years, the USDOT-led programs such as the Automated Highway System demonstration, IVI, and, subsequently, the VII have resulted in collaboration between owner-operators and the automotive industry.

The conclusion reached from the IVI is that cooperation between vehicles alone is not sufficient to reach major improvements in safety. Communication between vehicles and infrastructure is necessary to achieve safety objectives.

The VII Initiative is a cooperative effort between Federal and state departments of transportation (DOT) and vehicle manufacturers to evaluate the technical, economic, and social/political feasibility of deploying a communications system to be used primarily for improving the safety and efficiency of the nation’s road transportation system. This communications system may also be used for other applications to the extent they do not interfere with the primary purpose of enhancing transportation safety and mobility.

The primary benefit of VII deployment will be roadway safety. There are also expected to be significant benefits to operations and maintenance of the transportation network due to the real-time performance feedback that the VII deployment would be expected to provide. In addition, other commercial and business applications may be enabled by a high bandwith data connection between vehicles and the infrastructure. (Source: ITS America website)

These initiatives have stimulated dialogue regarding roadside-to-vehicle communication, and they have resulted in a number of demonstrations and operational tests. The automotive industry and transportation agencies also continue to collaborate under the auspices of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America). However, on a day-to-day basis, these key


constituents generally operate and conduct research independently of one another, perhaps reflecting the different cultures and motivations between the public and private sectors that predominate in the absence of the coordination role played by the federal government.

The automotive industry has made great strides with telematics (wireless communication and onboard information processing systems) focused on safety, security, convenience, and entertainment. With the number of Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones now estimated to be one-third of all handsets, auto manufacturers are increasingly adding Bluetooth wireless connections or docking stations. Automakers want to connect with an installed and well-maintained infrastructure of roadside sensors and will look to owner-operators and private providers for travel information content. Much of the progress that has been made has been through established wireless communication networks that are managed independent of the owner-operators.

In parallel, owner-operators have rapidly rolled out the deployment of ITS technologies to support operation of their infrastructure. While the biggest concentration of ITS can be found in the larger metropolitan areas, expansion continues unabated across metropolitan arterials, surface streets, and rural areas.

Effective Dialogue

To achieve effective dialogue between owner-operators and the automotive industry, both have to come together in a spirit of mutual ambition, with a clear understanding of individual and common objectives, a true spirit of partnership, and a commitment to implement a road map to success. This means that each constituent must recognize that it needs the other, which in turn means both have to agree that the smart highway is the way of the future. At this stage, it is not clear whether the owner-operators agree to this among themselves, or even whether the automotive industry is ready to participate.Three issues that must be addressed in order to achieve the necessary dialogue between these constituents are as follows:

Public vs. Private Speeds and Accountability – Traditionally the public and private sectors have moved at different speeds and have had different lines of accountability. Participants must have decision-making responsibility and have the assurance that their actions

will not be subject to veto while remaining open to scrutiny. Without the active participation of the federal government, one possible way forward is for industry associations such as AASHTO and International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association to act on behalf of the owner-operators. Alternatively, five to ten of the major owner-operators may create a coalition that is either representative of the industry or that the industry will allow to trailblaze on their behalf, and jump onboard at a later stage of concept maturity.

Competitive Openness – In the competitive world of the automotive industry, companies are continually looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors. For the public sector this can be a challenge due to the need to be evenhanded and to follow strict procurement guidelines. Some states have passed public-private-partnership legislation that provides for the private sector to participate with the public sector outside of the traditional procurement process. However, the success of the smart highway concept really requires the automotive industry to similarly participate collectively, highlighting the importance of standards.

Industry Size/Segmentation – Perhaps the single biggest challenge facing increased collaboration is the imbalance of size within the respective industries. While the National Highway System is a national network comprising interstate freeways and major arterial roads, its operational management is devolved to individual states and toll road operators. Conversely, auto manufacturers have global reach. What may be considered to be a large toll road network (e.g., 500 centerline miles) will account for a very small proportion of national vehicle miles traveled. Consequently, owner-operators bring very little leverage to any discussion with the automobile industry. Unless the latter can be persuaded that there is an overwhelming benefit to making smart highways a high priority, the owner-operators may have to follow the lead of the automobile industry.

To a certain extent, there is an element of the chicken and egg conundrum at play: What comes first, the intelligent vehicle or the intelligent highway? A more appropriate question may be, Who needs whom more? In the very short term, the most appropriate way forward appears to be through forum opportunities under the auspices of the USDOT and through highway or toll operators initiating programs that involve a subset of the key stakeholders (an auto manufacturer, selected service/


infrastructure providers, and the highway operator) who can be agile and focused on meeting definitive smart highway objectives within a scheduled deadline. This iterative progress will help to break through the inertia sometimes realized in broader efforts. The findings from these smaller, more focused efforts can provide valuable information to larger groups involved in setting standards and public policy.

References

1. Costlow, Terry. “Entertainment on the Move.” Automotive Engineering International Online January 2005. 7 February 2005 <http://www.sae.org/automag.electronics/01-2005/1-113-1-44.pdf>

2. “Global Road Safety Crisis.” Report of the Secretary General, United Nations, 58 (7 August 2005): Item 162.

3. Handwerk, Brian. “’Intelligent’ Cars ‘Talk’ with Highway, One Another.” National Geographic News 21 May 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0521_040521_smartcars.html#main>

4. Job, Ann M. “Cars Getting Smarter to Make Driving Safer.” The Star-Ledger 5 September 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://wawa.starledger.com/texis/search/+kcexl/OrempbnmCeH5qLwwwi/Search.html>

5. “Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII).” ITS America 14 February 2005. 19 July 2005 <http://www.itsa.org/vii_meeting.html>

6. “Violence and Injury Prevention.” World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe 08 August 2005. 7 September 2005. <http://www.euro.who.int/violenceinjury/injuries/20040421_1>


Chapter 3Benefits and Impacts

This chapter will describe the benefits and impacts of a smart highway. The benefits of a smart highway primarily fall within the broad categories of saving time, lives, and money for a range of stakeholders: users, operators, and the general public, as well as other vested sectors including the automobile, insurance, ITS and IT, telecommunications, and telematics industries.

High-level Benefits and Impacts

Fewer Accidents and Fatalities

There are many logistical and behavioral challenges associated with reducing accidents and improving safety. We will see in Chapter 4, Smart Highway Elements, that there are a variety of smart highway technologies and applications that can help to reduce accidents and improve safety. Their effectiveness, however, hinges on the driver’s ability and willingness to use them. For example, it is very challenging to convince drivers that relinquishing any control of the vehicle will increase their personal safety and the overall safety of the road. When owner-operators can demonstrate to drivers that smart highways are more secure and fewer delays will result than on dumb highways, there may be a greater willingness to use a wider variety of smart highway services.

Changing attitudes toward existing safety measures (e.g., seatbelts) along with continuing improvements in technology can have powerful results. The European Union estimates the following benefits from preventive and protective measures:

• 15 percent less accident victims, if seat belts are used.

• 7 percent less fatalities, if pedestrian-friendly car designs are implemented.

• 15 percent less fatalities, if all cars are made to the best level of passive safety (e.g., airbags) in their size category.

• 5 percent less fatalities, if daytime running lights are used.

• 25 percent less fatalities, if by road engineering, information, or applied telematics the average speed of motor vehicles could be reduced by 5 km/h.

As smart highway technology migrates from reactive to proactive applications and services, a joint effort between infrastructure owner-operators and the automobile industry is needed to educate drivers on its benefits. Existing systems such as ABS and airbags are reactive systems, triggered only under certain circumstances such as sudden stopping or some form of accident. Some of the proposed systems like ACC, forward collision warnings, and road or lane departure warnings are proactive because these systems warn the driver, or activate the vehicle, before a crash occurs. The logic behind ACC, for example, is to automatically adjust a vehicle’s speed and apply the brakes to match the speed of the vehicle in front. However, the state of this technology is not up to the point of full automation, so for now it will serve as a warning system, leaving the decision to apply the brakes to the driver.

If and when ACC does become fully operational and drivers become comfortable with using the system, there is always a possibility that comfort will turn to complacency. Drivers will take risks in the expectation that ACC will correct, or at least give warning of, impending collision conditions. Past experience shows that when ABS was introduced it brought a financial benefit to the vehicle owners in the form of lower insurance premiums. However, after a few years some insurance companies stopped providing this discount because of questions about the real efficacy of ABS. One reason for this “ineffectiveness” was that drivers would drive their ABS-equipped vehicles faster or apply brakes with insufficient braking distance under the assumption that their vehicles would stop faster than vehicles not equipped with ABS. Another explanation was the lack of knowledge in how to use ABS; some drivers would still pump the brakes the old-fashioned way. This example highlights the necessity for education about smart vehicle or smart highway applications.

A number of technologies have been developed to increase safety including collision avoidance, lane departure warning, drowsy-driver technology, ACC,


intersection collision warning, and anti-jackknife technology. These technologies have great potential to benefit society by minimizing crashes and therefore reducing the loss of lives.

Coordination is Key

The benefit of reducing crashes is achieved through coordinated programs. Figure 7 illustrates the key components of an integrated road safety program, which provides immediate, mid-term, and long-term benefits.

The USDOT, through the VII initiative, has identified applications that will provide a safety benefit for users. Here are a few samples of these applications:

• Infrastructure-based Curve Warning – Provides a warning to drivers that their speed must be reduced to safely traverse the impending curve.

• Vehicle Probes that Provide Weather Data – Vehicle probes send their location and weather data to the TMC. The TMC utilizes this information to determine the weather at the vehicle’s location.

• Vehicle Probes that Provide Road Surface Condition Data – Vehicle probes send their current location and road surface condition to the TMC (e.g., a message is sent via a probe that windshield wipers are in operation). The TMC processes the data as part of the information it broadcasts regarding road conditions in that vehicle’s location.

• Commercial Vehicle Safety Data – A commercial vehicle sends safety information such as weight, brake performance, tire pressure, driver attentiveness, etc. to assist in improving CVO safety as well as in the performance of safety inspections.

• Intersection Collision Avoidance – Communication between vehicles and roadside units, and signals to prevent collisions.

Automobile Safety

Because of the competitive pressures in the marketplace, some safety applications which are not demonstrable, will only achieve critical mass if they are made mandatory

Figure 7. Integrated Road Safety Program

Integrated Road Safety Program

Public Awareness Campaigns: information and targeting errant road user behavior

Enforcement: targeting accident causal factors and high risk locations

Education: communities and schools

Engineering: targeting accident ‘blackspots’ and hazardous locations

Immediate effects and reinforcing

Long-term effects Cumulative medium-term effects

Integrated Road Safety Program

Public Awareness Campaigns: information and targeting errant road user behavior

Enforcement: targeting accident causal factors and high risk locations

Education: communities and schools

Engineering: targeting accident ‘blackspots’ and hazardous locations

Immediate effects and reinforcing

Long-term effects Cumulative medium-term effects

Source: World Bank View (Presentation)


(i.e., federal government policy initiative). For example, if ACC is fitted into every vehicle, regardless of vehicle type, drivers will come to expect it and use it.

Even with mandatory guidelines for vehicle makers, it will take several vehicle replacement cycles for any new feature to become pervasive. Very few customers will be swayed to advance their vehicle replacement cycle to take advantage of a groundbreaking safety application. In some cases, however, new product development may offer a solution for those customers unwilling to replace their existing vehicles. Companies like Pioneer and its after-market device that combines entertainment and navigation features, are a much less expensive alternative than having a vehicle retrofitted or purchasing a new vehicle. When introduced, these devices are generally not at price points that appeal to the average driver. More acceptable price points are usually reached over time and as more players enter the marketplace.

Enhancing the Environment

The environmental benefits from the improved flow of traffic that results from effective smart highway operations include:

• A reduction in traffic emissions due to improved traffic flow.

• A lower occurrence of accidents involving vehicles carrying hazardous materials due to enhanced smart highway safety features.

• An ability to provide advantageous pricing (in the case of toll roads) for suitably equipped smart vehicles (vehicles that have enhanced safety features or more environmentally sensitive equipment).

• A reduction in air and noise pollution. In the case of smart toll roads that implement ORT, conventional toll plazas are not necessary, which facilitates the passage of vehicles at highway speeds. This reduces vehicle emissions from standing traffic.

Saving Time

Saving time is one universally appealing advantage of a smart highway. A few questions pertinent to smart highways and saving time include: How long will it take to traverse any specific segment? If the travel-time information provided is not accurate, will the customer get a refund? Will the service provider offer different level of services based on travel-time accuracy? One answer

could be to offer multiple levels of service. For example, a less expensive service could provide a wider margin of error than the most expensive option. This service could also be tailored for different customer groups. A premium package could offer a service that provides travel time information with a minimum margin of error (i.e., travel time is 25 minutes with a confidence level of 99 percent) along with travel times of alternate routes, whereas a more basic service could offer alternate routes without confidence levels. The idea is to offer different service options to drivers. The retiree driving to Florida may want to know the location of rest areas or services plazas, but in the case of traffic congestion caused by an accident, the retiree may only want information on alternate routes, without a level of confidence.

Offering accurate travel time will be extremely beneficial for CVO. The ability of UPS and FedEx to deliver packages before a certain time of the day is heavily influenced by traffic conditions. What would happen if the delivery services of these companies could be refined even more? In addition to offering delivery times before a certain hour of the day, they could also offer, at an additional fee to customers, delivery of packages within a more precise time window (e.g., within a 30-minute window).

A number of technologies have been developed to save time including electronic permitting, real-time congestion information, dynamic routing, fleet communications allowing engine control and monitoring, electronic log books, etc. The CVO industry can leverage the maximum utility of these technologies by integrating them within

smart highway operations.

Seamless Travel

Seamless travel is an integrated driving environment in which the physical infrastructure is combined with exceptional operations management, travel information, commercially bundled travel services, and payment systems to provide customers with a safe, hassle-free, value-added driving experience. Toll roads have taken a proactive approach where drivers are viewed as customers instead of motorists. Providing services that improve the quality of travel to the point where customers do not have to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about or planning their trip is the hallmark of seamless travel.


A payment system that is convenient in terms of both the payment and revaluing processes is also of paramount importance in achieving seamless travel. Customer convenience is contingent upon multiple services being paid through a common payment device and/or account. For example, if an OBU can be used for toll payment as well as for retail payments (offered through drive-through or position commerce) the customer has less to think about. Any payment system must achieve the objectives of multiple constituents, including the owner-operator. This essentially translates into optimizing all components of the payment systems value chain including:

• Payment Media Management

• Account Maintenance

• Transaction Processing

• Revenue Management and Settlement

• Data Collection and Reporting

• Customer Service

Saving Money

Cost reduction is a benefit sought by all smart highway

constituents.

For Insurers

Insurers can certainly benefit from smart highway features as they will help to reduce death rates and accident claims. The insurance industry’s interest in the smart highway is primarily focused on driver usage patterns, death, injury, property damage, liability, and theft. Specifically, the insurance industry provides a financial mechanism to insure against, and to meet the cost of, its customers’ losses. The insurance industry therefore has a strong interest in reducing claims, which it can do by one of the following three ways:

• Differentiating between genuine loss and fraudulent claims.

• Refusing to insure certain risks.

• Reducing or mitigating the number and cost of claims by providing incentives or requirements to create less risky environments.

The insurance industry is also looking for innovative methods and business models to charge individual premiums. British insurance giant Norwish Union is running an 18-month-long, 5000-customer trial of a telematics based insurance scheme. Known as ‘Pay As

You Drive,’ it involves fitting clients’ cars with a black box and using it to generate individual premiums based on how often, when, and where people drive their car.

For Customers

The trade-off for customers should come as a financial, safety, or mobility benefit. Customers may give up some private information if enticed with attractive insurance premium reductions. Alternatively, the quality of service for a smart highway may be regarded so highly that it will offset privacy concerns.

Privacy: Tradeoffs

Perhaps one of the biggest issues with a smart highway is privacy concerns. The nature of a smart highway will mean that more customer information will be gathered (or will be perceived to be gathered) in exchange for an improved or enhanced driving experience. These improvements would come in the form of better services and a safer highway.

Privacy is an issue of relative importance depending on the individual. Persuading customers that their personal information will not be misused is a priority. Assurances must be made that information will be used on an aggregate rather than an individual level, unless the driver gives specific permission otherwise.

Opposition from some customers and privacy advocates, may create hurdles if public relations are not managed properly. Anything that tracks people or vehicles, is susceptible to resistance if the customer misinterprets intentions.

User-financed highways and state DOTs often must get legislation approved at the state level in order for information to be exchanged between the vehicle and road side. This is particularly true of user-financed highways with bond covenants that specify how customer information can be used.

The key to overcoming resistance is to demonstrate some equivalent benefit in exchange for giving up some privacy. This could come in the form of discounted insurance premiums or guaranteed refunds for a lost or stolen payment device. On average, approximately 22 percent of vehicle ownership is insurance premiums. Proper incentives for driver education, suitably equipped vehicles


and driving on smart highways in the form of reduced insurance premiums can be a “win-win” for drivers, highway operators and insurance companies.

Incentives for Opting In on Safety Components

Well over 50 percent of 2004 model passenger cars and light vehicles have some capability to record information for subsequent downloading. Event data recorders (EDRs) are the auto industry’s equivalent to black box voice and data recorders used to investigate plane crashes. EDRs offer the potential to analyze auto crashes in detail and are of great interest to manufacturers, insurers, and safety groups. However, they are also of interest to law enforcement, which is of some concern to motorists who fear that their vehicles have the capability to “spy” on their driving behaviors. Linked with GPS, EDRs can report where each vehicle has traveled, and can even communicate this to others. It is open to question whether the public will accept such technologies if it means a loss of privacy, even if there are tangible reductions in expenses. For example, auto insurance carriers are investigating whether discounts will be awarded to drivers who demonstrate their safe driving skills or who travel on safer streets and at less congested times of the day.

For the CVO industry, a number of technologies have been developed to reduce costs, including performance measuring (speeds, rpm’s, acceleration/deceleration rates, and electronic maintenance logs). This information is used for driver pay incentives. Smart vehicles can also provide electronic alerts when engine or other equipment malfunctions take place. In addition, other technologies have been developed to increase productivity, increase safety, and save time and money. These applications include GPS tracking and perimeter fencing (when a truck deviates from a set route by a preset distance, a notification is sent to the dispatcher warning of a possible highjacking).

Commercial Vehicle Operations

CVO is a market segment for which travel time is more critical than most. JIT delivery, driving hour regulations, and the ripple effect of late drop-offs are all reasons why the CVO sector has a vested interest in smart highways. Perhaps more critically, owner-operators and associated service providers must consider CVO as a market segment that could be very receptive to a premium quality of service at a premium price. Furthermore, the trucking

insurance industry may regard the smart highway as a more safe and secure (and consequently less risky) trucking environment, leading to the possibility of lower premiums.

Improving the Travel Experience

In addition to safety, mobility, and cost considerations, the smart highway offers the potential to improve the traveling experience.

Infotainment

Infotainment services are gaining interest with drivers, particularly among frequent travelers. Infotainment services include satellite TV/radio, tourist information, Internet, local information, and more. Achieving critical mass is a must for service providers, but the threshold that defines critical mass can only be provided by the service providers who know the breakeven point. Who will guarantee the service providers that the critical mass is actually there? What happens if a market is not realized? Is the operator going to be responsible in some way to assure service providers that a minimum number of customers who will use their services? It is very likely that the operator will have to be involved, at least at the beginning, until a critical mass has been achieved, otherwise service providers may not see it as worth their while from a risk management perspective.

Information may be blended with the traditional travel content we have become accustomed to, but packaged in more entertaining ways and delivered in a multimedia format more commonly seen in home entertainment systems. To address safety considerations, information delivery may have to incorporate interactive voice technologies rather than the traditional buttons and knobs.

The market will determine the desired types and ratio of entertainment and travel information services.

Service Delivery: Options

Services need to be designed for various customer segments. Each segment will require a thorough marketing analysis to ensure proper pricing and selection of services. Upon availability of services, the customer can select a variety of payment options and terms including:


Buy: This option would be the most desirable for the regular users of the smart highways. It might cost more up front, but in the long term, it would be more economical than other payment options.

Lease: Leasing would seem more appropriate for those customers that do not intend to keep vehicles longer than the vehicle’s lease contract. Alternatively, technology that supports services could potentially be transferable between vehicles.

Subscribe: Some services, such as nationwide Internet access, could be subscription-based regardless of vehicle location (i.e., any smart highway). This option would be more desirable for customers that are frequent users of smart highways.

Trip-Based Fee: This option may work best for occasional use customers.

Rental Car: Rental car companies could offer all services at additional fees charged to customers beyond the vehicle rental.

Pre-Trip: Some services could be purchased in advance of a known trip. For example, a customer could prepay on the Internet to access services on a determined smart highway and take advantage of a discount for early booking.

On Trip: Traveler information could be a service that is requested on demand. Some infrequent travelers may only need this information in selected instances. For this customer segment, paying a recurring fee (monthly) is not preferable and an on-demand service would seem more appropriate.

License Plate Reading: Services could also be invoiced to customers by using registered addresses from the departments of motor vehicle (DMV). To use this system, DMV databases would have to be synchronized among states and regularly updated. This option may generate

more privacy issues.

Funding Smart Highways

The next sections address the method of payment for smart highways and how this will impact users.

Paying for Use

Selling smart highway services will have to be done in a way that clearly communicates value for services. Paying for the use of a service or infrastructure that used to be free in the sense of a marginal out-of-pocket expense, is a challenging sale. Even today, people complain about having to pay tolls on roads that already have been “funded through taxes,” a common misconception. In a pay-for-use environment, the customer would pay the operator directly for the service with no subsidies provided by any government agency or other kind of sponsor.

It must be recognized that some price-sensitive customers that have no desire to pay for infrastructure use may

choose alternative routes.

The Shadow Option

Alternative payment options should be sought to ensure maximum acceptance from customers. One approach could be a “shadow” payment, similar to the concept of shadow tolling where the operator assumes some of the risk, including construction and operations, and a government agency or sponsor pays a fee to the operator, according to the number of vehicles (including type of vehicle) that use the roadway. Under this payment scheme, the government agency, or sponsor, could obtain the necessary revenues by selling access to service providers within the network and the rights to sell their services to customers. This access fee would be built into the cost of providing service to customers. In the end, customers would still pay for the roadway, albeit indirectly.

Other Payment Considerations

More sophisticated pricing plans exist such as those seen in the cell phone or cable TV markets including:

• Free or low-cost basic service with an additional payment for premium service.

• Flat fee per month plus pay-per-use overage plan.

• Bundled service discounts.

Private Industry Perspective – IT/ITS Industry

This section addresses the value proposition of industry participation in this market. It does so from the perspectives of the direct value-add from supporting the


ITS market and of the indirect value add to be accrued in tangential and unattached markets from participation in the ITS marketplace.

These benefits can be found either in the form of direct contribution to the profit of the participating firms or in the indirect benefits measured in saving lives, time, and money from utilizing the technologies available from a smart highway system. Additional benefits will accrue in terms of improvements in the service provided to the public and internal to the company as well.

The smart highway system should offer a range of benefits for business and industry. There are growing business opportunities ranging from the direct profit incentive of providing engineering, design and integration services, sale of equipment, communication infrastructure, and software development to the provision of contracted operations and maintenance. The smart highway system will make the day-to-day operation of business and industry safer, more economical, and certainly, more

efficient.

Direct Value Benefits

There are a number of capabilities offered by industry that are dependent on and/or supportive of the smart highway. In terms of operational management, DOTs at all levels now have a limited but growing capability to accurately assess and adjust to varying road conditions and volumes of traffic. Industry has facilitated this capability by developing an extremely diverse set of sensing technologies and information processing and distribution devices. Inground and roadside detection devices can accurately assess the flow of traffic while others are used to measure long-term and transient weather conditions.

Information gathered from these sensors is now being marketed directly to the traveling public by commercial entities known as value-added resellers. The governmental segment of the market is serviced by industry through the manufacture and sale of these devices for traffic management and planning functions. Industry has the option of providing equipment for the smart highway, providing processing power for the managers/operators of the smart highway, and/or providing information to users of the smart highway in a direct or indirect fashion. In short, the evolution of the smart highway will provide industries with a number of opportunities that provide increasingly favorable business cases.

The information acquisition, processing, and distribution technologies that support the smart highway program can be profitably offered by industry because they are a derivative of research and development (R&D) programs based on other markets (principally defense and aerospace) or stem from the R&D programs that were self and governmentally funded in the early days of IVHS/ITS. Additionally, many of the industry pundits consider the ITS industry to be a subset of the overall IT industry. This has helped industries spread the cost of development over a far larger market space thus reducing the cost of deployment and making participation in the ITS market more attractive to industry.

The information generated by this network of ITS devices is used to support the DSS process of the individual traveler (driver, shipper, or rider) and the infrastructure managers at the various TMCs.

What makes participation in this market attractive to industries is that there is now a rational balance between investing in the marketplace and obtaining a fair rate of return. Early in the evolution of the ITS market there was an understandable requirement for industries to invest, establish a market presence, and develop a viable product offering. Today, the ITS market has matured to the point of having a normal research and product development cycle. Companies are now able to justify participation in the marketplace and are being rewarded with a fair return on their assets employed.

Indirect Value Benefits

The maturing of the smart highway system produces benefits far beyond the profits made by those companies providing goods and services to the ITS market. If one considers highway infrastructure to be necessary for the safe, efficient, and economical operation of most business functions, from the generation and transport of raw materials through the placement of goods and services in the retail chain, then improvements in the highway infrastructure are critical to overall economic development. These improvements cannot be solely in the form of additional pavement nor can they be solely in the deployment of ITS. Rather the true smart highway represents the best blend of roadway capital investment supported by efficient ITS applications and third-party service offerings.


Recent developments in the IT industry have been focused on developing internal management systems that allow businesses to be more proactive and leaner in their support structure. The most prevalent of these is the implementation of the JIT inventory process. The ability to support an efficient JIT inventory process is directly dependent upon the capability of the transportation infrastructure to support the timely and dependable movement of the inventory.

While improvements in physical capacity have made the applicability of JIT inventory processes more feasible, the inability to detect and respond to traffic abnormalities caused by incidents, weather, or construction have placed some limits on the true savings available by the JIT inventory process. Implementation of the smart highway bolsters the business case for JIT delivery because there can be more certainty of on-time delivery.

The smart highway predicts, adjusts, and optimizes the traffic flow to account for traffic and weather-related issues. This smoothing and adjusting of traffic flow will allow commercial traffic managers to predict, adjust, and adapt their shipment schedules with a much higher level of precision than available on a noninstrumented road.

Other benefits accrue in terms of accident reduction. Statistical analysis shows that there is a clear correlation between the uninterrupted flow of traffic (both in volume and speed) and the reduction in accidents. A smart highway system is going to have favorable impacts on travel time lost due to accident rates, insurance premiums, fleet fuel and maintenance costs, manpower expenditures, and overall operational efficiency.

Private Industry Perspective – Automotive Industry

This section addresses the benefits and impacts to the automotive industry and such closely related sectors as telematics. Other industries that will benefit from the automotive industry are software, telecommunications, and ISPs.

Economic Benefits

The automotive industry is one of the largest industries in the United States. It creates $6.6 million in direct and spin-off jobs and produces $243 billion in payroll compensation, or 5.6 percent of private sector compensation. For every worker directly employed by an

automaker, nearly seven spin-off jobs are created. One out of every ten jobs in the United States is dependent on the automotive industry. No other industry is linked to so much manufacturing or generates more retail business and employment.

The automotive industry worldwide spends over $1 trillion dollars every year on goods and services in the automotive supply chain. Even though GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler spend over $200 billion of this amount, there are enough other players in the game, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers, to assure that fierce competition is the norm and that this competition extends well beyond the major vehicle makers. Telematics is likely to become a competitive differentiator of automobiles and will increasingly help sell cars to safety-conscious and connectivity-oriented car buyers.

Supply Chains

Given the sophisticated integration of numerous subsystems in today’s cars and their resulting complexities, it may be more appropriate to view competition in the automotive industry as being between the supply chains rather than between the OEMs. In fact, the configuration and management of the supply chains determine many of the crucial consumer choice factors including cost, build quality, and delivery lead times. The following are some of the chief factors at play in shaping the automotive industry:

• Shifting automotive design responsibilities from the OEMs to the Tier 1 suppliers.

• Increasing purchases of subsystems such as engines and gearboxes rather than components.

• Sharing electronic design and manufacturing information between OEMs and suppliers.

• Increasing reliance on JIT delivery schedules.

• Managing to minimize inventories.

• Continuing emphasis on cost reduction.

• Generation of profit.

An important consequence of supply-chain competition is the continuing withdrawal of the OEMs from self supply. The divestiture of Delphi and Visteon are evidence of this trend. Automotive manufacturers seem to be retrenching in vehicle design, assembly, and market research,


while more of the detailed engineering is becoming the responsibility of the Tier 1 suppliers. Suppliers, on the other hand, are expanding their resources through acquisition of and cooperation with other suppliers.

Telematics

The French merged “telecommunications” and “informatique” in 1978 to invent a word that suitably described the melding of telecommunications and information processing. Today the English word “telematics” most frequently refers to the onboard systems that combine wireless communications and information processing to assist or entertain automobile passengers. Perhaps no other word, or emerging technology, offers a better example of how the business model and design environment are converging to change the industry. The term has evolved to refer primarily to automobile systems that combine wireless communications and onboard information processing to assist or entertain the vehicle occupants.

While early telematics systems combined GPS tracking and wireless communications for automatic roadside assistance and remote diagnostics, the concept continues to evolve and now includes navigation and route guidance; traffic information that integrates dynamically with route guidance features; and multifunction multimedia systems covering display-based entertainment, Internet-based infotainment, and vehicle computing functions. Telematics is further defined as systems that have built-in terminals with automatic positioning and wireless network capability. Stand-alone navigation systems are sometimes considered to be telematics, but dedicated in-car phones typically are not.

Telematics offers a new value chain for delivering products and services to the customer. The car radio is evolving into a system with greater communication and entertainment functionality. Audio and navigation functions are becoming integrated into a single entertainment unit along with the possibility of PDA functionality, gaming features, and Internet connectivity. As wireless data transfer rates increase, the higher cost of hardware can be offset with server-based applications. In devising a successful business model, the service providers must take into account the customers’ view of the trade-off between incurring the cost of in-vehicle hardware versus the airtime charge per byte. In this model, the mobile phone manufacturers and the wireless card manufacturers

will work with the network providers to offset the cost of the hardware. At the present time, about 3 million vehicles, out of a total 220 million vehicles on U.S. roads, have some form of telematics device. It is predicted that by 2012 over half of the annual vehicles produced will be fitted with some form of electronic-communications device.

Furthermore, services from data aggregation can be provided to more than just the driver. Automotive insurance companies can reduce insurance premiums if drivers allow them to track vehicles to assure the cars are meeting safe driving criteria. Remote vehicle diagnostic information can be transferred to vehicle manufacturers to help them assess the performance of new vehicles coming off the production line and the performance of aging vehicles relative to the manufacturer warranty criteria. Moreover, according to a recent article published by eWeek, remote diagnostics is becoming a trend among auto owners. Owners are requesting maintenance alerts based on actual telemetry feeds from the vehicle rather than using the number of months or miles the vehicle has. Vehicle owners would receive this value-added service positively as long as their anonymity can be maintained. Vehicles can be tracked anonymously and behave in aggregate as traffic probes to help public traffic-management agencies respond more quickly and effectively to incidents. All of these and similar services will be integrated with the direct safety and information services provided to the vehicle drivers. These integrated services will be combined with an integrated customer-payment structure to help build and sustain the market.

The telematics supply chain includes manufacturers of hardware and products like antennas, transmitters, and interfaces that help send and receive wireless signals; telecommunications service providers linking existing wireless companies to allow seamless nationwide access; telematics service providers that will coordinate all information and services delivered to the car Internet and their own databases; ISPs delivering web-based services and the personalized information that drivers want in their cars; and vehicle location support to help locate the car’s position for location-specific service provision. This full telematics value chain includes information provision, content aggregation, systems and software development, service provision, wireless networks, client components, product distribution, and the customer.


While the telematics value chain is long and includes many players, it is still the automotive manufacturers who will ultimately decide whose hardware, software, and content are sold as a package under the manufacturer’s name. While there have been a number of starts, like Ford’s Wingcast, and while a number of the manufacturers have been playing it safe with the purchase of off-the-shelf components and services from OnStar, the OEMs are now looking carefully at the future of the telematics industry and considering the types of products and services they will start integrating into their products to help establish their market identity. Automotive manufacturers are evaluating how the systems look and feel to help project and protect their brand identity. Furthermore, automotive electronics products face several barriers that are common to the industry including lack of standards, length of the automobile lifecycle, modest year-to-year increases in vehicle production, and the general clout the automakers have over their suppliers for limiting prices. Success in supplying the automotive industry depends on the supplier’s willingness to fit in with the automotive industry culture, where the brand of the manufacturer, rather than the equipment or software supplier, is paramount.

GM OnStar Experience

OnStar, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, is perhaps the best known provider of vehicle safety, security, and communication services using wireless technology and the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. All new OnStar-equipped vehicles include the first year of OnStar safety and security services, which are available for $16.95 plus tax per month thereafter. These services include automatic notification of air bag deployment, stolen vehicle location assistance, emergency services, roadside assistance, remote door unlock, and remote vehicle diagnostics. OnStar Hands-Free Calling allows drivers to make and receive hands-free, voice-activated calls from their vehicle, as well as access location-specific traffic alerts and weather reports.

OnStar is available on more than 50 GM models for 2005. Over the next several years, OnStar will become a standard feature for GM’s retail customers in the United States and Canada, covering all segments and prices except for some commercial vehicles. The company

serves nearly 4.0 million subscribers at this time. More than 60 percent of OnStar’s customers have renewed their service.

OnStar is also available in 2005 on selected models from other automotive manufacturers, including Acura, Audi, Isuzu, and Volkswagen. A detailed explanation on how the system works can be seen in Figure 8.

The Ford and Chrysler Experience

Ford started a joint venture called Wingcast LLC in 2000 with mobile phone giant Qualcomm and scrapped the initiative two years later in a general belt-tightening exercise. The intent was to equip one million Ford cars and trucks with wireless Internet access, voice activated e-mail, and roadside assistance communications by the end of 2001. The system also allowed customers to use one mobile phone and one account for service both inside and outside the vehicle. The plan called for Wingcast to be on every Ford vehicle by 2004. Chrysler developed a similar hands-free telematics system, called UConnect, that connects to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or cellular service provider and is factory installed in the dashboard. The driver’s cell phone can be placed anywhere in the car with the console serving as a cellular conduit and the driver’s voice dialing and speaking through the UConnect system.

Onboard Unit – Embedded Hardware

The in-vehicle hardware for telematics consists of many components including the standard radio box behind the dashboard that integrates a network card and/or cell phone, a GPS receiver, a digital signal processor, and a microphone for voice recognition. Most of these components will be integrated with more conventional elements of the car audio system including receivers, amplifiers, speakers, and a display. This “black box” will also tap into the vehicle electronic bus to gather performance and diagnostic information from sensors throughout the vehicle. Delphi, Visteon, Johnson Controls, and other Tier 1 electronics suppliers produce the electronic bus from chipsets provided by companies such as Motorola and Texas Instruments. Other specialists, like Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, provide the backend servers that run the remote applications used for diagnosing vehicle maintenance and repair problems. Remote computing reduces the in-vehicle computing requirements that are subject to harsher environmental conditions and are more difficult to upgrade or repair. It is


much easier to upgrade remote hardware and software at a server site than it is to make in-vehicle upgrades. Harman developed an optical electronic hookup system that has become the industry standard. Harman’s hardware replaces the nest of copper wires that connect components with a miniature fiber-optic network. Figure 9 illustrates some integrated telematics solutions.

Off-Board Units – Consumer Electronics

Another critical hardware option is the smart handheld device like PDAs and web-enabled cell phones. By integrating the handheld devices using a cradle or Bluetooth, the system does not need to include the communications and processing capabilities of the handheld. Again, this can reduce cost and at the same time make it easier to upgrade. It also opens the market to manufacturers of nonautomotive, consumer-electronics products. It seems that one of the keys to making

telematics more profitable is to do away with embedded telematics and instead tie the system to a cell phone, wireless PDA, and an off-board system. Figure 10 depicts some PDA’s as user interfaces.

The handheld devices can be further enhanced with the support of Bluetooth short-range communication technology. For example, a driver can set up a hands-free link by pairing a cellular telephone with the car and control the phone from the dashboard whenever it is in or near the car. By pressing the talk button on the steering wheel, the driver can say a name and/or number and have the phone automatically dial from the phone book file. Similar to the cellular phone display, caller information as well as signal and battery strength will appear on the vehicle instrument panel. If the car also has a navigation system, the driver can autodial phone numbers associated with points of interest, such as hotels and restaurants. These features are similar to the HandsFreeLink in the Acura

2. A button press by the customer, an air bag deployment (or near deployment AACN* event) initiates a cellular call to the OnStar Call Center.

3. Wireless carrier receives call and routes it to the OnStar Call Center.

4. The OnStar Call Center receives data from the vehicle (location, etc.) and displays the customer’s account information and vehicle location on the Advisor’s workstation.

5. The OnStar application exchanges data with the vehicle and connects the driver with an Advisor. If necessary, the Advisor can contact the appropriate 911 center for emergency services.

GPS Antenna/Receiver: Receives location signals from GPS satellitesOnStar Module:• “Brains” of the system • Calculates vehicle location• Supports voice activated dialing of the embedded cellular system• Communication interface to other vehicle systems (radio, etc.)3-Button Assembly: Simplified user interface to OnStar servicesCellular Antenna: Antenna for the embedded cellular systemMicrophone: Allows the driver to speak to the OnStar Advisor and

enjoy hand-free calling through the vehicle’s audio system

1. GPS satellites transmit signals which are received by the OnStar module to calculate vehicle position.

In-Vehicle Hardware

*Advanced Automatic Crash Notification

Figure 8. Explanation of OnStar System


TL. The Chrysler UConnect system has a small button pad mounted near the radio/navigation system and is connected to the car by a thin wire that disappears into the audio system faceplate. A talk button activates voice recognition for dialing, ending calls, adjusting the volume, and muting. The UConnect features are essentially based on familiar PC components including an Intel X-Scale CPU, a Broadcom Bluetooth chipset, IBM ViaVoice software, and the QNX operating system. Speech recognition technologies are a critical development in making these systems user friendly.

Software Applications

Software applications are the product of many different companies including Tier 1 suppliers like Delphi and smaller companies that focus on specific components or telematics functions. The foundation of any telematics software application is a stable operating system. Although Microsoft is a player in this arena, it does not dominate and QNX is generally accepted as the biggest player at this time. Other operating systems include BREW, ITRON/uITRON, Java, Linux, OSEK/VDX, Palm Operating System, and Wind River VxWorks. Applications supporting the backend-server functions such as

message-queuing encryption and authentication include Websphere by IBM, .NET by Microsoft, and Java by Sun Microsystems. In a relatively recent turn of events Japan’s three biggest carmakers—Toyota, Honda, and Nissan—set up a nonprofit group to develop an international standard for the software that operates a car’s electronic systems.

Software for specific applications is another component of the complete telematics system. This includes traveler information application software for map databases, vehicle location and tracking, in-vehicle navigation and route guidance, real-time traffic detection and representation, and floating car data analysis. It also includes safety applications supporting motor vehicle EDRs, automatic collision notification, and simple onboard applications like tire pressure monitoring. The automotive companies are gaining insight on how to improve customer relations through applications that support remote diagnostics. Customer convenience is increased through applications that support home automation and passenger entertainment.

Figure 9. Integrated Telematics Solution - OEM

Source: Telematics Research Group, Inc. (Presentation)


Windows Automotive is designed to support navigation systems, music players, and a host of other in-vehicle devices. The operating system supports voice recognition and Bluetooth wireless communication. It also supports downloading digital music from personal electronic devices through a USB connection in the dashboard. Microsoft is also developing software to support remote diagnostics that will alert drivers to potential problems under the hood and will transmit information on the vehicle’s performance to the manufacturer. As of 2004, ten carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and BMW, had adopted elements of Windows Automotive in over 20 models.

Drivers and other users of telematics devices are focused primarily on services and ease of use. The telematics service providers deliver on their promise by providing call centers with operators and by working with software and content providers to integrate packages of services, such as emergency and concierge services, that are of interest

to the customer. It is critical to see that telematics provides a two-way link between the driver and other parties outside the vehicle including the vehicle manufacturer. The real ROI comes when the telematics provider understands that the driver is not the only customer for this linkage. This collected vehicle-performance data can be used remotely. User interface for most of these systems is primarily voice driven enabling eyes-on-the-road, hands-on-the-wheel interactions.

For example, ATX markets “vehicle relationship management” services that provide real-time diagnostic data from the vehicle direct to the dealerships. The vehicle-performance data can help automakers keep track of problems with vehicle components and may enable an OEM to bring a solution to market faster. In other words, real-time communication between vehicles and the factory will allow automakers to analyze practical problems with technology and product designs that will ultimately help lower product life-cycle costs.

In another example, a vehicle’s diagnostic test can be done online with results downloaded to the dealership. When the vehicle pulls in, service personnel know what’s wrong with the vehicle and fix it immediately without doing unnecessary tests. Services for the vehicle owner can be bundled with service to the vehicle, dealer, vehicle manufacturer, the fleet manager, the traffic manager, and a host of other external target markets. It is looking like lower-cost telematics units will enable enough minimal customer features to basically create customer relationship management between the carmakers and the users.

Telecommunications

Wireless carriers are generally responsible for the communication infrastructure and its related services. Telecommunication companies essentially carry the wireless signals between the vehicles and the telematics service providers. For example, OnStar partnered with Verizon, a company created by the partnership between Bell Atlantic and VodafoneAirtouch, to give OnStar customers access to Verizon’s network. At this time, many of the telematics designs require the customer to contract with a specified wireless carrier. However, carrier choice is more likely to be the norm in future designs and may be supported with connected handheld devices. For example, Nextel has 13 million subscribers who are predominantly business users and who spend nearly a third more on

Figure 10. Telematics Mobile Device Integration -PDA

Source: Telematics Research Group, Inc. (Presentation)


their phone bills than the average consumer subscriber. With access to Motorola’s new line of GPS-enabled iDEN phones, Nextel is essentially providing customers with a handheld telematics alternative. However, unless the handheld is somehow connected to the vehicle data bus, the remote diagnostics customer-relationship feature is absent from the handheld strategy. Of course, wireless is growing to include 3G data pipes, satellite television and digital radio, terrestrial digital radio, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DSRC, and all the 802.11 alternatives to conventional 2G cellular communication. Future production of cellular phones is likely to include cellular and a mix of these alternative communication standards.

Delphi, Sun, Intel, and others are experimenting with prototypes where more can be accomplished at the gas pump than filling up the gas tank. The prototypes will use the 802.11 protocols to download the latest maps from MapQuest, videos for the backseat DVD player, music for the in-dash MP3 player, and access a home security system. Furthermore, as more cars and trucks connect to wireless data networks, the need arises for a backbone wireless computing grid where the vehicle acts as a rolling node on the Internet. Companies like IBM, ATT, AOL, Sun, and Microsoft are looking into providing the backbone computing grid for these capabilities. Now, imagine the possibilities for interconnected networks where the car becomes a hub. The driver could be at some remote site with a laptop computer that communicates with the hub at the car that possesses satellite uplink and downlink capability. 802.11 connectivity will also enable machine-to-machine, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-roadside communication which could help communicate unsafe driving conditions and forewarn drivers of the conditions that other drivers are experiencing on the route ahead.

Information Service Providers – Content

Finally, there is content to be sold by the service providers. Many of the companies that provide content have already established an Internet business. Of course, advertisers and news services see the driver as a captive target. Certainly entertainment can be transmitted by many of the same communication linkages designed for telematics. The customized information services like Yahoo, AOL, and MSN are eyeing the audience served by the automotive platform. In addition, real-time traffic reports can be received by the navigation system and can provide guidance to help drivers avoid routes that are experiencing delay. These network services will be

personalized and customized by each user over the network. For example, drivers can supply the traffic ISP with their standard commute routing so that only traffic information relevant to that commute will be incorporated into the routing of the vehicle. Location-sensitive and condition-sensitive commerce will certainly be supported when this information is transmitted by the vehicle in accordance with the driver’s preferences.

Business Models

In all likelihood, the business model for the future expansion of telematics will resemble the model for cable television and cable Internet: automobiles will be outfitted with some basic level of embedded telematics when built. Both software and hardware functionality can be expanded later, if the consumer so desires. However, the basic level of telematics functionality is likely to include some form of two-way wireless communication with a service center that may provide rudimentary safety and vehicle diagnostic services free of charge, or perhaps at some nominal charge. This would be similar to the modest fee charged for the most basic cable television programming. Presumably, the diagnostics services will improve the timing of routine vehicle maintenance and repair, helping auto owners maintain their vehicles in top condition. Similarly, some of the basic safety services are likely to be government regulated and perhaps even required by law. Yet, the success of these two basic services is likely to pay for most of the telematics infrastructure and provide for all other telematics services. So, if vehicle owners desire additional services, these could be provided at a very low marginal cost. Vehicle dealers or telematics service providers could also use the services to improve relationships with the customer by offering the services at little or no charge. Some of the services could be provided on a pay-for-use plan.

Maximizing Profit/Return on Investment

For both the public and private sector owner-operators, maximizing profits or ROI is a major economic/financial consideration. In the public sector, the ability to demonstrate that highway infrastructure has a positive benefit-to-cost ratio demonstrates the economic value of the infrastructure. This is achieved by reducing the social costs of delays, crashes, and environmental damage. While the public sector is not driven by a profit motive,


there is a fiduciary duty to demonstrate that public funds are being spent in such a way as to maximize the return on the public’s investment.

In the private sector, the owner-operator must provide a facility where the revenues exceed the costs and provide a profit that meets or exceeds the expectations of the investors.

In today’s economic climate where competition for funds is intense, facilities that can demonstrate the potential to achieve a ROI may have an edge over those that have a more marginal financial or economic justification.

Increasing Revenue

One obvious way to increase profits or ROI is to increase user fees, that is, tolls. Setting aside any political ramifications, toll increases may be very effective in a monopolistic situation such as an estuarial crossing, but less so where parallel facilities exist. Users will make a trade-off between the cost of using a facility and the quality of the experience of using that facility. As stated previously, travel-time predictability will influence users’ willingness to pay. Therefore, it may be possible to increase revenue by increasing the level and quality of customer service, rather than simply increasing user fees.

Decreasing Expenses

Decreasing the expenses of operating infrastructure facilities provides another way to increase profits or ROI. Owner-operators are responsible for managing major infrastructure assets. As a minimum, expenses will typically include maintaining the infrastructure in a safe condition, responding to incidents that may temporarily impact throughput, and (in the case of toll facilities) operating a payment collection/enforcement system. Inevitably these expenses will require human and physical resources and other support services. Raising the level and quality of customer service will inevitably increase expenses. For the owner-operators, the ability to decrease critical expenses hinges on their ability to understand the factors that influence the different types of expenses that will be incurred, as well as when and how to budget for those expenses.

Improving Service

High quality customer service was mentioned previously as a means of increasing revenue. However, improving service is not just about higher profits. The smart highway offers the potential to develop and deliver

a range of services that complement the physical infrastructure assets. Services may include information services, customer service operations, advanced traffic management, payment services, and a range of commercially-bundled services. The bottom line is to think about the user as a customer, and the owner-operator as a provider. The provider must fully understand who the customer is, what their needs and wants are, and be prepared to provide services when, where, and at a price that the customer finds not merely acceptable, but attractive.

To make this happen is not without challenges, both from a technological perspective and from the standpoint of creating an organizational delivery mechanism. The good news is that toll roads are leading the way, having already developed and deployed some of the technological and cultural components of the smart highway. Systems are already in place that facilitate communication between the infrastructure and vehicles, and customer service centers are the norm. Depending on whether the owner-operator is a public- or private-sector entity, there a several ways in which the service culture of the smart highway may develop. Given the public sector’s focus on ROI and fiduciary responsibility, the underlying philosophy of the smart highway may lean towards equity and maximizing the number of users or customers. For the private sector and its focus on maximizing profits, an alternative philosophy may be to focus on higher-end customers who are prepared to pay more for selected services. Either approach is valid, and will be driven by the customer service mission of the owner-operator.

References

1. “Automakers Make Electronics the Difference.” TechWeb 12 January 2005. 14 January 2005 <http://www.Techweb.com/wire/mobile/57700888>

2. “Beam it Up.” The Sydney Morning Herald 10 June 2005. 19 July 2005 <http://www.smn.com.au/news/News/Beam-it-up/2005/06/09/1118347571805/html>

3. “Europe News: BMW –Expect Greater Integration.” Telematics Update 17 November 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.telematicsupdate.com/homepage2.asp?news=44089>


Chapter 4Smart Highway Elements

A smart highway is only as smart as its supporting infrastructure, vehicles, and drivers. This section discusses the technologies in use today and their

expected evolution.

The Systems View

A smart highway is a system of elements connected through the infrastructure of the highway. It is made up of three elements: the smart vehicle, the smart roadway, and communications. They should interface in a way that is ergomically appealing to the driver. Figure 11 shows a schematic of a smart highway system and its

Figure 11. Sample Vehicle/Infrastructure Communication Scheme

components. The interoperability of these elements creates the smart highway system where smart devices exchange information that results in increased traveler

safety, trip efficiency, and travel enjoyment.

The Smart Vehicle

Smart vehicles operate at a tactical level (involving the throttle, brakes, and steering) and at a strategic level (involving the use of onboard navigation to assist in route decision making). A smart vehicle conveys information such as geographic location, to the driver, passenger, and infrastructure in a format that can be understood. This information could include a map

Source: Intelligent Vehicle Technology and Trends. Richard Bishop. 2005


display of landmarks, streets, and points of interest, as well as the instantaneous location of the vehicle. Currently the technology of choice is to use GPS with its average accuracy of nine feet, without any external error correction. With differential GPS, a vehicle can resolve its location to within one foot. When GPS is augmented by a directional gyroscope and acceleration sensors, an onboard computer can calculate the location of the vehicle based on distance traveled in a specific direction since the last accurate position fix. This “dead reckoning” capability allows the vehicle to navigate in mountainous terrain, tunnels, and cities with tall skyscrapers; locations where GPS signals can’t be reliably received.

Onboard the vehicle are a myriad of sensors sampling various operating parameters of the vehicle. Today, vehicles are being manufactured with sensors for tire pressure, fluid level, light current that detects burned-out bulbs, passengers occupying seats (or not), and even detecting that a passenger is too small to withstand an air bag deployment and automatically disabling the air bag. There are numerous safety sensors that constantly monitor the vehicle’s performance and make instantaneous corrections to increase safety. An example is ABS that detects wheel lockup and momentarily relieves the braking pressure. Vehicles equipped with four-wheel drive are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their ability to sense how well each wheel is performing and adjusting the drive power to each wheel to increase overall vehicle performance. Today, vehicles are being sold with automatic stability systems that use the capabilities of ABS and four-wheel drive to control the vehicle in turns to lessen the chance of spinouts and rollovers.

Soon, vehicles will be able to communicate with others using the standard radio frequency, communication protocol, DSRC, and other types of wireless communications. The ability for suitably-equipped vehicles and roadside infrastructure to exchange information will be key to an integrated smart highway system.

The Smart Roadway

Today, many major limited-access highways have traffic sensors, changeable message signs, and traffic surveillance devices that feed data to a TMC. Automated incident-management software can detect when there is a probable accident and alert emergency responders and other drivers. Most of this data is useful to a smart vehicle

in making a trip safer and more enjoyable. For example, speeds along each highway lane are available and are used to calculate the travel time between points on the highway network. Onboard navigation systems have the ability to continuously plan a route based on the current highway speeds and reported traffic incidents. Instead of relying on changeable message signs alongside the road, the smart highway of the future will communicate messages to the vehicle’s computer and the driver (also known as in-vehicle signing). Another example is the RWIS, which automatically monitors environmental conditions alongside the roadway and broadcasts that information to the TMC. A smart highway can also make this information available to vehicles so they can tell what the visibility is around the next curve or whether the road is wet and slippery ahead.

Communications

What makes the smart highway work is the ability to communicate data and information reliably throughout the system. Short-range communications (5.9 GHz DSRC is 1,000 ft or less ) will be provided by DSRC radios in the vehicles and in roadside units. Longer-range communications that can provide streams of data in a short period of time (high bandwidth) will be achieved through an extension of wireless data communications that are in popular use today such as the Wi-Fi 802.11 standard. Ranges of several miles along the roadway can be achieved that enable a great variety of consumer services such as entertainment, travel assistance, and access to the Internet. Commercial business may pay to have access to the roadside Wi-Fi network to promote their services to travelers or to allow travelers access to their commercial services. Sophisticated onboard software that is coming on the market in 2005 takes advantage of real-time traffic information provided through satellite radio to calculate optimum travel routes to avoid accidents and delays.

What Can Be Done?

A smart highway system consists of smart vehicles and smart roadway components, which leads again to the chicken and the egg conundrum. Will auto manufacturers build cars with smart technologies if there isn’t an infrastructure to support them? Will states build smart highways if there are no smart vehicles to take advantage of them? How much can be done by the state independent of the automobile manufacturers?


On-Board Units

Computers that are integrated with the vehicle and communicate with the driver make the vehicle smart. An OBU can have a broad or narrow array of applications. An example of a simple OBU is the one provided for use in ETC. ETC is used on roadways and bridges so that tolls can be paid automatically without necessarily slowing down. This eliminates lost time and relieves congestion at the tollbooths or can, as in the case of ORT, eliminate tollbooths entirely. In an ETC system, a transponder mounted in the vehicle communicates by radio signals to antennas buried in the pavement, mounted at roadside or in an overhead gantry. The appropriate fare is typically deducted by the transponder from a prepaid account. A typical unit on top of the dash or in the instrument panel is about the size of a deck of cards, often containing a display, keypad, and an audio signal that confirms payment.

As these systems become more prevalent and infrastructure is deployed, an OBU used for vehicle to roadside communications could also send and receive other information. Some automakers, under the auspices of VII, are working to integrate the OBU with the vehicle. DSRC will most likely be the common protocol for these roadside readers and OBUs to provide interoperable communications.

Dedicated Short-Range Communications

In North America, 5.9 GHz DSRC systems are being developed to support a wide range of public-safety and private operations in roadside-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle environments for the transportation industry. The USDOT’s VII program uses DSRC-based communication. DSRC has several key benefits: it complements cellular communications where time-critical responses (less than 50 ms) or very high data transfer rates (6-54 Mbps) are required in small zones with license-protected authority, and it enables a new class of communications applications that can support future transportation systems and needs.

DSRC is also a means to address the auto industry’s concern about changing technology. If federal mandate dictates DSRC as a standard for communications, auto manufacturers can go forward in implementing OBU without fear of technology obsolescence.

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration

The VII consortium consists of the USDOT, AASHTO and a number of state DOTs and automobile manufacturers. The consortium is considering the key technical, strategic, and cost issues required for vehicle to infrastructure communication.

The overall VII integration concept at a high level is illustrated in Figure 12, where the following label points

are identified.

1. Information flow between the vehicle and the driver provided by in-vehicle network and human machine

interface/on-vehicle host computer.

2. Wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communications between

OBU antenna to OBU antenna via two-way DSRC.

3. Wireless vehicle-to-infrastructure communications between OBU antenna and roadside unit antenna via

one-way or two-way DSRC.

4. Wireline or wireless communications between the roadside and the VII network via the Internet or private network.

Figure 12. High Level VII Concept


For short ranges of less than 15 meters, DSRC is expected to be used for the following applications:

• Access Control

• Toll Collection

• Data Transfer/Info Fueling

• Traffic Information

• Drive-Thru Payment (Retail)

• Parking Lot Payment

• Infrastructure-based Probe Data Collection

• Rental Car Processing

For slightly longer ranges from 15 meters to 90 meters, DSRC is suited for the following applications, especially for CVOs:

• Toll Collection

• Data Transfer/Info Fueling

• Data Transfer/CVO/Truck Stop

• Data Transfer/Transit Vehicle (yard)

• Mainline Screening

• Border Clearance

• Onboard Safety Data Transfer

• Unique CVO Fleet Management

• Driver’s Daily Log

• Vehicle Safety Inspection

• Transit Vehicle Data Transfer

• Transit Vehicle Refueling Management

• Rollover Warning

• Low Bridge Warning

Extended DSRC operations up to 335 meters are envisioned for the following uses:

• Curve Speed Assistance (Rollover warning)

• Infrastructure-Based Stop Light Assistant

• Intersection Collision Warning/Avoidance

• Cooperative Collision Warning in the Vehicle-to-Vehicle Mode

• Vehicle-Based Probe Data Collection

• Cooperative ACC

Range (ft)

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

2200

2400

2600

2800

3000

3200

3400

360020

0

400

600

800

DSRC PERFORMANCE ENVELOPES

Data Rate (Mbps)

33

30

27

24

21

18

12

9

6

3

0

54~

~

0.5 Mbps

902 - 928 MHz Band Performance Envelope

5850 - 5925 MHz BandPerformance Envelope

Emergency Vehicle ServicesSafety Message Services

Data Transfer and Internet Access Services

Toll and Payment Services

(Approximate)

Figure 13. DSRC Performance Envelopes

Source: http://www.leearmstrong.com/DSRC/DSRCHomeset.htm


Voice Recognition

Safe driving begins with a driver totally focused on the task of driving. A safer driving experience is realized if drivers do not have to take their hands off the steering wheel or refocus their attention on controls inside the car. Voice recognition technologies accomplish this. Voice-activated control systems have been developed that allow the occupants to use voice commands to control a variety of vehicle systems and features. Voice activation works with such features as cell phones, audio systems, navigation, climate control, and other electronically controlled systems. Presently, primary controls and those crucial to safety are not being addressed by this technology. However, these systems can reduce accidents by minimizing the time the driver’s hands are off the wheel and eyes are off the road. Voice control over in-vehicle cell phones is gaining more widespread use today.

In the future, voice-activated control systems will interface with other in-vehicle systems through multiplexing networks. Voice commands will be processed by the computer and an appropriate signal will be sent to the commanded device. These systems are being designed to work with any spoken voice, without requiring training for each user.

Pedestrian and Animal Avoidance

These systems are intended to prevent collisions with animals and people on the road. External animal warning systems are located today at migration routes and where there is a history of animal-vehicle collisions. These warning systems use relatively low technology, such

• Cooperative Vehicle System – Platooning

• Highway/Railroad Collision Avoidance

• Imminent Collision Warning

• Emergency Vehicle Video Relay

• Road Conditions Warning

• Work Zone Warning

• Enhanced Route Planning and Guidance

Extended long-range DSRC operation is not ideal for long ranges but some applications for public safety have been proposed such as:

• Approaching Emergency Vehicle Assistant

• Emergency Vehicle Signal Preemption

• Transit Vehicle Signal Priority

• Green Light – Optimal Speed Advisory

Figure 13 represents the proposed DSRC performance envelopes referenced in the section by range and data rate.

Safety Systems

A smart highway, simply put, will be a safer highway. The reason for making vehicles and highways smart is to increase safety by reducing the chance of human error on the roadway. Drowsy drivers cause accidents, speed-related deaths, and distraction-based accidents. These issues are being addressed by technology and the way the vehicle and driver interact.

Heads-Up Display

A heads-up display (HUD) allows the driver to view critical vehicle information without looking away from the road. Gauge and indicator images are projected on the windshield in front of the driver (see Figure 14). Experimental HUDs are being tested that display low-light level or infrared images from sensors mounted in the front of the vehicle to enhance nighttime or poor weather visibility. HUD images can be turned off by the driver when not needed.

Under the FHWA VII program for improving safety, there are several approaches being evaluated which will provide driver assistance. These safety systems, now in various stages of development, will provide information, warn drivers of dangerous situations, recommend actions, and even assume partial control of vehicles to avoid collisions. HUDs (Figure 10) can play a major role in the delivery of this information.

Figure 14. Heads-Up Display


as turning on roadside flashers. Smart highways would use infrared television cameras that detect movement and broadcast warnings to vehicles through their onboard navigation systems. An extension of this technology for the smart highway system would use computer image analysis to make sure there are no stationary objects on the road ahead. A scanning camera every few miles could easily provide this level of safety, but a way to effectively communicate the information to the occupants in a car on the road is needed. This is where the wireless infrastructure and the onboard navigation and display units come into play—the ability to effectively convey the information to the driver in real time.

Automatic Crash Notification

Telecommunications, automotive, and location technologies are converging to quickly and automatically notify emergency responders as soon as a vehicle is in a serious collision. Currently a serious accident is determined by the deployment of any of the onboard air bags. ACN systems use wireless telecommunication technologies to immediately alert a private emergency call center when a passenger presses the car’s Mayday button or the car’s air bag deploys. In an emergency, the dispatcher at the call center quickly informs the appropriate emergency dispatcher of the vehicle’s location, based on the transmitted position from the onboard navigation system. It has been proven that the chance of survival for an accident victim is greatly increased if emergency care can be provided within the first hour of a serious injury (what doctors call the “golden hour”). Reducing emergency response times saves lives and reduces the long-term impact of injuries. Knowing the severity and location of emergencies will also save tax dollars and target emergency resources.

In addition to exact location and voice communications, the next generation of ACN technologies will send emergency responders sophisticated crash data that can predict injury severity in rear, side, and frontal crashes. This data will begin immediate patient diagnosis and the dispatch of the appropriate care, facilitate treatment at the scene of the collision and en route to the emergency room, and allow hospital emergency rooms to anticipate the critical care needs of incoming patients.

Monitoring Driver Alertness

Driver alertness monitoring is designed to detect an impaired driver, whether from inattention, drowsiness, or intoxication. A simple system may merely sound an alarm,

but more complex systems could include warnings of impending collisions or a vehicle straying from the roadway. Two methods are proposed to monitor driver alertness: one method uses infrared cameras that detect eye motions and compute trends that track driver vigilance and another monitors driver performance in maintaining the vehicle in its lane, using cameras that detect lane markers.

Automated Collision Avoidance

Having a low-powered radar unit or laser unit in the front, sides, and rear of the vehicle enables many additional safety capabilities for the smart vehicle. A frontal collision warning system warns the driver when it detects objects in the path of the vehicle, for example, a vehicle slowing ahead. Some systems also apply braking to help avoid a collision. The collision warning system has several advantages over human performance in helping to avoid collisions that include constant attention to the vehicle ahead and reacting more quickly to changing situations on the road. Units on the side and rear of the vehicle provide inputs to the vehicle’s onboard computers, which is aware of the vehicle’s location. Knowledge of the braking, steering, and acceleration inputs can determine if there’s a potential for a collision as a driver changes lanes or even swerves to avoid something in the road.

Enhanced Vision Systems

A low light or infrared light-sensitive camera may also be used in addition to radar or laser object detection systems. The combined information from vision-based systems and millimeter/microwave transceivers provides a reliable picture of the road ahead, and may be used to support other functions such as vision enhancement. In the future, input from the smart highway sensors will also be used to enhance the driver’s perception of the road ahead. Road-based sensors might be used to relay information on the current traction of the road surface and the geometry of the road in the immediate path of the vehicle. This information, along with stored data on the vehicle’s performance, can be used to calculate the optimal speed considering the need to decelerate safely. A smart vehicle with all this real-time data can apply the brakes, augment the vehicle stability, and adjust the steering response to minimize passenger anxiety, as well as reducing the risk of losing control of the vehicle and crashing. Ideally on a smart highway used by smart vehicles, each vehicle would relay information to the


vehicle behind it: for example, that it was slowing and at what rate it was decelerating, so there would be few to no rear-end collisions in the future.

All-weather/night vision provides the driver with information about objects in the path of the vehicle that could not normally be seen at night at a safe distance or in adverse weather conditions. It is especially helpful for identifying pedestrians and animals crossing in front of the vehicle. Some systems display information about the roadway, such as the proximity of upcoming vehicles and changes in the road. The information is generally displayed in the driver’s normal field of vision through an HUD.

All-weather/night vision systems can use radar, low-light level television cameras, or infrared lights and a detector on the front of the vehicle. Data is fed into a computer that continually processes the information and creates an image displayed in front of the driver. Potential capability includes the ability to distinguish between other vehicles or obstructions and nonthreatening objects, reducing the possibility of false alarms.

Lane-Keeping Systems

Lane-keeping systems (LKS) fall into three categories:

• Warning systems that do not alter the vehicle trajectory, but require driver action in response to warnings to affect the vehicle trajectory.

• Intervention systems that have the ability to affect vehicle trajectory but are meant to augment driver commands, not replace them.

• Control systems that have the ability for full automatic control of vehicle steering.

Lane-departure warning and control systems provide an effective countermeasure against road-departure crashes, many of which occur due to driver drowsiness or distraction. Most of the work on lateral lane warning and control systems has focused on three technologies:

• Active-wire Guidance

• Magnetic-Sensing Technologies

• Machine-Vision Technologies

There are several disadvantages with the use of active-wiring technology including the requirement for high wire placement accuracy, and the influence of pavement

movement and lightning on system operation. In addition, wire malfunctions can impact the system operation on an extended length of road.

The development of lane-departure systems based on magnetic technologies has focused on magnetic markings and tapes. The California Path Program has tested the use of a system based on magnetic markings. The test demonstrated the effectiveness of the system and found that, in general, marked spacing of 2 to 4 meters provided satisfactory results. Noticeable degradation was observed when the marked spacing was increased from 4 to 6 meters.

The Minnesota DOT has developed automated driver-assistance systems for heavy-duty vehicles such as snowplows. The development included a lateral warning and guidance system developed by 3M. This system used magnetic pavement marking tape that can take the place of the regular lane striping. The system is no longer commercially available.

The main advantage of machine vision/image processing systems is that they are designed to use the existing infrastructure without expensive modifications. Two lane-departure warning control systems based on machine vision are currently available in the United States: AutoVue™ by Iteris, Inc. and SafeTRAC™ by Assistware, Inc. Both of these systems use machine vision technologies. With these products, the camera can be attached to the windshield, dashboard, or ceiling. The device is programmed to recognize the difference between the road and lane markings. The unit’s camera tracks the lane markings (both solid and skip) and feeds the information directly into the unit’s computer, which combines this data with the vehicle’s speed. Using image recognition software, the system predicts when a vehicle drifts towards an unintended lane change. When this occurs, the unit automatically alerts the driver to make a correction.

Traction Control

Traction control enhances driving safety on slippery roads while the car is accelerating and can stabilize a vehicle when it is negotiating curves. Traction control on all four wheels combined with ABS can result in augmented vehicle stability that reduces the chances of a driver losing control of the vehicle. Traction control is an enhancement of an existing ABS that prevents wheelspin while accelerating on wet or slick surfaces. It


uses the same wheel speed sensors to monitor wheel speed during acceleration, but requires some additional control solenoids and a pump to apply braking pressure to control wheelspin. The traction control system brakes the drive wheel that is starting to spin to shift torque to the opposite drive wheel that still has traction. Most traction control systems only operate at speeds up to about 30 mph. Additional control strategies used to limit wheelspin include reducing the throttle opening, upshifting the transmission, retarding spark timing, and deactivating fuel injectors. Most traction control technologies cannot prevent a driver from losing control when descending steep slippery roads. In fact four-wheel drive vehicles often impart a false sense of security to inexperienced drivers who then drive too fast for the conditions.

Suspension Control

A smart vehicle suspension system remembers a set of shock damping settings for each direction of vehicle lateral acceleration to enhance ride control. There are suspension dampers working in extension during the outside of a turn and in compression on the inside of the turn, counterbalancing the centrifugal forces on the vehicle during a high-speed turn. The smart suspension system has a second set of enhanced ride control parameters that increase damping in compression and rebound on both sides of the vehicle. Today, the state of the art is sensing vehicle performance in real time and applying controls to the suspension to mitigate any tendencies that decrease stability. Tomorrow’s smart highway and smart vehicle will collaborate and exchange information about the road surface so the vehicle can proactively configure the vehicle’s suspension for an impending rough road condition or sharp curve on slippery roads.

Smart Headlights

Many vehicles today come with high intensity headlights such as xenon lights. These purple looking lights do an excellent job of lighting up the road significantly further than conventional headlights at the expense of blinding oncoming drivers. Most properly aligned high intensity headlights have a blackout bar that cuts the beam at the level of the driver of an oncoming car. A smart headlight directs its high intensity beams to where the vehicle will be in the next 100 to 200 feet so that it senses the direction of the car and adjusts the headlight aim point accordingly. Vehicles have been sold in the past 20 years with headlights that pivot slightly as the steering

wheel is turned but today’s smart headlights are more sophisticated in that they adjust for speed as well as steering input. A smart highway that communicates road geometry to the vehicle can improve the ability of the vehicle to aim its headlights more effectively. Further, collision avoidance technology can have an input to the headlights so obstacles in the road at night are pinpointed by the headlights.

Smart Roadway Lighting

Although lighting systems along the road are powerful and can illuminate large areas, they are expensive to install and operate. A smart highway can cue the lighting systems when they are needed and turn them off when they are not. For example, a smart highway may sense animals on the roadway at night and turn on two or three very bright overhead lights when vehicles are known to be approaching the area. The bright lighting will most likely drive the nocturnal animals away, and can be turned off again either after the animals leave or the vehicles have passed. Specialized lighting systems along the roadway can serve other safety purposes such as speed control.

Speed Control and Pacing

Experiments in Japan have shown that drivers subconsciously will regulate their speed to match a moving object next to the vehicle, such as a series of strobe lights. Smart highways with guardrails or safety barriers equipped with rows of low-powered, fast-switching lights could set a sequence of lights that turns on and off, which moves a car length of light along the guardrail at the safe speed limit for the section of roadway.

The same concept could be applied to lighted markers embedded in the road to delineate the lanes that are controlled by the highway. If unsafe speeds are detected, the lights could shift to red, telling the driver that an unsafe condition was beginning to occur.

Speed and changes in speed can also be communicated to other vehicles, preparing them to slow down if necessary. When used in vehicles as a traffic probe application, this information can be used to determine occurrence of traffic congestion or incidents.

Energy Management

Many sensors and lighting systems are on the highway for the benefit of the vehicles. When there are no vehicles in the immediate area, a lot of power hungry systems can be put on standby, operated at reduced power, or


turned off. A good example is the smart lighting systems along the roadway. If lighting can be cycled on and off relatively quickly with no adverse effect on longevity, upstream sensors that sense the presence of vehicles and their speed can signal ahead to light up sections of the roadway in advance of the vehicles getting there. Dangerous curves, animal crossings, and disabled vehicles on the side of the road would be places where broad area lighting would enhance safety. Because the lights would not be used all night long, the overall energy consumption would be less and more lighting could be installed.

Data from Vehicle Data Bus

A smart vehicle can share its data with others through the vehicle’s short-range radio and this information can be used to enhance the safety of the driving experience. For example, rain-sensing sensors used to activate the windshield wiper systems can also send this information to the other vehicles notifying them of the inclement weather conditions. The information can also be sent to the TMC through the vehicle-to-roadside communications for broader dissemination.

Speed Enforcement

The smart highway will allow drivers to travel at the safest traveling speed. However, drivers will be ticketed for exceeding the speed limit or dropping below a minimum threshold. Enforcement can be conducted by automatic photo radar systems. As a car passes through a beam emitted by a radar antenna, the radar antenna makes a series of measurements of the vehicle’s speed. Upon identification of a vehicle traveling at an unsafe speed, a signal is sent to the central processing unit, which in turn directs the high-speed camera to take a photograph of the violator’s license plate. The cameras used in photo-radar systems are high-speed industrial cameras specifically designed for traffic-enforcement photographs. Photo-radar units can be mounted for fixed or mobile deployments. When the units are mounted for mobile use they are usually mounted inside a specially equipped vehicle or on a tripod. Alternatively, the units can be mounted permanently on concrete or aluminum poles, bridges, or co-located with other devices.

Smart Toll Plazas

Until ORT becomes the norm, vehicles traveling on toll lanes at unsafe speeds will remain a serious safety hazard to both toll plaza workers and to other drivers.

In the future, approach lanes can be equipped with guidance devices and DSRC radio could tell the vehicle at what speed it should be during the approach. The embedded toll lane sensors would be able to sense how many vehicles were in a lane along with their spacing, so that each vehicle in line can make a smooth and safe approach to the toll booth.

Variable Speed Limits

A smart highway with embedded sensors can theoretically map vehicle speed and location on its surface in real time. With this dynamic map on a per lane basis and a value for the LOS that the smart highway is required to provide, the smart highway can set the optimum speed for each lane dynamically. Variable speed signs per lane every few miles will inform drivers of the speed. The onboard display will also receive the optimal speed for the lane the vehicle is in and either set that speed automatically or advise the driver of the maximum and minimum safe speed.

Active Rumble Strips

Rumble strips are usually rough sections of pavement on the shoulder of the road used to alert a driver that they are leaving the paved road surface or approaching a section of road to which the driver needs to pay particular attention. Active rumble strips are variable height bars embedded in the road surface that can be raised or lowered by remote sensors. Active rumble strips can also be tuned to be dominate in one direction of travel versus another so they can be used to alert drivers when a lane is changing direction or when construction zones are active.

Tunnel Structure Management

Long tunnels present unique safety hazards to the smart highway because potentially large volumes of vehicles are contained in an enclosed space with only the entrance and exit for escape. Egress tunnels and tunnels for maintenance workers can be used for emergency evacuation if necessary, but again it is a problem of too few exits for too many people. If a disaster happens in a tunnel, the smart highway needs to provide the tools for first responders to mitigate the disastrous consequences. The gasoline tanker truck accident in the Mont Blanc Tunnel in France in the late 1980s cost many lives and closed the tunnel for about three years. The following are some of the important resources that the smart highway could apply to tunnel management:


• Fire suppression systems generally rely on either cooling the heat source of a fire or taking oxygen from the fire.

• Video surveillance in the near infrared spectrum to provide tunnel operators with real-time information on the status of the traffic flow in the tunnel on a lane-by-lane basis.

• Carbon monoxide detectors that activate ventilation fans or increase the volume of air being swept through the tunnel. If the carbon monoxide level remains above acceptable levels, incoming traffic could be metered at the risk of causing backups on the highway leading to the tunnel entrance.

• DMS both within the tunnel and upstream of the tunnel entrance coupled with real-time sensors in the

tunnel to provide control functions over the traffic flow.

Convenience Systems

Smart highway/smart vehicle systems can improve the travel experience, in addition to improving safety.

Adaptive/Intelligent Cruise Control

This technology serves as a convenience to the driver as well as a safety enhancement. ACC improves on traditional cruise control by allowing a vehicle to automatically follow another vehicle at a set distance. With ACC, the driver sets the system when his or her vehicle is at the desired distance from the lead vehicle and the ACC maintains that spacing up to a preset vehicle speed. As with conventional cruise control, the driver must remain alert to override the system if necessary. When the distance to the lead vehicle and/or relative speed indicates a need for braking, some ACC concepts disengage the throttle and give a warning to apply the brakes. Other concepts actually tap the brakes to warn the driver. When the lead vehicle changes lanes or exits and the road is clear, the ACC will adjust to a user-specified cruise speed.

When actuated by the driver, a microwave radar unit or laser transceiver on the front of the vehicle determines the distance to the vehicle ahead and the relative speed. The computer continually adjusts the throttle (and brake tap system if so equipped). Braking can override the system at any time. Intelligence is incorporated in the units to detect momentary loss of radar return that occurs when the lead vehicles follows a curve in the road.

Autonomous Navigation

In-vehicle navigation systems provide turn-by-turn directions to a user-specified destination. Driving instructions can be delivered by voice prompts, graphic icons such as arrows, scrolling video maps, or a combination of delivery methods. Prior to the trip, the driver inputs the desired destination either manually, selected from previous trips, or from a list of common points of interest. The computer then accesses the stored digital map database or accesses the current map via the client server and plans the route based on selected user preferences such as minimizing travel time or travel distance. Instructions are then given to the driver as the vehicle approaches upcoming maneuvers. If the driver deviates from the intended route, the computer recalculates the route and delivers new instructions. GPS in conjunction with GIS digital maps are used by an OBU to locate the vehicle geographically. A logical extension of this current capability is to interface the onboard route-planning software with current traffic conditions and travel-time predictions. The OBU could then optimize the trip for the vehicle to avoid reported traffic incidents or road

construction sites.

Commercial Systems

Smart highway systems are really about data, and communicating data to systems that can then make smart decisions that enhance safety. Much of this real-time data can be used by value-added providers who repackage the data or combine it into useful and entertaining information for the drivers and passengers.

Probe Data

It has been shown that using instrumented vehicles as data probes on the highway can provide reliable and accurate real-time information about traffic conditions. Although no final consensus exists concerning the penetration of probe vehicles required to provide accurate travel time/condition data on urban freeways, various studies conducted over the past few years indicate that the requisite percentage of probe vehicles (as a percentage of total traffic volume) falls somewhere between 2 and 10 percent. Furthermore, this assumes that such probes are uniformly distributed across the area for which travel time/condition data is required. This probe-based traffic information is likely to be more accurate and less expensive than other sources and provide a highly accurate picture of current traffic


conditions. For a vehicle to be used as a probe, it must be equipped with an automatic vehicle location sensor (e.g., GPS) and have the ability to relay that position to a centralized data server, or be tracked by roadway infrastructure (e.g., non-revenue automatic vehicle identification toll antennas or license plate readers).

Infotainment Systems

Entertainment systems onboard the vehicle are gaining popularity as people spend more time in their vehicles. Some of these systems include:

Video Infotainment – High quality color video displays provided today in parts of the vehicle where the driver won’t be distracted by them. Most of the systems play back prerecorded shows and movies from DVD. However, in the future, current films may be downloaded to a vehicle through a high bandwidth wireless data link to nearby stores that today rent DVDs.

Audio Infotainment – Bluetooth short-range wireless communications are being adopted in vehicles for a variety of uses. One use may be to provide high-quality surround sound to each passenger’s headphones. The source of the sound can be tailored to each passenger’s selections from a vehicle entertainment system offering many channels of to choose from.

Games Infotainment – Computer games for both children and adults are already in vehicles. These games play through the entertainment system that plays DVDs and accept controller inputs through jacks mounted in the

back of the seats.

Integration of Smart Highway Elements

What can be done today and tomorrow?

Many elements of the smart highway system are available today, they have only to be integrated. This section explores what can be done today and what will be possible in the near future. A partial list of smart highway system capabilities and when they could reasonably be available to the public is provided in Table 3.

Roadside Infrastructure

It can be assumed that vehicles of the near future will have the ability to automatically control speed, automatically control braking, automatically know position and be able to communicate with the road (through DSRC

for short-range communications and wireless broadband for longer-range data communications). Furthermore, vehicles will be able to communicate technical capabilities to the smart highway upon entering it, including the status of the in-vehicle devices. Given this information, the smart highway can identify the vehicle and associate it with a certain level of integrated technology to enhance the travel experience and make it safer. If a smart highway is fee-based, discounts can be provided for smart vehicles.

Field Transaction Support

A smart highway will have to have a central command and control center or TMC. Long stretches of highway such as Florida’s Turnpike will have more than one TMC and vehicles will be handed off from one TMC to the next much like air traffic controllers hand off airplanes between towers. A TMC will gather data from roadside sensors in its sphere of influence and manage the data so that travel information is available throughout the network.

Vehicle Detection

Each vehicle with DSRC is expected to periodically transmit its identification code as it travels the smart highway. The short-range information it transmits will most likely be the vehicle ID, the current speed, the type of vehicle, and some standardized code to indicate the vehicle’s performance (acceleration capability, deceleration capability, weight, bumper height, and maximum people capacity). It may even be possible for the seat sensors to indicate how many people are in the vehicle and even deduce whether they are children or adults.

Automated Number Plate Recognition

If a vehicle entering the smart highway of the future does not have a working DSRC radio, the smart highway may take a picture of its license plate, convert it to data, and use that to track the vehicle at various data collection points along the smart highway.

Vehicle Classification

There are sophisticated sensors available today that can reliably classify a vehicle so the smart highway could associate a license plate number with a vehicle type and thereby infer some of the performance characteristics of the vehicle. Remote sensing can be done by any or all of the following techniques:

• Axle Counting


Capability Present 2007-2015 Beyond 2015

Real-time traffic conditions delivered in-vehicle through satellite radio broadcast

Optimum route navigation using real-time traffic conditions

Dynamic speed control - distance keeping

Green light delay for potential red light runner

Traffic signal violation warning

Truck rollover sensing/warning

Streaming infotainment - radio

Lane departure warning/keeping

Use probe vehicle for travel time, incident detection/management, and origin-destination measurements

Emergency services - auto notification

Speed control by roadway

Streaming infotainment - video

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication for safety

Infrastructure-to-vehicle communication for safety

Use of Wi-Fi along limited access highways

Central monitoring of vehicle performance and preventative maintenance

Open road tolling

New traffic control strategies based on VII

Dynamic value pricing

Emergency vehicle preemption warning and transit priority

Use VII data for asset management

Weather and road condition information based on VII

In-vehicle signing

Boarder crossing

Vehicle-based work zone warning

Vehicle platooning with on-ramp vehicle interrogation clearance, auto steering, auto navigation

Intersection collision warning (roadside based first, vehicle - roadway cooperative second)

Table 3. Smart Highway Integrated System Capabilities


• Weight Classification

• Size Classification

Security and Safety

Smart highways with strategically placed sensors and actuators can be used to significantly enhance security and safety along the highway.

Cameras and Image Processing

Image-processing software combined with digital cameras are resulting in remarkable advances in remote sensing and remote response systems. For example, a digital camera with near infrared light gathering diodes and special software can detect rollovers for a mile or more along their field of view. Generally, most vehicles are much hotter on their undersides than on their topsides. When a vehicle initially overturns, the vehicle image processed by the camera appears hot on top and stands out significantly from other vehicles on the scene. Infrared sensors and technology can differentiate between an active fire and the hot glow of metal.

Other specialized software detects changes in a scene based on motion. If a vehicle is stalled or moving very slowly in the traffic lanes, an alarm can be sounded at a monitoring station and a human can be engaged in determining what the problem is and address it.

Overheight Vehicles

Accidents caused by vehicles that are too tall to fit under a bridge or highway overpass cause major damage to the roadway and create long delays even when they impact at low speeds. Low-technology sensors and alerting devices can warn vehicles if their height is within inches of the minimum overpass clearance. A simple system, which would save hundreds of thousands of dollars and many lives, can be set up sufficiently in advance of a bridge or highway overpass consisting of two poles on either side of the roadway with a low power laser projector on one and a receiver on the other. The height of the beam off the pavement would be approximately two inches lower than the minimum clearance required. The two inches considers the vehicle’s suspension flexibility if it should bounce slightly when approaching the overpass. When the laser beam is broken, a warning sign 1,000 feet up the road would light up to warn the approaching vehicle that it will not fit under the overpass ahead. This warning could be combined with active rumble strips to further warn the

driver. The warning sign would need to be placed at least 300 feet from the overpass to allow the vehicle time to stop.

Overweight Vehicles

Overweight vehicles cause a lot of damage to the surface of roads each year and in some rare cases, cause roadway failure. Weigh-in-motion sensors using piezoelectric sensors can measure a vehicle’s weight while it is traveling at highway speeds. Once an overweight vehicle has been detected, the sensor can send a message to a central TMC, activate a camera to take a picture of the vehicle and the vehicle’s license plate, and convert the license plate number to digital data that can be processed by computers for later violation enforcement. Roadside signs can be activated to alert the driver that the vehicle is overweight and must exit the roadway.

Pavement Condition Sensors

Advances in micro-mechanical and nano-mechanical devices technology are resulting in embedded roadway sensors that are low cost, need very little energy to operate, and will lead to smart road surfaces in the near future that won’t cost much more than today’s roads. The following are a few examples of some of the capabilities of these pavement condition sensors:

• Traction is very difficult to measure since it depends on a great many of a vehicle’s parameters such as suspension set up, type of tires in use, the weight distribution of the vehicle and so on. In gross terms, sensors can detect when the road surface is icy, snow covered, mud covered, wet, or dry. Computer programs can extrapolate road sensor data to estimate the adhesion capability of the road surface and advise drivers accordingly. If this data were broadcast through DSRC to the vehicle, and the vehicle had a software program that knew what type of tires the vehicle was using, the state of the suspension and load distribution, the relative wind direction, and force of the wind, it could calculate in real time the instantaneous road surface adhesion factor and alert the driver when it approached low values.

• Rutting occurs when the road surface is relatively thin and the constant traffic in the same spot on the road surface results in grooves. Sensors that can detect how even the surface of the roadway is across


the lane will indicate when grooves are becoming pronounced and the road needs repair. Under certain lighting conditions, a CCTV camera with specialized software can also detect rutting. A laser light projector mounted a few feet above the road surface can also detect how level the road is across the lane.

• Pavement life is very much like a vehicle’s tire life. As the road wears down the tire rubber so does the tire wear down the road surface. Embedded sensors or indicators every few miles can be used to alert the highway maintenance engineers that the road surface will need repair or replacement.

Chickens or Eggs – What to Do When You Have to Choose

A smart highway system depends on a smart roadway and a smart vehicle. But what if an educated driver with a dumb vehicle wants to use the smart highway, or what can be done if a smart vehicle wants to use a dumb highway? These situations will occur often in the early days of smart highway deployment. Table 4 is a partial list of what can be done under these conditions.


Dumb Vehicle – Dumb Highway

Dumb Vehicle – Smart Highway

Smart Vehicle – Dumb Highway

Smart Vehicle – Smart Highway

Road conditions relayed through changeable message sign, if available

Road conditions relayed through changeable message signs

Road conditions relayed through satellite radio to onboard navigation devices

Road conditions relayed from vehicles ahead or directly from highway sensors via in-vehicle signing

Emergency alerts through HAR or AM/FM radio stations

Emergency alerts through HAR, highway-dedicated FM station or e-mail/text message alert to driver’s PDA

Radio automatically tunes to the HAR frequency when an alert beacon is detected

Road conveys emergency alerts to the vehicle directly (e.g., through in-vehicle signing) and the driver is alerted immediately with a recommended course of action

Travel time by discrete segments are conveyed through web sites and changeable message signs

Travel times by discrete segments through changeable message signs, a smart highway web-site, or e-mail/text message to driver’s PDA

Travel time by discrete segments are continuously monitored by the vehicle (communicated from vehicle to vehicle) and route is replanned based on driver entered criteria such as “save time,” “save fuel,” or “scenic route”

Travel time between point of departure and destination are continuously monitored by the vehicle (communicated between vehicles and to the TMC) and route is replanned based on driver entered criteria such as “save time,” “save fuel,” or “scenic route”

Traffic conditions available through cell phones, HAR, and AM/FM radio

Travel times available through cell phone (driver initiated), changeable message signs, email/text message alerts sent to driver’s PDA or cell phone (TMC initiated) or publicly available AM/FM radio station traffic reports

Traffic conditions available in real time through the onboard navigation system

Traffic conditions are sensed on a lane-by-lane basis throughout the route and automatically processed by the onboard navigation system; steering and speed are adjusted automatically; traffic updates also sent to in-vehicle devices or PDAs

Road geometry (curves, dips) and poor visibility are indicated by static signage, reflectors on the road side, or reflectors in the road

Road geometry (curves, dips) and poor visibility communicated by changeable message sign and roadside or in-road reflectors

Road geometry is relayed from vehicles ahead and speed and steering is adjusted accordingly

Imminent road geometry constantly available to the vehicle from sensors embedded in the highway and read by the vehicle

Manual steering and braking

Manual steering and braking - but changeable message signs warn of need for reduced speeds (e.g., work zones)

Manual steering, acceleration and auto braking with dynamic cruise control

Auto steering and braking based on sensors embedded in the roadway centerline of each lane

Table 4. Highway/Vehicle Capability Matrix


References

1. “Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Linking Solutions to Problems.” Federal Highway Administration 19 July 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report/index.htm>

2. Patton, Phil. “Driving; Road Signs of the Times.” The New York Times 21 January 2005. 7 February 2005 <http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/travel/article-page.html?res=9E0DE5D81038F932A15752C0A9639C8B63>


Chapter 5Smart Highway Business Model

What is a Business Model?

A model is a replica, framework, representation, copy, mock-up, or reproduction. A business model extends beyond this definition and describes a replica of an enterprise or a mock-up of a corporation. Essentially, a business model describes how a business will be designed, how it will be planned, how it will be implemented, and how it will be operated and maintained. A business model includes:

Organizational Elements including executive, administration, finance, engineering, and operations.

Business and Process Elements such as understanding markets and customers, developing a vision and strategy, designing products and services, marketing and selling, producing and delivering, invoicing and servicing customers, and support and maintenance.

Technology Elements including the type of toll system, telecommunications and computer technology and support technology.

Implementation Elements such as planning, design, training, documentation, and project management.

Why Should a Business Model Be Used?

A business model provides structure for the identification of operating functions and business processes. It also serves as a navigation guide through the evaluation and implementation process.

In the case of smart highways, it is not enough to buy high-tech sensors, educate drivers, and equip vehicles; the highway operator must also set up business operations to take full advantage of new services being offered and new data being collected. Although all functions and processes may not need to be implemented, they need to be assessed. Assessment of each function, based on its value and criticality to the business process, provides metrics to validate the importance of this function in the overall business process. These metrics will also drive decisions regarding

public vs. private operation, SLA content and detail, and performance metrics. This approach provides checks and balances to insure a successful implementation.

This business model approach also provides the enterprise with a cross-functional view of each business process and parts of the organization involved in its execution.

The creation of a business model strongly supports an enterprise’s ability to readily evaluate the benefits of supporting functions and processes internally, externally, or any combination thereof. A business model can be implemented in a variety of ways including public, public-private, or privatized.

How Should a Business Model Be Used?

By using a business model as a guide, an enterprise can easily move through the process of defining its business strategy to deliver products and services with a high degree of purpose, confidence, and success. The proposed business model, from American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) International Benchmarking Clearinghouse, suggests a high-level, generic approach. The suggested business model provides a guide for the enterprise as it moves through the process of defining, planning, implementing, and managing its business. From developing a business strategy, business goals, and objectives, through defining business rules, supporting procedures, and deliverables, an enterprise can navigate the business world with more confidence and agility.

Every enterprise relies on the same operating functions such as finance, human resources, engineering, and customer service, as the building blocks of their business. These operating functions are usually referred to as vertical or silo functions. The processes used to run the business traverse these vertical functions and add value to the product until it is delivered to the customer. For example, processing of a customer’s order may start at a customer-service kiosk, then move to accounting, over to order fulfillment, then to shipping, and finally to the customer. In this example, the business process traversed five operating functions. Although these building blocks


(operating functions) are similar across enterprises, the accuracy and completeness of the plans that are used to construct and operate the enterprise (business model and processes) are what provide a competitive advantage. The business model provides the enterprise with insight for execution of this process, for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the process, and for improving and enhancing the process.

An Example

Figure 15 is from the APQC International Benchmarking Clearinghouse and represents a process classification framework business model. The intent of this model is to present a high-level, generic enterprise business model that will encourage businesses and

other organizations to plan and implement their activities from a cross-functional, process viewpoint instead of a narrow functional viewpoint.

Originally, this model was seen as a classification of business processes. That charter has changed over the years to become a useful tool in understanding and mapping business processes.

Key Components: Smart Highway Business Model

The APQC business process model in Figure 16 has been tailored to represent our approach to a smart highway business model. Using this modified business model example, an enterprise can be lead through the process of defining, planning, implementing, and maintaining a smart highway. There are two very distinct

Figure 15. Process Classification Framework


processes represented—the business model process, and the management, support, and operations processes. The business model process describes the steps necessary to successfully navigate through defining, planning, implementing, and maintaining the enterprise’s business and the management, support, and the operations processes provide the structure necessary to support the efficient and effective operation of the enterprise and its business processes.

Market, Customer, and Enterprise Objectives

This is where the business model process starts to take shape. Our first step looks external to the enterprise involving a definition of the market space, evaluation of the required financials, identification of potential opportunities, competition, customer base, and current offerings that characterize the opportunity.

The next step looks internal to the enterprise to define enterprise objectives, goals, vision and mission, customer needs, customer wants, current customer satisfaction with

available products and services, complaint resolution, and communications.

Alignment of these two steps is crucial to the success of a business model. If the internal enterprise is not aligned to support the external opportunities, the model will fail. Monitoring changes in the market, weaknesses, and competitive offerings throughout this process adds value to the results. This information drives the next phase in

the development of the business model.

Strategy, Goals, and Business Objectives

Strategies, goals, and business objectives will take their lead from the work completed in the first phase of the business model. Again, alignment of these phases insures a successful entry into the identified market space as well as reducing false starts or entries into saturated or dry markets. Monitoring external environmental issues (such as demographics, social and cultural trends, ecological concerns, relevant markets, assessing new technologies, analyzing and understanding competition,

Figure 16. Business Model


tracking economic trends, and assessing political and regulatory issues) will form the strategy and goals for the business. Business concepts such as developing a long-term strategy, formulating business unit strategies, and developing an overall mission statement along with organizational strategies (such as organizational structures, relationships, and organizational goals), will

continue to fill out the business model.

Plan Product and Service Offerings

As with the previous phase, the planning of product and service offerings is driven from the results of the strategy, goals, and business objectives phase. Defining new product and service concepts and plans is driven by the information gathered by the previous phases and based on customer needs. Planning and deploying quality metrics, defining life-cycle and development targets, and integrating technology into the solution are important components of the process. Converting these concepts and plans into product and service specifications requires engineering (value engineering), document design specifications, prototypes, product and service enhancements, elimination of outdated products and services, elimination of reliability and quality problems, designing and acquiring the necessary materials and equipment, designing, building and evaluating prototypes, refining and testing results, and managing deployment of product and services. In conjunction with this work, the

marketing and sales strategies need to be developed.

Sales and Marketing

Marketing and selling of services is the next phase of this process. Developing a powerful marketing message supported by service benefits and attention-grabbing advertisements, will provide the public with a strong image of the enterprise and its products and services. The sales strategy needs to include advertising capital and expenses, sales forecasting processes, negotiation terms, order-processing procedures, point of sale configurations and locations. Diagram 1 is an example of the steps an enterprise can undertake in its marketing and selling efforts.


Dia

gra

m 1

. Mar

ket

and

Sel

l

Lege

nd

Blu

e -

Rep

rese

nts

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

of a

n ac

tivity

.

Whi

te -

Rep

rese

nts

an a

ctiv

ity w

ithin

the

busi

ness

pro

cess

that

cre

ates

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

.

Dot

ted

Line

- E

ncirc

le e

xter

nal w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

s.


Production and Delivery

What business structure will best support the production and delivery process? Should these services be produced in-house or should they be outsourced? Should the enterprise partner with a vendor to deliver these services? Are the skills available in-house to create and support these services? What performance metrics and SLAs should be established?

Answering these questions requires an evaluation of current assets such as skillsets and resources, current business structure and functions, current vendor and partner agreements, and current technology and communications structure. The next step involves acquiring the necessary resources, selecting and certifying vendors that could be partners and competitors, establishing materials and supplies, developing purchase agreements, and acquiring appropriate technology to support the delivery of services.

With respect to a smart highway, the following list of services could be provided by the smart highway infrastructure. Key components and points for consideration are listed as bullet points after each service description. For each service, the business value add, technology availability, cost-benefit, and motorist benefit should be evaluated by the enterprise.

What Services to Provide

Incident Management – The term incident as it is used here refers to any event that degrades safety and slows traffic, including disabled vehicles, crashes, maintenance activities, adverse weather conditions, special events, and debris on the roadway. Incident management yields significant benefits through reduced vehicle delays and enhanced safety to motorists through the reduction of incident frequency and improved response and clearance times. It also enables responders at all levels to work together more effectively and efficiently to manage incidents no matter what the cause, size, or complexity. Keys to incident management include:

• Detection

• Verification

• Response

• Clearance

• Restoration

Incident Avoidance – Incident avoidance is related to roadway infrastructure and how well it directs and guides the driver. Key considerations include reliable, timely, and accurate motorist information; improvements in signage; lighting; and roadway markings.

• Dynamic Road Geometry

• Onboard Vehicle Unit

• Smart Lighting

Payment Systems – With the goal of offering the motorist a convenient payment system, consider integrating the enterprise’s payment systems with partners and other services that are offered as part of the motorist’s experience.

• Tolls

• Parking

• Transit

• Nontransportation

• End to End (integration with other partner and nonpartner service offerings)

• Revenue Management

• Retail Distribution Network

Flow Management – Think proactive traffic management. The following list provides points for consideration to improve traffic flow. Controlling access to highways and providing communication to navigation devices in motor vehicles are just a few of the options that should be considered for managing the flow of traffic.

• Lane Management

• Access Control

• Payment (nonstop)

• Headway Control (vehicle spacing)

• Cooperative Driving

• Speed Control

• Corridor Management

• Predictive Travel Time

Public Safety – Providing real-time information to the first responders of an emergency, updating that information dynamically as situations change, and tracking vehicles of interest will be invaluable in enhancing public safety.

• Immediate Information Provided to Emergency Responders

• Support to Fire, Police, and Rescue (e.g., Wi-Fi, WiMax)

• Security (ID vehicle of interest)


Construction Work Zone Control – Protection of work crews and rerouting of traffic can contribute to better flow management and to the implementation of safety measures that improve safety for work crews and motorists.

• Advanced Warning

• Speed Control

• Detour Awareness

Enforcement and Security – Services to support local, county, state, and federal law enforcement will improve road safety and provide for a safer community.

• Unsafe Driver Detection

• Speed Enforcement

• Vehicles of Interest

• Amber Alert

Fleet/Freight Management – Each of these help provide better safety awareness and management as well as provide important information to both fleet and freight management companies.

• RFID

• GPS tracking

• Automatic Vehicle Location

• Bill of Lading

• Hazardous Materials Management

• Fleet-focused Information

Traveler Support – Supporting direct communication to vehicle navigation systems and roadside traffic signage will improve the motorist experience and provide improved motorist safety and travel times.

• Predictive Travel Information

• Route Management

• Concierge Services

• Location-based Services

Performance Management – This service is essential for measuring the health of the smart highway as well as improving and providing additional services. If the current LOS cannot be measured, how can it be improved or enhanced?

• Traffic and Road Network Rating

• SLAs

Asset Management – Management of smart highway assets is a crucial factor in managing both maintenance and improvement costs. This service will aid in the planning cycle for renewal, replacement, and addition of all smart highway assets.

• Building

• Sensors

• Roadway

• Signage and Marking

• Lighting

• Drainage/Smart Structures

• Configuration Control

• All Other Infrastructure

Situation Awareness – A smart highway is susceptible to many environmental events that can’t be controlled. The ability to access weather forecasts and other external conditions will enhance the ability to manage traffic flow, accident avoidance, incident management, and public safety.

• Atmosphere Conditions

• Road/Pavement Conditions

• Sensor Management

• Vehicle/Probe Data

• Incident and Event Reports

Enterprise-level Services

The following services are considerations for enterprise-level planning. Each help contain and manage costs as well as provide the motorist with excellent services.

• Risk Management

• CRM

• Total Quality Management

• ERP

• Partner Identification and Management

• Decision Support

Each of the above points should be evaluated as to requirements (customer need) and value/benefit (is this of value to our customers and our business), keeping in mind that the enterprise’s business may extend beyond the highway. What additional services can be offered that will enhance the customer experience? As internal and external partnerships provide value to service offerings, consideration should be given to other industries and their service offerings/products to determine if they are applicable to the enterprise’s business strategy. Finally,


an assessment of the existing organizational structure should be undertaken to determine if it supports the current business plan and operations or if revisions are

necessary.

Invoice and Service Customers

Accurate billing of the customer, backed by a strong customer service center, will lead the way to a strong customer relationship. Additionally, a quick response to billing inquiries, efficient after-sales and post-sales service and handling of warranties and claims, promptly responding to information requests or handling customer complaints, all help strengthen this relationship. Other points to keep in mind are to confirm specific service requirements for individual customers, identify and schedule resources to meet service requirements, provide the service to specific customers, and ensure a high level of quality service.

Diagram 2 is a high-level summary of the processes and key elements involved in invoicing and servicing the

customer.


Dia

gra

m 2

. In

voic

e an

d S

ervi

ce t

he

Cu

sto

mer

Lege

nd

Blu

e -

Rep

rese

nts

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

of a

n ac

tivity

.

Whi

te -

Rep

rese

nts

an a

ctiv

ity w

ithin

the

busi

ness

pro

cess

that

cre

ates

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

. D

otte

d Li

ne -

Enc

ircle

ext

erna

l wor

k pr

oduc

t or

deliv

erab

les.


Internal Resources or Private Partners and Third Parties

As stated previously, the assessment of each function, based on its value and criticality to the business process, provides metrics to validate the importance of this function in the overall business process. These metrics will also drive decisions regarding public (internal resources) vs. private (partners or third parties) operations, SLA content and detail, and performance metrics. Resource availability, criticality to the business process, specific vs. general expertise, costs, and a number of other points will need to be reviewed during the decision process. In general, these strategies have been used to achieve the following objectives:

Market, Customer, and Enterprise Objectives – These are most often done internally at the enterprise.

Strategy, Goals, and Business Objectives – These are most often done internally at the enterprise.

Plan Product and Service Offerings – This is most often a combined effort of internal resources augmented with private partners or third-party providers.

Market and Sell – This is most often a combined effort of internal resources augmented with private partners or third-party providers.

Produce and Deliver – This is most often a combined effort of internal resources augmented with private partners or third-party providers.

Invoice and Service – This is most often a combined effort of internal resources augmented with private partners or third-party providers.

All of the above decisions and agreements, whether internal or external, require detailed SLAs. Each SLA should contain at least performance metrics, penalty

metrics, delivery descriptions, and durations.

Business Process Analysis – Production and Delivery of Potential Smart Highway Applications

Each of the services that can be produced and delivered for a smart highway has a number of subprocesses that go into the successful delivery of the service. The following section details the subprocesses that go into the delivery of two potential smart highway services:

• Location-based Services (LBS)

• Predictive Travel Time

Following the process maps that detail the key steps involved in delivering each of these services is a list of private sector companies that can potentially assist in the

delivery of these services.

Mobile Traveler Services

The envisioned infrastructure for the smart highway provides the ability to enhance predictive travel times as well as the capability for both public and private interests to deliver a wide range of wireless-based services. These services can piggyback on the smart highway’s communications technology infrastructure that enables in-vehicle devices to interact with the roadway infrastructure.

Not only would this technology support public-oriented safety and traveler information applications, but in-vehicle devices would also facilitate the creation of a market for other LBS. When integrated with CRM applications and data mining techniques, the potential for targeting consumers with personalized LBS provides an attractive services base.

From a commercial perspective, motorists receive information related to “next-exit” services (including at a minimum generic food, fuel, and lodging information), or by integrating vehicular-status data with existing customer CRM-based preferences, suggestions for preferred services or brands.

In order to comply with privacy rights, motorists control the types and frequency of contact and even choose to disengage from commercial services through voice- or

touch-activated commands.

Location-Based Services

Diagram 3 depicts the high-level process whereby in-vehicle devices interact with the smart highway infrastructure providing LBS. When the system


Dia

gra

m 3

. Lo

cati

on

-Bas

ed S

ervi

ces

Lege

nd

Blu

e -

Rep

rese

nts

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

of a

n ac

tivity

.

Whi

te -

Rep

rese

nts

an a

ctiv

ity w

ithin

the

busi

ness

pro

cess

that

cre

ates

a w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

.

Dot

ted

Line

- E

ncirc

le e

xter

nal w

ork

prod

uct o

r de

liver

able

s.


establishes a communications link with an in-vehicle device, an identity match with available data takes place to determine what type of information to push to the device.

In cases where the in-vehicle device is new, the system establishes communications and acts according to preferences established with the service provider at the time of service initiation including entering a passive wait state or pushing appropriate information.

If the device has communicated with the system before, a CRM record exists providing some level of personalized information about the user.

The service provider’s system calls personalized preferences from the database and transmits relevant service-related suggestions for display on the in-vehicle device. If one of these suggestions matches the user’s needs, the user chooses that option and the order fulfillment process begins. When the user has no current need for services, the system passively waits until the next point where relevant information matches personalized preferences. In all cases, the system updates CRM data to note any changes in personal preferences.

The system maintains constant communication with the device during the passive wait state to address the user’s need for service or information.

Throughout this process, the in-vehicle device continuously provides data to the LBS about its status and the status of the surrounding environment. The data captured via this linkage updates the service provider’s database with near real-time information about the vehicle as well as that portion of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling.

Diagram 4 depicts LBS data tracking and consolidation.

Request for Alternate Route Information

Diagram 5 depicts a service request from a motorist for alternate routing information. These types of requests make use of public and private data resources including near real-time speeds, travel times, incidents and work zone updates, current weather conditions, predictive travel times, etc., in order to present accurate travel options to the motorist.

Other service requests may touch on any number of motorist’s needs presenting options based on the motorist’s current situation as well as information about near-term events and possible destinations.

Potential services are limited only by the content streams and processing power of the LBS provider and the transmission capabilities (bandwidth and coverage) of the roadway communications infrastructure. The wireless industry has shown immense capabilities for transmitting voice, data, and video, and as such, the potential is enormous.

Predictive Travel Time

Predictive travel time is defined as a near-, mid-, or long-term estimate of traffic-network travel times based upon all available information, including current traffic-network conditions, weather, and travel demand forecasts.

Multiple data streams will be required to support the development of predictive data for use by the various channels that will have an interest in this information. One vision, as depicted in Diagram 6, presumes that a combination of public and private concerns will publish and distribute the available information to their consumers or constituents.

Predictive data is a product of the fusion of near real-time data and the multidimensional analysis of historical trend data. Private companies are the most likely source for the development and distribution of predictive data through their proprietary analytical algorithms. Their analysis will produce value-added information for distribution to public entities or commercial third parties who would in turn publish to their market segments.

The Use of Near Real-Time and Predictive Data

As depicted in Diagrams 7 and 8, the potential exists for public interests to combine predictive information with near real-time data to modify operational strategies.

Commercial third parties supply predictive information not only to the public entities that manage the road network, but also to fleet operators and other commercial concerns whose business models depend on increased travel efficiencies.


Diagram 4. LBS Data Tracking and Consolidation

Diagram 5. Request for Alternate Route

Legend

Blue - Represents a work product or deliverable of an activity.

White - Represents an activity within the business process that creates a work product or deliverable.

Dotted Line - Encircle external work product or deliverables.


Diagram 6. Predictive Travel Time: Data Stream

Diagram 7. Predictive Travel Time: Combining Production Information with Near Real-Time Data

Legend





Technologies and Vendors

The suggested infrastructure and applications introduces an integration of technologies that have not commonly been associated with highway infrastructure or the transportation industry. These applications and a sampling of potential vendor partners are listed here.

Private Data Collection Services

• Econolite

• SpeedInfo

• AirSage

• D.R.I.V.E.S.

• Mobility Technologies

• VIASYS

Predictive Travel Times

• TrafficCast

Data Aggregators

The sample content providers listed below have demonstrated the ability to address the specific content needs of the transportation industry by providing detailed traffic information:

• Navigation Technologies

• Telecenter

• Mobility Technologies

LBS Content Providers

• Daimler-Chrysler

• Microsoft

• Qualcomm

• Yahoo

Business Intelligence Suites

Business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. Systems that exemplify business intelligence include medical research,

Diagram 8. Predictive Travel Time: Improving Operational Conditions

Legend





customer profiling, market basket analysis, customer contact analysis, market segmentation, scoring, product profitability, and inventory movement.

• Business Objects

• Cognos

• Computer Associates

• Hyperion

• Informatica

• Information Builders

• MicroStrategy

• Oracle

Database Management Systems

A DBMS is a suite of programs which typically manages large structured sets of persistent data, offering ad hoc query facilities to many users. They are widely used in business applications.

A DBMS can be an extremely complex set of software programs that controls the organization, storage, and retrieval of data (fields, records, and files) in a database. It also controls the security and integrity of the database. The DBMS accepts requests for data from the application program and instructs the operating system to transfer the appropriate data.

• IBM DB2

• IBM Informix

• Microsoft SQL*Server

• NCR Teradata

• Oracle 10g

• Sybase ASE

Client Relationship Management

Customer information acquired from sales, marketing, customer service, and support is captured and stored in a centralized database. The system may provide data-mining facilities that support an opportunity management system. It may also be integrated with other systems such as accounting and manufacturing for a truly enterprisewide system with thousands of users.

• Art Technology Group

• Onyx

• PeopleSoft

• SAP

• Pivotal

• Selectica

• Siebel

Systems Integrators

Systems integrators specialize in building complete computer systems by putting together components from different vendors. Unlike software developers, systems integrators typically do not produce any original code. Instead, they enable a company to use off-the-shelf hardware and software packages to meet a company’s computing needs.

The following systems integrators have exhibited proven, repeatable methodologies with regard to large-scale data warehousing and business intelligence initiatives. They have multiple successful design and implementations of high-volume business intelligence solutions featuring many of the software vendors identified here.

• Cap, Gemini, Ernst & Young

• CIBER, Inc.

• IBM

• Knightsbridge

• North Highlands

Common Infrastructure – Multiple Service Providers

Other examples in which a common infrastructure, such as a highway, is utilized by multiple service providers include:

VICS

VICS is a nationally available ATIS service in Japan that collects raw data on current road conditions and delivers fused traveler information to drivers whose vehicles have been equipped with VICS in-vehicle units (communications occurring in real time via FM multiplex broadcast, infrared beacon, and radio beacon). Radio transceivers are utilized for delivering data on expressways, while infrared beacons are utilized on arterial roads. Both of these technologies utilize point-based wireless communications that deliver data at designated locations where VICS-equipped vehicles are within the range of the radio transceiver or infrared beacon. FM multiplex broadcasting uses existing FM radio broadcasts to provide traveler information to drivers across wider areas. Although the VICS data collection and dissemination system is publicly operated, the in-vehicle equipment used by drivers to access this data is provided by a wide range of private-sector electronics companies that offer different options for viewing the data. It is up to


the driver to select and purchase the type of unit desired. This public-private partnership has led to the deployment of millions of privately developed in-vehicle units all making use of the common VICS data stream. For more information, go to: http://www.vics.or.jp/eng/index.html

U.S. Electrical Generation/Supply

The traditional structure of this industry revolves around the use of a “regulated monopoly” approach to both the generation and the supply of electricity. Public utility companies generate and transmit about 75 percent of the electricity in the United States, with the remainder produced by some 3,000 public or cooperative utilities. Over the years, the electrical utilities’ individual power transmission grids have evolved to be encompassed by three major grid networks. These networks consist of extra-high-voltage connections between individual utilities designed to permit the transfer of electrical energy from one part of the network to another. Virtually all U.S. utilities are interconnected with at least one other utility by these three major grids. Within the three major power grids, control area operators facilitate the reliable and efficient operation of the interconnected electric power systems, allowing the interconnected utilities within each power grid to coordinate operations and buy and sell

power among themselves. The existence and operation of this overarching electrical power transmission network is especially important given the trend in the U.S. to create a wholesale market for electricity, in which a number of electricity generation companies compete to sell their electricity to other companies that will retail the electricity to the consumer (thereby creating pressure for lower prices and higher service/value levels).

Trafficmaster

Trafficmaster is an ATIS system covering most major motorways and trunk roads/arterials in the United Kingdom. It is composed of traffic sensors, a communications network/data fusion engine, and a range of in-vehicle information units. Although Trafficmaster is privately owned and financed, it operates its data collection system via a public-private partnership with the UK’s Department of Environment, Transport, and Regions. Although Trafficmaster has developed a range of in-vehicles and handheld units to make use of its real-time information feed, a number of other automotive electronics manufacturers have developed other types of in-vehicle devices (generally customized to the specific model of vehicle) that make use of Trafficmaster’s data stream. For more information, go to: http://www.trafficmaster.co.uk/.


Chapter 6Implementation and Deployment

The preceding chapters have presented a wide array of technologies, services and business processes related to the broad topic of smart highways. To complete the circle, implementation and deployment must also be addressed by considering, and in some cases, revisiting:

• The focus for deployment

• The primary needs of smart highway constituents

• The vision and rationale for smart highways

• Implementation approaches and contract models

• The business case

• External requirements and constraints

Deployment Focus

To make smart highway implementation and deployment a worthwhile endeavor, it is important to focus upon areas that have been referenced throughout this ITS Orange Book. As a reminder, these include but are not limited to:

• Data coverage that is timely, comprehensive and standardized

• Integrated applications that eliminate the need to fuse data together on the backend.

• Vehicle to roadside communications infrastructure suitable for multiple applications, such as the collection and dissemination of data to and from TMC’s, infrastructure, vehicles and vehicle manufacturers (e.g. probe data on vehicle performance)

• Private sector involvement in developing technologies and services that customers will pay to support

• Technology selection and implementation that takes into account varying life cycles for infrastructure, vehicles and supporting third-party consumer electronics

Who Are Smart Highways For?

Well-maintained roads, safe conditions, good vehicles, and ready information on travel conditions are expected. Smart highways help owner-operators meet these goals through the efficient application of IT.

Before proposing implementation of any of the smart-highway technologies, however, we need to examine the needs and objectives of smart-highway constituents, because in the end, they will have to pay for them. They must perceive value for in the additional services, for the additional cost.

• First is the motoring public, those who pay for the road through taxes or tolls.

• Secondly, there is the highway owner that builds and operates the facility.

• Then there are third parties who will pay to use the highway infrastructure to offer driver products and services.

For each of these, what do smart highways represent? What do they want from a smart highway?

Drivers

The smart highway, for a driver, will supply information that makes the drive on the facility smooth, safe, fast, and convenient. Consumers shop at Wal*Mart to save 50 cents on a pound of coffee, but pay $6 to log on to T-Mobile at Starbucks while drinking a very expensive cup. Many people pay more than $100 a month for multiple cell phones and remote e-mail devices. If smart highways provide desirable or expected services as part of the landscape, the technology feature will attract use. Consumers will pay for value when it is perceived. ETC has already shown drivers will pay to save travel time and avoid stop-and-go conditions. It is also clear that consumers like having information, but it is less clear that they will pay for it. Google, even though approaching the status of “necessity of life,” is still supported by advertising and not subscriptions.

Given the plethora of high-tech “tools” in the average tote bag or briefcase, it might be reasonable to assume the driving public may be interested in receiving more information through their existing devices and services, rather than adding on to them. Another purchase that does not have a direct, tangible benefit, might be a very tough sell.


Highway Owners

For the highway owner, the smart highway uses or provides data (for manipulation into information) to meet customer needs, support safety and emergency operations, and maximize ROI. Support for safety and emergency operations is part of the fixed responsibility of any highway operator. Smart highway integrated incident detection, emergency dispatch, driver notification and rerouting, and monitoring of system performance, all greatly enhance the highway operator’s ability to provide a safe facility and effective emergency services. Highway safety, in fact, has been one of the foremost justifications for the application of ITS technologies to date.

Less understood, but arguably no less important, is the need to maximize owner value. This is the mantra of any private enterprise, but it’s no less significant to government entities. The public is, ultimately, the owner and beneficiary of the highway infrastructure, which, like any physical asset, depreciates over time without maintenance and improvements. A smart highway with steady information on wear-and-tear can greatly aid in targeting early intervention to keep infrastructure in a high state of repair. This is the most cost-effective way to maximize the retained value of the facility.

The flip side of value maximization, of course, is value depletion, which comes about through increasing operating costs leading to deferred maintenance. The U.S. highway industry has seen this: The DOT’s costs to rehabilitate roads that were ignored in the 1960s and 1970s have been enormous.

Toll-operations costs have increased with the advent of ETC while the cash-collection infrastructure has been kept in place. A smart highway that helps owners cut operating costs to free up funds for road and bridge maintenance, and enables toll operators to eliminate the fixed costs of toll plazas, will truly benefit the highway operation.

Third-Party Product and Service Providers

The benefits of a smart highway for the IT and automotive industries includes ”shelf space” for their products and services to consumers, the opportunity to sell to the highway owner, and the option to access the infrastructure for R&D or commercial operations.

Starbucks does not offer Internet service, but T-Mobile does. T-Mobile does not make phones, Motorola does. Each business mines its core competency and partners

with other companies to package a complete service to the customer. Similarly, as the business side of a public-private partnership, third parties are customers of the smart-highway, purchasing right-of-way and communications access, and raw data.

Smart highway owners build facilities with 30- to 40-year finance horizons and pavement designs based on 20-year lifespans. Highway engineers work through long-term planning and implementation phases over several years. Highway core competencies revolve around design and care of massive fixed assets, not the design, purchase, and operations of IT systems. Highway owners and operators are IT users. Just as Motorola sells rapidly evolving phones to mobile communications vendors, IT producers can provide rapidly changing products and services for the highway industry.

IT industry core competencies, combined with those of the highway operator, can provide the complete highway customer-service package: ETC account services, decision-grade driver information, vehicle information monitoring, accident emergency services, roadside services, and reliable traffic flow at posted speeds.

The question remains: How do we marry the private IT industry, which sees new product launches every six months, , with the public roads sector, which has evolved slowly since Caesar lay down roads for his armies, and almost imperceptibly since Eisenhower built roads for his?

The Smart Highway Vision

“Vision” identifies the core competency and gives the reason for an enterprise’s existence. What is the vision, the core competency, and rationale of a smart highway?

Corporate strategy authors Prahalad and Hamel identify three tests to identify a core competency:

1. Access to a wide variety of markets.

2. Significant contribution to perceived customer benefits.

3. Difficult for competitors to imitate.

A smart highway corridor is the gateway to many markets: drivers, multiple third-party industries and business ventures that supplement the highway core operation.

As for imitators, it is possible – though very unlikely – that a “competitor” will undertake construction of a nearby roadway that costs $40M a mile to build.


A Case Study in Successful Technology Applications in Highways: Electronic Toll Collection

Consider the fifteen-year history of electronic toll collection (ETC) and how it rose from a novel business proposition and technical R&D project, to a prerequisite for toll industry design and operations. Current estimates are that half of the approximately $6 billion in annual toll revenues in the United States is collected by electronic toll collection, and the percentage has not stopped growing. In the eye of the two main parties involved in highway operations, the driver and the highway owner, there is a clear and compelling value proposition that makes the money spent on ETC worthwhile.

Unlike cash-paying toll customers, ETC customers get to drive either through, or around, toll plazas. ETC makes the trip substantially more predictable and convenient than the trip would be otherwise. We all always seek “faster, better, cheaper:” ETC is widely perceived by drivers as faster, usually much better, and now often cheaper, with ETC discounts. Even when there is no discount, a given toll amount is less perceptible to ETC customers than to cash customers. “Cheaper” is in terms of perception, if not in reality. Which costs are felt more, $4 in cash at a toll plaza, or $4 buried in a line item on a credit card statement? $4 cash at a booth hurts more when you have to buy lunch at the next exit, and you only have $5 in your wallet.

The toll owner gets to eliminate toll plaza traffic congestion, thereby gaining political tolerance to remain in existence—and even expand. The reality is that there would be no new toll roads such as those in California, Colorado or suburban Toronto, were it not for high-speed ETC. The most heavily trafficked first generation toll roads from the 1940s and 1950s would likely have been dissolved had electronic toll collection not relieved their traffic congestion. This, in fact, is precisely what happened in Jacksonville, Florida in 1988. Toll plazas there had significant traffic congestion on a regular basis, a sales tax was approved to fund the elimination of tolls. If the Illinois Tollway still had the same 30-minute backups in 2005 at its mainline plazas that it had in 1988, the toll authority could quite possibly be in an untenable position going forward. The Illinois Tollway routes would have been handed over to the Illinois DOT, which has publicly stated many times the great challenge of affording maintenance for Tollway routes. The value proposition is quite clear: vote for non-stop ETC or perish.

These are immediate, major, perceptible benefits. The facts that ETC has added operational costs for the owner, and account maintenance effort and costs for the driver, have not stopped ETC expansion. The benefits are now considered to be minimum service offerings. ETC is expected. The lessons leaned from this successful model should be taken into consideration when considering potential smart highway applications.

Florida Turnpike Enterprise – SunPass ETC Illinois Tollway – I-Pass ETC


To significantly contribute to perceived customer benefits means the customer sees real value in the offering, that is, the service makes a difference to the customer’s quality of life. ETC certainly meets this test. Driver information directly related to accident avoidance or traffic delays will likely pass this test, as could information that contributes to a successful trip (this can increasingly be delivered by radio, handheld devices, or cell phones, too). Direct highway-vehicle interaction, with data streams in either direction, could pass this test, but that would be most applicable to unique and immediate locations; for example, vehicle behavior on long inclines with high vehicle operating stress.

Of course, the driving customer may not directly perceive “significant contributions.” The customer will only experience a highway with smooth, quiet pavement and steady operating speeds and few congestion points. That the roadway is performing so well due to instrumentation, good maintenance, and excellent emergency services dispatch and clearing will be recognized by the smart highway owner-operator, who in this case, is the customer gaining the unique benefit.

A smart highway owner-operator is a smart customer of IT products and services. Therefore, one vision of a smart highway could be:

A smart highway is a premium-service integrated systems highway that provides information and controls to drivers, their vehicles, and highway owners, in order to meet the service and safety needs of the drivers and owners, and to maximize infrastructure value for the public.

Smart Highway Rationale

Highway Management with Performance Monitoring Measures

As managers of state-of-the-art roadways, smart highway owners need to apply the same methods and techniques prevalent in private industry. The first principle of good management is to collect data and report to shareholders an accurate picture of the business. Show investors how their money—tax allocations or private debt or equity—is being used, and show the taxpayer and/or toll payers what they are paying for.

Highways sell access to, ideally, a safe and freely-moving path. Highway engineers measure product performance in travel time and LOS (as defined in the Highway Capacity

Manual). Now, with probe data, vehicle count, and speed-detection sensors fairly commonplace, it is easy and essential to measure these basics on an ongoing basis:

• Vehicle count, classification, and movement.

• Lane-mile hours at greater than or equal to posted speeds.

• Hourly average-speed profiles.

• Lane-mile hours at varying LOS

• LOS numbers including hourly traffic and CV percent weighting.

• Accident statistics.

• Incident action statistics including:

• Time to detect

• Time to notify

• Time to clear

• Time until travel delay clear

These operations measurements are critical for managers, since they help determine appropriate expenditures for emergency vehicles, staffing, and means of notification to the general public to minimize secondary incidents.

Comprehensive data enables the private-sector owner to measure incremental return on incremental investment, and gives the public-sector manager compelling information to present to executive and legislative officials on how tax dollars are improving the public welfare.

Collection of this information has long been part of highway management. What is new, though, is the ability to collect large amounts economically, and managers are increasingly doing this. The FHWA and its state DOTs have already initiated the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), described as follows:

The HPMS is a national level highway information system that includes data on the extent, condition, performance, use, and operating characteristics of the Nation’s highways. In general, the HPMS contains administrative and extent of system information on all public roads, while information on other characteristics is represented in HPMS as a mix of universe and sample data for arterial and collector functional systems. Limited information on travel and paved miles is included in summary form for the lowest functional systems.


Smart highways have the capability to easily support and supplement this area-wide data-collection effort to benchmark performance.

In much the same way as traffic engineers conduct studies to determine 85th-percentile speeds as appropriate speed limits, collection of data over time enables smart highway owners to determine reasonable performance levels, comparative performance levels, and improvement goals.

Maximizing and Preserving Road Value

Similar to measuring operations performance, it is possible—if not increasingly expected and essential—to constantly measure infrastructure performance. Many periodic inspections are conducted by hand or by vehicle on a regular basis. This is now typically performed annually for expressways and toll highways, and at least biannually for all structures in the United States. Techniques for pavement testing and on the fly measurement of cracking and deformations have improved greatly, but these are still, relatively speaking, limited snapshots with a lot of space and time between the pictures.

How would increasingly fine data collection be used? The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) methodology laid out in GASB-34 requires that all major civil infrastructure must be carried as depreciated assets on financial balance sheets. Depreciation is normally applied by a simple mathematical formula such as straight line or declining balance methods. With greater condition data and professional judgment of the significance of the data, engineers may rate the depreciation of a given facility higher or lower than the simple calculated amount. In other words, it becomes increasingly possible to quantify what our highways, bridges, and tunnels are worth, given construction cost and depreciation. If they are maintained, they are worth more. Now ROI for infrastructure maintenance can be measured. The better the data, the better the measurement.

If highways, bridges and tunnels are maintained in a high state of repair, they are generally considered to have depreciated little, except for wearing items. It is an axiom that regular preventive maintenance is the most cost-effective use of limited highway dollars. However, premature maintenance and periodic replacement of all pavement, all bridge decks, and other highway elements, can become prohibitively expensive. Regular

instrumentation and detection of field conditions of the following items may be able in provide early indications of required treatments.

Pavement:

• Pavement temperature, moisture, and chemical composition.

• Pavement rutting and irregularities.

• Pavement deck loadings with weigh-in-motion devices to determine ESALs.

• Deformities, where possible.

Structures:

• Deck temperature, moisture, and chemical composition.

• Loads and deflections.

• Beam positions.

• Scour or flow velocity.

• Ambient weather conditions.

The overall goal would be to augment the annual review cycles with constant streams of data, and measurements of data difficult to collect visually, such as extreme locations on bridges or tunnels. This often may be no more than through the use of cameras and strain gauges, but if these efforts enhance data and improve safety by reducing the number of times humans must go to extreme locations, the measurement-taking sensors will have helped immeasurably.

Performance Monitoring in Concession Contracts

When highway owners contract out for road or bridge construction, materials are tested and installation/placement is inspected. The final product is measured for smoothness and for component material quantities.

One current trend in the highway industry is to contract for highway delivery and operations through build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts, or concession contracts. For these types of contracts, the same inspection and guarantee concept applies, but a different product must be measured. For a BOT or concession contract, the contracting entity or governmental body should have a means to independently determine contract compliance. This contract-compliance measurement must take place throughout the BOT or concession period, advising the owner of what is happening to the owner’s property.


Regarding pavement condition, this concept is already offered by the private sector in terms of guaranteed pavement, whereby a DOT contracts with a paving company to place, and maintain at a specified condition level, the pavement for a 20 to 30 year period of time. Koch Industries, among other American companies, offer this product today. A smart highway would simply be able to collect data and observe how well the guarantee is being honored.

BOT/concession contracts could have requirements with respect to physical condition as well as operating performance. Regarding operating performance, one type of disincentive for poor traffic performance is proposed for the Melbourne, Australia Mitcham-Frankston Freeway, which will be a toll concession contract:

Users of the Mitcham-Frankston Freeway will get free toll credits if ConnectEast fails to meet performance targets, the State Government revealed. In an Australian first, successful tollway bidder ConnectEast has declared regular users will be compensated once a year if the company does not meet performance benchmarks once the controversial tollway opens in 2008. The benchmarks cover customer service, road condition, tolling accuracy, landscaping and environment. No other tolled freeways in the country offer users compensation if performance standards are not met.

An extension of this concept to incentive and disincentive payments for operations and maintenance contractors would provide a solid base for good pavement management.

Two Implementation Approaches

The Retail Store

In meeting the taste and service demands of traveling customers, the retail store model illustrates the relationships of the three primary parties to smart highways:

• The motorist – the retail customer.

• The highway owner-operator – the store owner and shelf-space provider.

• The third-party provider – the vendor supplying product on the shelf for purchase, or enabling the store to stay open.

The motorist is a customer looking for a product and service. Some desired products and services remain constant, such as smooth traffic, good pavement, and safe conditions. Other customer demands change, such as convenience items, innovations, and assistance when traveling in unfamiliar areas. A regular shopper buys milk on each trip, but only buys a new kind of cereal once in a while. And, sometimes, tastes change and a product does not move off the shelf anymore. In the technology arena, floppy disks and camera film sell much more slowly than they used to. In the highway arena, roadside call boxes are much less significant than they were ten years ago. How many drivers venture out on the interstate without a mobile phone?

The smart highway owner-operator finds the right location for commerce with market research based on traffic forecasting. Best Buy’s business model is to find good real estate on which to stock a lot of high-tech consumer goods on shelves, to raise the construction money, and build big boxes to hold those retail shelves. Best Buy does not make PCs or televisions; they forecast how much traffic would come to their store to buy Sony and Samsung hardware.

The third-party providers are the most animated group in some ways. Drivers first and foremost want open roads to drive their vehicle on, and owner-operators want to build and maintain those roads and tap into potential revenue streams from them. Vendors want to sell anything to anyone, and compete on the basis of price and differentiation. They sell civil construction, asphalt, concrete and steel, fiber, IT hardware and software, toll equipment, customer service equipment, signs, and any other product/service that they can find someone to buy while using the smart highway.

The relationship between all three is dynamic. The smart highway owner-operator establishes the ground rules, makes basic location and service decisions, and sets standards and operating conditions. Within those parameters, the vendor community competes to improve the technology product and service offerings. The direction that innovation leads is not always predictable and it shouldn’t be; there has to be room for an innovator to come up with a new product.


“Full Monty” vs. the A la Carte Model

The Full Monty Approach

In an article from the 2003 Tolltrans Magazine, Bob McQueen characterized the blending of smart highway infrastructure and services as the “Full Monty,” referring to the complete serving of food that British General Bernard Montgomery (pictured) always had for breakfast.

The Full Monty approach applies to a highway (or bridge or tunnel) designed to fully instrument, process, and disseminate as much data as conceivable and to provide ample opportunities for third-party commerce.

This Full Monty approach to implementing a smart highway includes an integrated system with a single set of detection, control, and broadcast peripheral devices and markings that not only build in the fiber-communications backbone infrastructure, but also the roadside-to-vehicle devices, regardless of the application for which the devices are used. Consequenty, if an automobile manufacturer wants to communicate with its vehicles, it would not be using its own roadside devices or services it procured, but rather use the smart highway roadside devices. Vehicle-to-vehicle communication would be facilitated by the automobile manufacturers and play a vital role in developing a comprehensive smart highway.

If a driver wishes to use an Internet connection, it would be through the smart highway roadside devices. All traffic sensor information, regardless of who is acquiring or purchasing that information, would be collected and brought to a single TMC.

The advantages lie in a simpler system implementation and operation, and what would be expected to be a less expensive total project. Also, for nationwide deployment of some roadside-to-vehicle smart highway concepts, it appears that economies of scale demand this approach. This has been considered in the case of vehicle-to-roadside communications for vehicle health and performance monitoring. Nationwide deployment of these types of systems would have a huge cost, and so it is believed that a single, standardized system available for all potential interested users is necessary.

In many areas, the IT and communications industries have settled into standardized protocols, primarily TCP/IP, but in the area of roadside-to-vehicle devices, this is not yet the case. The Full Monty approach will require a high degree of standardization acceptance, but standardization eliminates competitive advantage and product differentiation, the very things that promote innovation. Once a standard is adopted, other vendors will try to trump it and improve it, and that will continue until the incremental improvements provide only limited additional services.

Consider personal computers. Ten years ago, many functions were performed only with limitations imposed by speed or processing power, and so there was much hardware and software innovation by many parties to differentiate themselves and charge higher prices for premium performance. Today, of course, this is no longer true, as basic, low-end consumer computers can now perform virtually any normal office chore, display movies on DVDs, and survive with much harsher treatment than was previously possible. PCs today are interchangeable, low-margin products, and the low price/ease of replacement wins the competition to sell these products. Ethernet and the TCP/IP standards have a similar history. Ten-megabit PC network cards that were premium products ten years ago can now be purchased for $10, if they can be found anywhere, yet 10 megabit is still an ample speed for any routine PC function except for intensive video or database operations.

In the highway arena, it is safe to assume that architecture based on the TCP/IP communications protocol and the PC building block platform is going to be around for awhile, and so can be built in as part of the comprehensive smart highway. Once a universal industry standard for vehicle-to-roadside communications is adopted, it will be much easier for the highway industry to also offer this service. The VII program is the current foundation, through the use of 5.9 GHz DSRC, upon which the USDOT is attempting to enable standardization.

Until we arrive at this standardization horizon, it will be problematic for a highway owner to provide this service.

The a la Carte Approach

The a la carte, or pay-as-you-go, build-as-you-can-pay approach more aptly describes the current state of smart highway development. This model describes a smart highway using the instrumentation, processes, and


Selling Smart Highways – A Business Case Template

Highway infrastructure investment is comprised of a large proportion of fixed costs applicable to many aspects of a highway over an extended period of time. The fixed costs for the highway, at $30M to $50M per mile, and the large IT infrastructure proportion of that, are not easily allocated to individual functions in any meaningful manner. Any kind of ROI analysis on portions of the basic smart highway would be highly dependent upon a clear explanation of the assumptions and allocations of fixed costs. A simple reliance on ROI alone to develop a business case may not be adequate.

In this age of inadequate public-sector funding for highway construction, expansion, or even maintenance, a smart highway developer must present a compelling business case for the highway owner-operator. If a prospective entrepreneur wants to borrow money to open a restaurant, that entrepreneur needs to present a business case showing how the borrower will use the proceeds, and how the lender will recoup their investment. A smart highway business plan is no different. What measurable benefit can be expected from the smart highway services? What is the ROI? What other function or activity does the smart highway facilitate? What is the public interest?

Until recently, it has been challenging to demonstrate financial or public policy return on a smart highway investment. This is now changing for several reasons:

• Investment costs are dropping. With the broad acceptance of ETC, almost all U.S. toll highways have—or will soon have—significant communications and data management infrastructure in place. The large fixed costs required to deploy technology in the field are greatly reduced. The incremental cost of adding cameras, signs, or sensors is substantially limited to the roadside site costs and the system control at the management end of the fiber. The system costs to communicate with and control these devices are dropping as Ethernet networking protocol and a small number of commercial operating systems are becoming commodity items.

• Returns are increasing. Performance measurement of traffic operations and system condition is needed not only to support improved management of public facilities, but also to support increased reliance on the private sector to provide and maintain highways.

dissemination as needed to meet immediate, tangible needs, with the limited and immediate participation of other stakeholders or private third parties.

The a la carte model would include a single smart highway communications backbone and operations center. The a la carte moniker would describe a distributed system facilitated by the smart highway owner, with administration and control of multiple systems and their roadside devices by multiple vendors, third parties, or governmental entities. Under this approach, the smart highway owner would build (or procure) only the fiber-communications backbone infrastructure and those roadside devices needed for immediate day-to-day needs. As further opportunities or needs arise that can be met in an economically viable fashion, those supplemental devices or services can be provided.

An example of this is a toll road with a high-bandwidth communications trunk line needed for toll, maintenance, and emergency dispatch operations, where smart highway expansion of this basic system would occur as the extension of this system is funded, or sold, to other service providers.

Internal applications would include expanded owner-actionable or owner-condition information. For example, as toll roads improve their communications infrastructure to support toll collection and security, they may add many roadside cameras and weather sensors, and collect additional traffic information from the toll system. The Illinois Tollway has, in fact, added many smart highway roadside elements, including most of its roadway cameras, in precisely this fashion. The Tollway also collects travel times from its over 1.3 million transponders because the incremental cost of collecting and posting that data is very small.

External applications would be third-party service providers using the highway communications trunk line to communicate with vehicles or support vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

The a la carte approach allows for flexibility in the future, not only in technology developments such as the needed standardization, but also in the application of the technologies. In 1985, did we know that ETC was going to revolutionize the toll industry? No, and there doubtless will be many technological and customer service offerings in 2025 that we have not yet developed, or perhaps even imagined.


This is most critical for the concession-model delivery of toll highways. In the safety arena, it is clear that incident prevention, detection, notification, servicing, and clearing are increasingly important as average highway-operating speeds increase.

• Public expectations are changing. The need for smart highway services is growing, not only out of increased traffic demand, but frankly because availability of data on demand is common—it is part of our daily living environment. Many cars have onboard navigation systems and computers built in. These vehicles carry drivers and passengers using cell phones with Internet access, handheld e-mail devices, or laptop computers with wireless cards. Why can’t four passengers in a minivan on a three-hour trip participate in an online meeting with others at remote locations? Why can’t a traveling salesman on the road find out where the nearest clothing store is after he got his shirt dirty at a gas station? Expectations for information access are growing.

The areas addressed in a typical private investment evaluation outline are applicable and appropriate to evaluate smart highway improvements including the following issues:

• What is the customer base?

• What is the value proposition for those customers?

• What work is proposed?

• How much will it cost?

• How will work and operations be organized?

• What is the ROI? Are there alternate possible scenarios?

• What are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to success?

• What is the lifespan, and what is the exit strategy?

• What is the customer base?

• What is the traffic composition: local vs. out-of-state, commercial vehicles, income demographics and types or conditions of vehicles, are there a large percentage of rental cars? For example, the rental car issue in major tourist or shopping destination areas provides some unique circumstances. Rental cars are unlikely to have ETC transponders unless the individual has

their own, but the vehicle is likely to be a late model car with most IT and electrical updates, navigation assistance, etc.

• What type of service area are people accessing with the highway: are there many tourist destinations, business destinations, manufacturing, farming or other types of commercial traffic, or is this a rural facility requiring additional customer vehicle services?

• What is the value proposition for those customers? Given the customer base, what will those customers need and expect and/or be willing to pay for? In the case of toll customers, a well-run facility is expected in exchange for tolls. There must also be perceived value in exchange for highway tax dollars.

• What work is proposed, for how much? This is the definition of the project, contract, payment mechanism, and the proposed scope, schedule and budget. For operations contracts, the contract length, performance measures, and specific contract incentives/disincentives must be included, as well as terms of disengagement. The degree of standardization and legal mandate compliance also should be discussed, as FHWA compliance renders many of the subsequent decision elements moot—compliance just becomes part of the fixed costs of the enterprise.

• How will work and operations be organized? Who performs the design, procurement, installation, testing, operations, and maintenance? How and by whom is contract compliance assured? These questions drill down into the issues of the owner organization chart and how the engineering, finance, operations, and administrative arms of the organization are staffed and controlled. As an example, if the highway owner already has large IT maintenance resources available, then any new procurement should probably only have limited system maintenance provisions. If, however, there is no IT maintenance arm, careful consideration (and budget) should be given to addressing system maintenance in the prospective contracts.

• What is the ROI? Often in highway operations and administration, operational expenditures are simply part of the fixed cost of doing business, and ROI calculations based on a large number of assumptions are often suspect. In these cases, the project proposal should consider costs of alternate means


to provide the same essential service. For example, a telecommunications backbone is essential for a toll road. So the only calculation should be, given a certain need for bandwidth and reliability, which alternate paths are available to move data? Fiber, digital microwave, leased telco lines, other? Given all the realistic assumptions one can make about system function and future growth, cost out the options and choose the lowest present value. Then, look at the constraints set by the low-cost option. For example, leased telco T-1s may be the most economical, but then there is little if any capacity for growth or change, and this limitation may be unacceptable. If the smart highway approach is designed to push organizational optimization with performance measures, or to facilitate a performance-based concession or operations contract, then small present-value savings with many limitations may be a poor choice.

ROI, however, should be calculable for premium services, because a smart highway owner needs compensation to provide those premium services that are above and beyond the responsibility of competent freeway or toll highway operation. The return would potentially come from driver fees, or more likely in concession income or revenues from other third parties using the smart highway right-of-way.

Are there alternate possible scenarios? In other words, what happens if revenue forecasts are not met, or other assumptions about the project with respect to contract price, schedule, or technical compliance are wrong? What happens if a service is wildly popular and a system cannot handle the volume?

• What are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to success? The SWOT analysis is listed here only to remind the smart highway project developer that a reality check of potential pitfalls is warranted. A smart highway provides unique transportation services and embodies unique opportunities within it. However, a realistic assessment of the capability to engage in long-term IT operations and the challenges posed by technology changes must be considered. Recall those unused roadside call boxes.

• What is the lifespan, and what is the exit strategy? How do we determine when to get rid of those call boxes? If a proposed service does not find a receptive audience, how is that measured and when is the system cancelled? If the smart highway element or program is needed for the 30-year life of the facility, how is the work installed in 2005 going to be kept current through 2035?

These questions can serve as a checklist for project proposal preparation, to help identify the critical issues in pursuing a smart highway investment or budget allocation.

Implementation Contract Models: Different Models for Different Purposes

Since the days of the interstate highway construction, highway contracting has been in a state of metamorphosis. Standard highway design and construction methods simply do not work in technology arenas; it is impossible for the typical multiyear design, review, bid, and construction cycle to keep up with month-by-month technology changes. The toll highway industry and the highway ITS industry, with much greater institutional experience in operations and technology applications, have had more experience with systems and technology procurements, and offer examples of effective procurement methods available for smart highway use. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the range moves from more direct public agency control, to larger and larger private-sector participation, as we move from design-bid-build procurement to the concessionaire model. For the sake of this discussion, the buyer is always the public entity ultimately responsible for the smart highway development, even where a concessionaire has day-to-day responsibility for facility financing, operations, and maintenance. A range of alternate contract models is shown in Table 5.

Advantages and disadvantages of each model are shown in Table 6, which also identifies four sample projects for discussion related to various model options.


Contracting General Categories

Basis of Compensation Compensation by Examples

Professional Services Hourly rates plus expense Highway Agency Consulting, Research, Design

Design-Bid-Build Fixed Pay Items and Quantities of Materials

Highway Agency Standard Highway Plans for Construction

Design-Build Fixed Pay Items for Design and Implementation

Highway Agency Design-Build Highway Construction, Toll Systems Procurement

Design-Build-Operate Fixed Pay Items for Facilities and Operations

Highway Agency Toll System CSC Provision and Operations

Finance-Design-Build-Operate

Customer Payments Highway Agency and Retail Sales

Various Highway Concession Models

Operations Easement Customer Payments Sales for Operations Provided on Highway Easement.

Utility Easements For Comms and Cell Phone Services.

Federal Enactment Goods and Services to FHWA

FHWA FHWA Purchase and Implementation of 5.9 GHz ETC Standard

Table 5. Alternate Contracting Vehicles for Smart Highway Development



Advantages Disadvantages Examples Given for Discussion

A. Professional Services

• Low risk for all parties.• Design developed with owner,• Well suited when results are not pre-determined or outcome still in question. • Good use for research and development.

• Product liability lies with owner• Large engineering expenses, no competitive bidding cost control• Not suited for large deployments of commodity or high-tech items

Example 1 –Vehicle-Roadside Operational Tests

B. Design-Bid-Build

• Low commodity item cost• Design is strictly controlled by owner• Traditional DOT procurement method

• Functional responsibility lies with owner• Large engineering fees• Limited warranty and maintenance• Design and inspection are slow, not suited to IT systems

C. Design-Build

• Whole responsibility lies with contractor• Owner gains proprietary design innovations• Suited for IT systems• Faster system delivery than design-bid-build• Functional design requires less detail work prior to contracting

• Large product mark-up required to cover design and overhead expenses• Owner has less strict control over design; detail design disputes are common• Limited “standard components,” “standard prices,” cost comparisons can be problematic• Measurement of contract compliance is more complex• Proprietary hardware or software, owner generally has little price leverage

Example 2 –Highway Performance Monitoring System

D. Design-Build-Operate

• End-to-end service responsibility is contractor’s• Better for IT systems to address obsolescence and require upgrades and end of contract• Contractor is responsible to design and live with the system• Contractor may drop in an existing system and be ready to provide operations in a very brief period of time • Operations contracts yield very explicit operations costs

• Careful contract design is required to insure that the contractor has the same incentives as the owner• Owner loses much control over design details unless they are explicitly called out in the contract• Operations contracts can preclude operations experience for in-house staff• Measurement of contract compliance requires ongoing review of key performance indicators

Table 6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternate Contracting Vehicles



Advantages Disadvantages Examples Given for Discussion

E. Finance-Design-Build-Operate

• End-to-end service and profit-and-loss responsibility lies with contractor• Smart Highway owner does not need to invest major management resources• Contractor is responsible to design and live with the system, and make upgrades through life of contract, because upgrades are in the contractor’s best interest• Contractor may drop in an existing system to provide operations in a very brief period of time• Contractor may innovate with products and services not envisioned by the Smart Highway owner.

• Careful contract design is required to insure that the contractor has the same incentives as the owner • The owner loses all control over design details unless they are explicitly called out in the contract• The Smart Highway owner gains no operations experience and internal-agency history• Enforcement of contract compliance can be difficult, as concessionaires will always attempt to minimize operating costs, inevitably reducing service.

Example 3 – Commercial Smart Highway Services Radio

F. Operations Easement

• Smart Highway owner has no role except as regulator• No operations risk for owner. Easement purchaser pays for damages• No expenses. Easement purchaser pays fee for access

• Smart highway owner has no contractual participation in business operations (except for special contracts such as fiber comms services)• Smart Highway owner has no controls except those specifically enumerated in easement contract

G. Federal Enactment

• Major expenses that are hurdle to smart highway implementation are borne by FHWA for common good beyond jurisdictional boundaries of a DOT or toll agency

•Smart Highway owner loses all control except as allowed by FHWA• Hidden or unexpected costs must be borne by Smart Highway operators

Example 4 – OmniAir or other 5.9 GHz standardization.

Sample Implementation Models

Four sample models are presented; three with business case examples to show how evaluation could be developed. These four sample models would, as presented, serve as strawmen to organize a project design and proposal, and raise some issues for consideration.

Example 1 – Vehicle and Roadside Operations Tests

What is the value proposition for those customers?

Vehicle purchasers will, hopefully, be willing to purchase supplemental hardware or make vehicle purchase selections based on the availability of supplemental smart vehicle functions with respect to safety, operating reliability, and driver-actionable information.

Vehicle manufacturers will, hopefully, be willing to pay smart highway access fees to communicate with operating vehicles, to collect data for a variety of purposes, and meet vehicle purchaser demands.


The smart highway owner, through this project, purchases agency prestige and public goodwill in support of an R&D project as well as early indicators of possible smart highway implementations.

What work is proposed?

A smart highway owner, with outside assistance probably from the FHWA, could solicit participation in a test and development effort from technical parties familiar with newly proposed standards and one or more vehicle manufacturers (or a consortium) to investigate ETC integration into vehicles for smart highway purposes as well as optimized ETC operations (for integrated power supply, for example). A research contract could be initiated with a team comprised of academic, public-sector, vehicle, and vehicle supply industries to test one or multiple vehicle-to-roadside technologies.

This could be an opportune time to test a mock-up of the 5.9 GHz OmniAir standard with a vehicle operator to try the additional application layers. The smart highway owner role would be to provide the right-of-way, project operations support infrastructure, and use of the existing ETC network. The 5.9 GHz equipment could also be installed in some proximate lanes with legacy equipment, to test out conversion implementations as well as typical toll operations.

This would be a consulting and R&D project, either paid on an hourly rate and expense basis, or a pre-set level of compensation. Work tasks would include some combination of:

• Test hardware mock-ups in vehicles and for roadside installation.

• Report on test program development, results, and conclusions.

• Recommendations for industry standards development.

Selection would be based on team qualifications and technical proposal merits, and price considerations would have to be negotiated.

How much will it cost?

This figure would have to be estimated based on level of effort and peer agency discussion. Part of the smart highway’s compensation would be in-kind services in right-of-way and use of communications infrastructure.

How will work and operations be organized?

The smart highway owner would provide the right-of-way, communications infrastructure, site engineering review, and approval for roadside device installation and possible temporary access to toll facilities.

The project team consultants would develop the test plan and initial report.

The project team vehicle and equipment manufacturers would develop the prototype equipment and outfit test vehicles.

The project team consultants would prepare the report, conduct the review cycle, and organize the presentations and publications of results.

What is the ROI? Are there alternate possible scenarios?

Costs of this project would probably be treated as R&D expenditures: as there is no potential of immediate retail sales or economies of operation, an ROI calculation could be misleading or not feasible.

Alternate scenarios would include competitive proposal structures with various benefits for the smart highway owner. This would most likely take the form of a public/private partnership with possible in-kind contributions.

What are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to success?

Strengths: Competent players and industry leaders.

Weaknesses: Difficulty in early identification of obvious financial benefits to test program. Success may be difficult to measure.

Opportunities: Early participation and ability to guide technology development. Possible leveraging into financial advantage and/or competitive advantage in industry.

Threats: Leapfrogging by other technologies developed solely in the private sector.

What is the lifespan, and what is the exit strategy?

This project would only last for a finite period of time, perhaps 18 or 24 months, after which the prototype equipment would be dismantled or a decision could be made to expand the project.


Example 2 – Highway Performance Monitoring System

What is the customer base?

Customers for the smart highway owner are the drivers choosing to use the facility over other routes.

For the highway engineering and IT consulting industry in the United States, the smart highway owners and operators are the customers, which includes the FHWA, the 50 state DOTs, and the toll agencies and owners.


HPMS application and optimization will enable the smart highway owner to measure traffic operations and incident conditions, identify needed traffic operations improvements, and target areas for improvement to improve the product for the driver to the greatest extent possible and justify tolls or other fees.


This would involve a two-contract effort to functionally design, and a request for proposal (RFP) for a design-build or design-build-operate contract to acquire an HPMS that would take advantage of today’s vehicle-tracking and travel-time measuring capabilities.

The design effort would establish the criteria and benchmarks that will be used to measure highway performance, consistent with HPMS guidelines and highway capacity design. The RFP contractors would develop the HPMS, using the IT and communications network in place and augmenting those resources with the supplemental devices and data processing as needed.

Dependent upon the needs analysis and existing organization of the individual smart highway operator, this could be structured as a design-build-operate contract so the systems integrator would also maintain the site over time and operate it on a day-to-day basis. This work would overlap and build on existing TMCs, or provide a base for a new TMC.


The consultant effort would identify an engineer’s estimate based on contract requirements and existing traffic monitoring infrastructure.


The project organization depends on the existing smart highway organization, resources, and toll/ITS development. In general, the functional design will be performed by a consultant with traffic, IT, and operations management experience. The system will be designed and delivered, and possibly operated, by a systems integrator.


Costs of this project would probably be treated as general overhead expenses, possibly under the engineering division. As there is no potential of immediate retail sales or economies of operation, no ROI calculation is possible.

Alternate scenarios would include competitive proposal structures with various benefits for the smart highway owner.


Strengths: Increasing standardization in IT hardware and software elements. Improving price structures. Broader availability of maintenance and operations services.

Weaknesses: Difficulty in the appropriate management and synthesis of data, i.e., “drowning in the sea of reports.”

Opportunities: Improved management through knowledge based on detail and factual data, and not merely periodic observation.

Threats: Changing IT technologies. Software maintenance and obsolescence. Maintaining trained personnel to operate the system.

What is the lifespan and what is the exit strategy?

The hardware lifespan may be from five to ten years, but the base IT computers and commercial software will only have a five-year useful lifespan. The methodology and analytical methods and data collection tools will change over the life of the implementation. The exit strategy will include transition to another vendor at contract termination. All data will remain property of the smart highway owner, or may be shared with a partner depending on the executed agreements.

Example 3 – Commercial Smart Highway Services Radio

What is the customer base?


Customers for the radio stations would be advertising roadside service providers such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, attractions, etc.


Advertising service providers would pay to have their locations advertised on commercial HAR such that drivers would know where to find trip-related services. Services would vary depending on prospective customer profiles including commuters, out-of-state rental car drivers, long-haul drivers, vacationers, etc.


Once digital radio becomes widely available, it will be possible for smart highway agencies to contract with radio stations to have a supplemental band broadcast for smart highway use. This smart highway services radio would include location guidance for services as advertised, highway notifications on roadway features, weather, accidents, travel times, and anything else of local or regional interest. The smart highway operator would maintain override rights for emergency services and notifications.

This service could be contracted either through a design-build-operate contract, or simply through a concession. Issues of advertising rights, smart highway control of content and emergency overrides, and potential advertising demand along the corridor in question would guide deliberation of the optimum contracting model. Business case development would have to explore potential radio costs and potential advertising revenues.


A marketing firm would have to develop an analysis of market potential and what the smart highway owner could do to maximize the attractiveness of the proposition.


The smart highway owner would provide the right-of-way, communications infrastructure, site engineering review, and approval for roadside device installation.

The radio broadcaster would own and operate the system, collect ad revenues, and provide direct communications to the smart highway TMC.


ROI and alternate scenarios would be determined through the competitive procurement process. The goal would be for the smart highway owner to solicit this radio service at no additional cost except for provision of space and communications links.


Strengths: A familiar concept to consumers, advertisers, and radio operators. Increasing availability with digital bands.

Weaknesses: Not all vehicles have digital radios. The market for radio advertising may not be strong enough.

Opportunities: Chance to reduce roadside signing and blue sign indicators and to clean up roadside appearance. Chance to provide more, and more timely, data to drivers.

Threats: Other advertising venues such existing radio stations.

What is the lifespan, and what is the exit strategy?

This concession would last for a finite period of time, three years with extension options, after which the contract would be rebid.

Example 4 – OmniAir

Every procurement method briefly described, from design-bid-build through design-build and so on, assumes that portions of the smart highway model are to be provided on a case-by-case, owner-by-owner basis. For some smart highway services to be offered, such as advanced roadside-to-vehicle data transmission, it is widely viewed that a nationwide implementation involving multiple vehicle manufacturers and multiple highway owners would be required. It is simply not possible for individual DOTs or toll roads to implement systems for which they receive no immediate benefit. FHWA funding for design and implementation of such a system would likely be a prerequisite.

The path forward will require nationwide application of technologies that also meet other needs of individual agencies. Certainly the OmniAir 5.9 GHz standard for ETC is intended to provide just such a path: using transponders that are needed in any event for ETC, for other smart highway applications at minimal incremental


cost. Toll agencies still need an incentive to pay for 5.9 GHz and vehicle manufacturers still need an incentive to support 5.9 GHz with permanent vehicle installation.

One potential partnership would be a public-public partnership between the FHWA and the toll industry. As illustrated in Figure 17, a number of key players from state and federal government, vehicle manufacturers, standards bodies, and technology companies are involved in the 5.9 GHz effort.

Consider a U.S. toll industry with a current potential of 20M transponders and about 5,000 toll lanes with ETC (these are approximate numbers: the precise numbers are growing daily, but now the market is relatively mature). Further, consider a talking-point price of $30 per transponder and $15,000 per installed lane of ETC hardware. Nationwide, tags and lanes would have values of $600M and $75M, respectively. The toll industry must replace 15 percent to 20 percent of its transponders per

year, particularly those transponders with sealed batteries. It would seem that if a national program would pay to replace all the lane ETC hardware and early changeout of about 80 percent of the tags in circulation, the toll industry could break even from a cost standpoint, except for implementation costs. The nationwide cost would be on the order of magnitude of $480M for transponders and $75M for lane installations, or $555M. Competitive pricing for transponders would be critically important.

With the roadside hardware in place on several thousand miles of the most heavily used expressways in the United States, a large-scale implementation for tolling and nontolling (e.g., safety) applications can be started. Short of a federally-mandated requirement for an OBU to be mounted within the vehicle, toll roads may be the logical starting point as customers already have a need for an

SAE

IEEE

ASTM

ISO

StandardsStandardsBodiesBodies

FHWA

NHTSA

IndustryCanada

FCC

DOTDOT

Figure 17. OmniAir Players

Reprinted with permission from the OmniAir consortium - Tim McGuckin


OBU (transponder) for toll payments. Price points will vary once a unit is installed in the vehicle as opposed to being a windshield-mounted device.

Public/Private Partnerships

Each of the sample implementations has one thing in common. There are core services that the highway or toll operator is best suited to provide and there are services that the private sector is best suited to address. The private sector has the ability and need to maintain competitive advantage in terms of better technology or a cheaper price point. While the highway can provide the shelf space, the private sector can provide the commodities (technology) and services from which the customer can select. The manner in which the public/private partnership is organized will affect the implementation and operation costs, as well as ROI for any implementation method.

External Requirements and Constraints

Potential Legal and Legislative Constraints

Federal and State Funding – Any state or federal funding/earmarks for smart highway initiatives on a large scale (where government funding is required) must compete against any number of other transportation projects being considered by state or federal government. It is therefore incumbent upon highway operators to clearly communicate the advantages of smart highway development, particularly in terms of saving time, lives, and/or money.

Liability – Any technology that alters the way a highway works exposes agencies, particularly toll agencies to legal liability in accident cases, particularly with respect to joint and several liability. The same can be said for the automobile manufacturers. Any highway operator or toll authority must be careful to inform its customers of the extent and purpose of new services and how to use them correctly. Efforts of consortia such as the Rosetta group (the output of the FP4 Telematics Applications Programme) and the car-2-car consortium should be followed particularly with regard to human-machine interaction. Vehicle manufacturers or smart highway operators want to ensure that drivers are being aided

by smart highway technology and in-vehicle units, not distracted. Operators must understand and account for potential liability issues as part of its SWOT analysis.

Privacy Issues – There are any number of individuals and privacy advocates that expressly warn drivers to “watch out for big brother.” Highway operators and toll authorities need to get the appropriate consent from the individual customer or the state, depending on how information is to be used. While the majority of customers do not object to information being used in the aggregate, they do have serious concerns about individual information with regard to tracking or information sharing. Individuals will often consent to the use of their private information if there is something in it for them, which usually means some type of financial benefit.

Law Enforcement – Any automated or electronic speed or violation enforcement system, enabled by a smart highway, must be approved by the appropriate legislative body whether that be municipal, state, or federal government. The highway operator or toll authority must also consider in its SWOT analysis, the risk of customers not wanting to travel on the highway if it is perceived as being an “enforcement trap.”

Municipal Debt Constraints

Bond Covenants – In the case of toll road operators who are bond financed, there are very specific restrictions in terms of how customer information can be used. For example, it is often stated explicitly that customer information given for the purposes of opening a toll account can only be used for that purpose. A toll authority will have to consult its legal department to ensure it is not violating any bond covenants if customer information is used for the provision of services by a smart highway private-sector service provider.

Budgetary Constraints – Bond packages normally include an official statement by the transportation enterprise, including a plan for how monies are going to be spent. The smart highway operator will have to operate within these constraints which may mean a very incremental approach to smart highway development. Subsequent budgets however can detail the benefits of smart highway operations and include the necessary funding.


Standardization

Any smart highway investment made by a highway operator or vehicle manufacturer has increased risk if:

• The technologies being used are proprietary.

• There are a limited number of vendors that supply the technologies being implemented on the highway.

• New standards are imposed within the industry after the highway operator has implemented numerous technologies.

ROI goals may be significantly undermined if a plug and play environment with multiple vendors is achieved and the highway operator still has a proprietary system that required significant sunken investment.

For these reasons, highway operators, toll authorities, and vehicle manufacturers would be well advised to get involved with or, at a minimum, closely track the appropriate relevant committees and organizations (i.e., U.S. – VII and OmniAir, US Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers [AAM], and the Europe – ROSETTA project, car-2-car consortium) in order to have some influence over, or understanding of, standards development.

Regional Issues (Limiting Scope)

The appeal of smart highways will be limited if the region does not embrace or plan for the expansion of a smart highway network. Consumers will feel less motivated

to equip their vehicles with communications hardware (e.g., OBUs) that will only work on a limited number of highways. Commuters who use the same road every day may be the exception. The key issue is that consumers do not generally buy into any program that they consider “flavor of the month.”

The limited-scope issue does not apply to the early stages of smart highway development where feasibility testing is essential, but it does apply to medium- to longer-term sustainability. If consumers know that there is a multiyear plan for expandability or a national rollout, it will improve their motivation to purchase suitably-equipped vehicles or components to retrofit existing vehicles.

References

1. Brooke, Ken, Kevin Dopart, Ted Smith, Aimee Flannery. NCHRP Report 520: Sharing Information Between Public Safety and transportation Agencies for Traffic Incident Management. Miretek Systems, Inc.: Washington, D.C., 2004.

2. Leopold, George. “Standards Gap Blocks Ramp to Smart Highway.” EETimes 14 January 2005 <http://www.eetimes.com/news/97/981news/standards.html>

3. McQueen, Bob. “The Full Monty.” Tolltrans 2003: 52-54.


Chapter 7Summary and Conclusions

Summary

The development of this ITS Orange Book™ has been one of the most challenging exercises in the series to date. Not only did we address the present state of the art, but we also considered the possible future of smart highways. The vision for smart highways contained in this book extrapolates the current state of the practice and presents a useful tool for communicating the nature of the concept. It also provides some guidance on the path required for developing future smart highways, looking at both customer and vehicle perspectives. There is a wide spectrum of advanced technologies and management solutions that can be applied to the operation and management of a smart highway, and we have captured the state of the art in these technologies with this ITS Orange Book™.

We have also understood in the course our research that smart highways are much more than the specific or isolated application of technologies, more than the installation of field devices and telecommunications. In the broader sense, smart highways represent a completely new way of thinking about the operations and management of major road networks. Taking the needs of the customer and the operating organization as the starting point, it is possible to define an integrated approach to operations and management that maximizes the ROI for all parties. This integrated approach features a blend of advanced technologies across all elements of the smart highway—vehicles, infrastructure, operational management, and information services delivery systems. It also encompasses a change in what we do as well as how we do it.

The operating procedures and organizational structures that we develop and run in support of our goals and objectives can be fine-tuned and redesigned to work in complete harmony with the advanced technologies. This creates a management-solutions approach in which technologies, processes, organizational structures, and procedures are fully integrated to achieve optimum effects. Taking it a step further, the operating procedures can be viewed as a coherent business process, consisting of a chain of activities and work products.

This chain or business process can be made very efficient and effective through the smart application of advanced technologies in close concert with streamlined work activities, work products, procedures, approaches, and organizational structures. We have also learned that this chain or business process stretches across organizational boundaries and will require partnership and cooperation if we are to address it completely and comprehensively.

Close fitting of approaches, technologies, procedures, organization, and people is the ultimate goal of the smart highways concept, driving us forward to deliver the best customer experience, maximum value, and optimum operational effectiveness. A key question in the exploration of the future smart highway is how we get from where we are today to where we want to be tomorrow.

The answer to the question has multiple parts.

First, we have identified that there are several different interest groups or constituencies involved if we are to take a total process view. This will require that meaningful dialogues are established between all relevant parties, with the objective of synchronizing major activities and aligning policy, business objectives, investment plans, and development cycles. If we consider the vehicle and the highway to be a single system, then it is obvious that the proponents of the different elements need to work together within a common framework of understanding. With respect to the latter, we identified in this book that this is a particular challenge, given the widely varying length of the typical development cycle of the products or services in each of the major interest groups.

Second, we need to define a safe, effective transition strategy that takes us in increments from today to tomorrow. Each increment must move us forward by clearly showing an ROI (increased safety, value, customer service, or operational effectiveness) and a step towards the ultimate goal. With each step in the transition path, we also need to take full advantage of the practical lessons learned and experience gained to fine-tune the future big picture or ultimate objective.


Third, there is a considerable amount to be gained through prototyping and experimentation; all of the constituencies involved in the smart highways big picture respond best to action-based project work.

We have come to the belief that true progress on technical, commercial, and organizational fronts can really be made through the execution of a carefully focused series of large-scale pilot projects. This would also have the effect of pulling the constituencies together, providing a vehicle for practical understanding of the varying motivations and development cycles. The candidate business models and partnerships could also be subjected to practical testing in the course of these projects. In order to establish a first view of our end point for the smart highways concept, we developed a future vision that described the essential features and elements of a smart highway. While we consider this a work in progress, we hope that it will serve as a support tool for the necessary dialogue between interested parties, and offer inspiration to keep us moving towards our goal. The vision was from the perspectives of customers and vehicles, offering a wide view of what impact a smart highway would have on these groups in the future.

Since many of the elements of the future smart highway are yet to be implemented, it was important for us also to describe the state of the art of smart highways today. This highlighted the fact that many of the technologies and applications required to support smart highway services are already available and some are in use. Technologies and applications focused on the driver, the vehicle, and the infrastructure were identified and described as part of the picture of today’s smart highway. These elements are delivering value and benefits to drivers and infrastructure operators in terms of time savings, increased customer service, and improved safety. These existing benefits and impacts were explored alongside the potential value and benefits that could be delivered by the future smart highway.

We also identified and discussed the challenges and opportunities associated with the selection and adoption of appropriate business models for the development and operation of the future smart highway. The broad spectrum of services and features suggests that a wider array of partners will be required for the future than was necessary for the conventional current infrastructure.

These participants range from service providers, merchant partners, and information delivery organizations to operational management sources.

Conclusions

Implementation

Technologies Abound, Solutions are Present, and Coordination is Vital

The treatment of current and future smart highways in this book has highlighted that technologies abound and that solutions are already present. While new technologies will emerge and innovative solutions will be developed that harness these technologies, one of the key areas for progress and learning will be in the coordination and cooperation between different participant groups. Using the smart highways concept as a discussion vehicle should enable the wide range of partners to establish communication channels, share information and knowledge, and compare business aspirations and directions. The current FHWA VII initiative offers a tremendous opportunity to help in this regard.

How to Buy a Smart Highway

It is unlikely that current procurement techniques alone will be suitable to support the effective procurement of the total smart highways package. Information services and other services will require innovative partnerships and different procurement mechanisms than those used to acquire the physical elements of asphalt, concrete, steel, and roadside infrastructure.

How to Retrofit

We need to develop some practical plans and approaches for the incorporation of new technologies into existing highways. The whole process of retrofitting smart highways will need to be analyzed and documented if we are to be successful in the conversion process. Since we are not likely to build more new highways than existing ones, this process has an important role in the evolution of smart highways.

The Synchronization Challenge

The development of smart highways requires such close coordination between groups of people that don’t traditionally cooperate that a successful approach may closely mimic a choreographed ballet. Each partner will need to move smoothly and effectively while taking


complete account of the movements of the others, and the overall effect of their combined movements. The communication channels necessary to achieve the required degree of synchronization will need to be very effective and support information on current and planned moves as well as information on the characteristics and needs of each participant group.

The Partial Implementation Issue

The full smart highway can only deliver the full range of value and benefits when all vehicles are equipped with suitable in-vehicle equipment. There is a gap to be bridged from the zero-equipped situation today and the 100 percent-equipped desired situation. There will inevitably be a transitional situation in which only a proportion of the vehicle fleet is equipped, and it could take up to 15 years to reach complete saturation. Obviously there will be scope for a range of aftermarket products that will enable existing vehicles to be retrofitted with the equipment. This would help to shorten the transition period but will not avoid it. During the transition period, it will be important to maximize the value and benefits achieved by both the consumer and the infrastructure operator. This will justify the investment and provide a strong incentive for progress to completion.

How to Incorporate into New Construction

We need to take a close look at the current plans, specifications, and design approaches that we use to guide the planning and design of current highways. New and amended specifications are required that support the seamless integration of information and telecommunications technologies from the ground up. Since it is much cheaper to incorporate these elements during the construction of a new facility, we need to take full advantage of our current knowledge by building it into our current plans and proposals.

Political Support and Public Outreach

Significant investment will be required in order to build new smart highways and convert existing ones. Some of the investment will be associated with the vehicle and be passed on to the consumer. Other investments will require public-sector investment actions that must be accompanied by the relevant political support. Outreach to politicians and nontechnical decision makers combined with an effective consumer-marketing approach will be vital to the success of the smart highways concept. Clear communication of the benefits and advantages of smart

highways, and simple matching of these to the needs and objectives of the public and the consumers, will be very important.

Management and Operations

Low Cost Short-term Actions

There is the possibility that benefits could be maximized in the near term through the adoption of a series of lower-cost strategies aimed at improving the interoperability of vehicles and infrastructure without the DSRC link. For example, it is possible to define a range of measures that would improve the ability of a smart vehicle to operate on less than smart infrastructure—the application of radar reflective paint to key features along the length of a highway. While this would not support the full interactivity required to support the complete range of smart highway services, it would enable partial, yet valuable benefits to be unlocked.

Longer-term Strategies

The longer-term strategies that will move us to tomorrow are inevitably the most challenging and costly items. Successful longer-term approaches will require close coordination across all parties and a smooth transition from a zero-equipped to 100 percent-equipped vehicle fleet, moving from blue skies to real benefits and effects. It would seem that one possible transitional approach lies in the development of premium services and infrastructure available only to those willing to pay for the additional service and acquire suitable equipment for their vehicles. Perhaps the initial users of this system will be transit and freight operators who already have trained drivers and can easily make a cost justification for the required investment. It is also apparent that there will be a significant role in the transition for aftermarket products and services supplementing the emerging OEM elements of the smart vehicle.

Qualified Drivers, Infrastructure, Services

The longer-term strategies associated with late-stage smart highways will, we believe, require the development of qualified drivers, infrastructure, and services. What we mean by this is that drivers will require a higher degree of training on the use of the smart highway, and vehicles/infrastructure will have to be suitably equipped. All three elements will require inspection and testing and will be subject to qualification. The emergence of the OmniAir consortium addressing the wireless link between the


vehicle and the roadside infrastructure is an important development in this regard as it provides a model for how future organizations may address the other elements of the smart highway.

Operational Needs

There is no question that smart highways have the potential to make a huge impact on the management of highway networks. The availability of a rich stream of operational parameter data from equipped vehicles, combined with data describing the operational status of the infrastructure, will take us from being data poor to data rich in short order. Taking full advantage of the new information availability by turning it into useful information that can, in turn, support the development of effective operational management strategies will be one of the new challenges facing infrastructure operators. We foresee the emergence of a new network-manager role for highway operating organizations similar to that which already exists in telecommunications. The highway network manager will be responsible for tapping the full potential of the new data stream, converting it into information, and developing traffic management and other operational management strategies that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of infrastructure operations, customer service, travel information, and traffic management. This role may also extend to the commercial exploitation of the new data stream and in the case of toll agencies, the optimization of the total revenue stream through the dynamic management of revenue and traffic.

ETC, Travel Information, and Traffic Management in the Smart Highway Context

An important aspect of the smart highway concept is the integrated application of traffic management, information, and payment services within an overall coherent structure. While electronic payment systems will enable fully flexible and adaptable pricing strategies, travel information will support an information flow allowing the driver to get best value through optimum use of the network. Traffic management techniques will ensure that the investment made by the driver is matched through a consistently high level of customer experience.

Managing the Assets of the Smart Highway

The smart highway of tomorrow will have new assets in addition to the asphalt, concrete, and steel of current highways. Information and telecommunication technology assets will be incorporated along with

commercial and information-related assets. Effective maintenance and management of the total lifecycle of such assets will itself require the effective application of information technologies in the form of sophisticated asset management hardware and software solutions. We foresee the application of information technologies to data collection, data management and retrieval, information processing, and information delivery in connection with advanced asset management. We expect the future smart highway to be run in a very efficient manner through the application of such systems to ensure optimum intervention and reinvestment.

Extending this even further, we expect to see the adoption of ERP and objectives-focused organizational techniques as used in the wider fields of commerce for the past 10 to 15 years, applied to transportation infrastructure operation and management. This will be closely coupled with CRM, customer service techniques, and the use of the new data stream to understand customer needs, provide services and products tailored to those needs, and ensure that all activities and work products are very closely related to organizational objectives.

Back-office Acceleration is Required

Although the smart highway puts a significant emphasis on the smart vehicle and its interaction with smart infrastructure, the back-office elements of the smart highway are just as important. The hardware and software solutions that are required to make use of the rich stream of new data and convert it into useful information and appropriate management strategies will play a vital role in the operation of the smart highway. Fortunately, many of the needs for the smart highways back office are common to the needs of other big business and commercial applications. Therefore, it should be possible to make extensive use of commercially available hardware and software packages for business and commercial applications. There are also existing planning and modeling tools available for traffic management, and we believe that these can be adapted to serve as the kind of real-time decision-support tools that will be required to develop traffic management strategies, based on the newly available data stream from the vehicles and the roadside.


Performance

Measuring the Performance of Smart Highways

The availability of a complete and continuous data stream that describes current vehicle and infrastructure performance will open up new vistas with respect to operational management, performance monitoring, and transportation planning. This will present a challenge, along with the opportunity of better data, leading to management that is more effective. The challenge lies in changing our current thinking and practices with respect to data collection and use. Many of the current practices are designed to circumvent problems due to lack of required data. We may have to reevaluate our approach to the monitoring and management of highways, going back to basics by defining the original need and determining how it can now be addressed using the new data stream. This should present exciting possibilities to adopt and adapt some of the very best management and monitoring practices from other fields, where similar monitoring and management of data has been available for a number of years.

Consequently, management techniques have matured and been tried and tested, enabling us to consider adopting them with some degree of confidence and at considerable time and cost savings compared to developing metrics and approaches entirely from scratch. We foresee the emergence of a completely new science of highway network management based on the smart use of the new data stream.

New Strategies and Approaches

Leading on from the effective use of the new data stream and the conversion of the data into meaningful information, we expect that new traffic management strategies and approaches will be discovered, evaluated, and considered for adoption. Better information regarding actual vehicle performance, driver behavior, and infrastructure operation should enable us to develop more refined and sophisticated approaches to traffic management and the operational management of the infrastructure.

Defining the Entire Process with Activities, Work Products, and Performance Metrics

To get the very best from the new data, information, and strategies, we believe that it will be essential to develop a total process view of the smart highway operations and

management activities. This will enable us to see how the information will be utilized, allow us to identify key performance measures and monitoring points, and ensure that our organizational structure will fully support our technologies and address our objectives. The business process that is defined will also be invaluable for business modeling, partnership development, and operational management strategy testing.

How Smart is Your Highway? – An Index

One way to engender interest in the application and adoption of the smart highways concept among infrastructure owners and operators may lie in the definition and communication of a smartness index for highways. The smartness index would be calculated based on how many smart highways features were operational on highways and over what length of the highway. This metric would enable infrastructure operators to monitor their progress and relate highway smartness to other key metrics related to saving lives, time, and money. This metric could also be used in combination with a “return on toll” metric for toll road operators to measure the value that a smart highway delivers relative to the fee charged to users.

From the Naked Highway to the Fully Appointed Infrastructure of Tomorrow

In concluding this final chapter of our ITS Orange Book™ on smart highways, we would like to look back to the origin of the current version of the concept in the “Smart Highways – The Full Monty” article published in Traffic Technology International in 2003. On a lighter note, we could describe today’s highways as naked, as they lack the proper attire (infrastructure and services) required to support the services that will be required in the future. They lack the ability to provide status information and cannot support interaction with smart vehicles, preventing us from dealing with the vehicle and the infrastructure as a truly seamless single system.


Additional ReferencesCoffee, Peter. “What’s Driving the IT Client.” eWeek 10 January 2005. 14 January 2005 <http://www.Eweek.com/article2

/0,1759,174982,00.asp>

Ervin, Robert D and Kan Chen. “Toward Motoring Smart.” Issues in Science and Technology, 5.2 (1989): 92-97.

Federal Highway Administration. Freeway Management and Operations Handbook. Office of Transportation Management: Washington, D.C., September 2003.

“FHWA White Paper: Right-of-Way and Asset Management.” Federal Highway Administration 13 October 2004. 26 January 2005 <http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/ampprow.htm>

“Hughes, Riding Gale, Sets Record of 7 ½ Hours in Flight From Coast.” The New York Times 20 January 1937. 7 February 2005 <http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0119.html>

McQueen, Bob, Judy McQueen. Intelligent Transportation Systems Architectures. Artech House: Boston, 1999.

McQueen, Bob, Rick Schuman, Kan Chen. Advanced Traveler Information Systems. Artech House: Boston, 2002.

Schechner, Beth. “Despite Bumpy Road, Automotive Networking Standardization Efforts Need to Continue.” ABI Research 19 January 2005. 7 February 2005 <http://www.abiresearch.com/Pdfs/IVN-xBW04pr.pdf>

“Traffic Responsive Driving Direction Can Be Your Immediate Answer to High Fuel Cost and Traffic Congestion Problems.” Traftools 21 December 2004. 14 January 2005 <http://www.directionsMag.com/press.releases/ ?duty=Show&id=10849&trv=1&PRSID=9668481d0027d917e82a1643b4b60b4e>

Turnbell, Michael. “New SunPass Options on Way.” Sun-Sentinal 24 January 2005. 7 February 2005 <http://pqasb. pqarchiver.com/sun_sentinel/783029461.html?did=783029461&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Jan+24%2C+2005+ author=Michael+Turnbell+Transportation+Writer+desc=NEW+SUNPASS+OPTIONS+ON+WAY>


ContributorsMike Akridge

Traffic Engineering and Operations Office - FDOT

Deputy State Traffic Operations Engineer

605 Suwanee Street, MS 90

Tallahassee, Florida 32399

USA

[email protected]

www.dot.state.fl.us

(850) 410-5607

(850) 410-5501 FAX

Lou Amadori

PBS&J

Senior Consultant

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4122

(407) 647-4281 FAX

George Baker

OnStar

Public Policy Manager

400 Renaissance Center

Detroit, MI 48265

USA

[email protected]

(313) 667-0794

(313) 667-0822 FAX

Frans op de Beek

DHV

Director, Traffic Management and ITS

Netherlands

[email protected]

31 33 462 2869

John Benda

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

Manager of Maintenance & Traffic

2700 Ogden Avenue

Downers Grove, IL 60515

USA

[email protected]

(630) 241-6800 ext. 3903

(630) 241-6109 FAX

John Bonds

PBS&J

Sr ITS Specialist

22390 Janice Ave.

Cupertino, CA 95014

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(408) 873-2514

(408) 252-9856 FAX

Lee Bonds

Bonds & Kincaid

445 Sherman Avenue

Suite W

Palo Alto, CA 94306

USA

[email protected]

(408) 410-0458

Kan Chen

PBS&J

University of Michigan

Professor Emeritus

2420 Skyfarm Drive

Hillsborough, CA 94010

USA

[email protected]

(650) 375-8890


Armand Ciccarelli

PBS&J

Associate Project Manager

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4187

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Mike Davis

PBS&J

Program Manager

Turnpike Mile Post 263

Building 5315

Ocoee, FL 34761

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 532-3999

(407) 532-3989 FAX

Tom Delaney

PBS&J

Senior Consultant

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4121

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Randy Doi

RDoi Consulting

President

26394 Feathersound Drive

Punta Gorda, FL 33955

USA

[email protected]

(941) 575-2979

Don Erwin

PBS&J

Sr Program Manager

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

Robert “Tip” Frankiln

Viasys

Director of Business Development - ITS

26 Lake Wire Drive

Lakeland, FL 33812

USA

[email protected]

www.viasyscorp.com

(863) 607-9988

(863) 607-9955 FAX

Tim Gallagher

Electronic Transation Consultants

1200 Executive Drive East

Suite 100

Richardson, TX 75081

USA

[email protected]

(214) 615-2302

Doug Henderson

Econolite

Manager, DCMS Business Development

10391 Ness Wood Lane

Las Vegas, NV 89135

USA

[email protected]

www.econolite.com

(702) 528-5768


Rick Herrington

North Texas Tollway Authority

5900 West Plano Parkway

Suite 100

Plano, TX 75093

USA

[email protected]

(214) 461-2020

Luis Hevia

PBS&J

Associate Project Manager

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4257

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Dan Himes

Viasys

National Director of Business Development

7295 S.W. 140th Terrace

Miami, FL 33158

USA

[email protected]

(305) 256-1902

(305) 252-3884 FAX

Kevin Hoeflich

PBS&J

Deputy Program Manager

263 Milepost

Turkey Lake Service Plaza, Bldg 5315

Ocoee, FL 34761

USA

[email protected]

(407) 532-3999 ext. 3431

Melissa Hurst

PBS&J

Production Specialist

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4442

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Keith Jasper

PBS&J

Program Manager

3859 Centerview Drive

Chantilly, VA 20151

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

Judy Kincaid

Bonds & Kincaid

445 Sherman Avenue

Suite W

Palo Alto, CA 94306

USA

[email protected]

(650) 838-9816

Job Klijnhout

Rijkswaterstaat

Director

Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management

Transport Research Center (AVV)

Boompjes 200 (visiting address)

3011 XD Rotterdam

P.O. Box 1031 (postal address)

3000 BA Rotterdam

The Netherlands

[email protected]


Dr. W.J.J Knibbe

Rijkswaterstaat

Senior Advisor

Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management

Transport Research Centre (AVV)

Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management

Boompjes 200 (visiting address)

3011 XD Rotterdam

P.O. Box 1031 (postal address)

3000 BA Rotterdam

The Netherlands

[email protected]

Rene Korevaar

Rijkswaterstaat

Project Assistant

ITS Service Management

The Test Centre for Traffic Systems

Kluyverweg 4

2629 HT Delft

The Netherlands

[email protected]

Susan Kuca

PBS&J

Business Development, IMS Business Sector

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4140

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Dr. Haniph A. Latchman

University of Florida

Professor

463 Engineering Building

PO Box 116130

Gainesville, FL 32611

USA

[email protected]

(352) 392-4950

(352) 392-0044 FAX

Dr. -Ing Kerstin Lemke

BASt - Federal Highway Research Institute

Bruederstr. 53

51427 Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

[email protected]

Dr. -Ing Christine Lotz

BASt - Federal Highway Research Institute

Section Traffic Management, Telematics

Bruederstr. 53

51427 Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

[email protected]

Amando Madan

Skanska

4029 Ridge Top Road

Suite 320

Fairfax, VA 22030

USA

(703) 383-0081

(703) 383-8346 FAX

Paul Mannix

PBS&J

Sr ITS Specialist

263 Milepost

Turkey Lake Service Plaza, Bldg 5315

Ocoee, FL 34761

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 532-3999

Bob McQueen

PBS&J

Business Sector Manager, IMS

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4328

(407) 647-4281 FAX


Phil Miller

PBS&J

Senior Consultant

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4198

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Joe Mooney

PBS&J

Sr ITS Specialist

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4362

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Marcelo Morales

Ascom Chile

Country Manager

Av. Apoquindo 4445, Oficina 401

Las Condes, Santiago

Chile

[email protected]

56 (2) 263-1057

Wendy Peckham

PBS&J

Sr ITS Specialist

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 806-4445

(407) 647-4281 FAX

Bonnie Reid

General Motors

Program Manager

30500 Mound Road

Warren, MI 48090

USA

[email protected]

(586) 986-6021

(586) 986-2684 FAX

Eric Sampson

Transport Technology & Standards Division

Head

Zone 2/04 A

Great Minister House

United Kingdom

[email protected]

Jim Schultz

Michigan DOT

ITS Program Manager

18101 W. Nine Mile Road

Southfield, MI 48075

USA

[email protected]

(248) 483-5131

(248) 569-3103 FAX

Rick Schuman

PBS&J

Division Manager, TNI

482 S. Keller Road

Orlando, FL 32810

USA

[email protected]

www.pbsj.com

(407) 647-4511

(407) 647-4281 FAX


Steve Underwood

Center for Automotive Research

1000 Victors Way

Suite 200

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

USA

[email protected]

(810) 333-5328

Christopher L. Warren

Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise

Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer

Milepost 263, Building 5315

Turkey Lake Service Plaza

Ocoee, FL 34761

USA

[email protected]

www.floridasturnpike.com

(407) 532-3999 ext. 3102

(407) 822-6679 FAX

Chris Wilson

DaimlerChrysler

Vice President ITS Strategy & Programs

1510 Page Mill Road

Palo Alto, CA 94304

USA

[email protected]

(650) 845-2579

(650) 845-2555 FAX

Salahdin Yacoubi

Autopista Central

Chief Operating Officer

San Jose 1145

San Bernardo, Santiago

Chile

[email protected]

56 (2) 470 7570

traveller information and traffic management~orangebook_issue2_print

Documents