Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004300192
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There is disagreement over just how far this country has fallen behind. "You can look at the time and the money that's being spent and say we're five years behind and $1 billion short," said Earl Shirley, who heads the California Department of Transportation's Division of New Technology, Materials and Research.
Yet, he said, Japanese car makers such as Nissan and Toyota want to invest in smart highway research in the United States, "so maybe we're not as far behind as it seems."
But those who are designing, building and testing the cars and highways of the not-so-distant future - including an expressway between Blacksburg and Interstate 81 - seem to agree on this:
A coordinated national effort linking car makers, university researchers and the government is needed to keep the United States competitive with its overseas rivals.
"The toughest part is not technology," said Robert Ervin, co-director of the University of Michigan's Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems program.
Thanks to heavy spending in defense and related industries over the past decade, the United States is leading the way in the development of mobile communications, visual displays, night-vision aids and other "pieces" of smart highway technology.
Europe and Japan, however, have done a better job of bringing government and industry together to develop, test and put smart highway systems into operation, he said.
Without a coordinated public-private program, the interest in - and money for - smart highway research in this country will fizzle out, the president of the Highway Users Federation, Lester Lamm, warned last week at Virginia Tech's conference on Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner recognized the problem last month in a report to Congress on smart highway systems. And his call for a coordinated national effort is being heeded:
The first edition of a monthly newsletter that summarizes developments in smart highway technology came off the presses this month. Annual subscriptions to The Intelligent Highway, published in the United States and Britain, sell for $345.
Researchers from industry, academia and government have joined in an informal but influential organization called Mobility 2000. At its meeting in Dallas in March, it proposed a multibillion-dollar program of smart highway research and development.
This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Highway Users Federation are holding a national conference on smart highways in Orlando, Fla.
When Roanoke County Supervisor Dick Robers began talking about smart cars and smart highways last year, a lot of people laughed or dismissed the idea as science fiction.
But that isn't the way Lyle Saxton of the Federal Highway Administration's Traffic Systems Division sees it. "It's not Buck Rogers," he said at the Virginia Tech conference. "It's taking advantage of the technology you use in your everyday lives and putting it to work on highways."
There are exciting smart highway research and demonstration projects already under way in the United States and Virginia.
According to state Highway Commissioner Ray Pethtel, electronic toll collection is scheduled to begin next year on the Dulles Airport toll road in Northern Virginia.
In some electronic toll collection systems, cars are tagged with an identification strip that is read by an electronic scanner - much like the scanner that reads product bar codes in grocery store checkout lines.
The Northern Virginia experiment, called Fast Toll, uses radio frequency beams and transponders attached under the license plates of cars. When a car approaches a toll booth, its identification code will be retrieved electronically from the transponder. Drivers won't have to stop and fumble for change; they'll pay in advance or be billed later.
Sophisticated traffic control systems using pavement sensors, video cameras and variable message signs are in use on interstates 66 and 395 and on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge outside Washington, D.C.
In Hampton Roads, drivers can turn on their car radios to get up-to-date information on traffic jams in the bridge-tunnel between Hampton and Norfolk.
And Virginia Tech is working on plans to build a smart highway test lane parallel to a new expressway linking Blacksburg with Interstate 81 near Ironto. It would be the first smart highway built from the ground up in the United States. It also would provide an opportunity to test the new technology in a rural area, which might give the project - and the university - a leg up in the competition for federal funds.
"We're trying to jump on it soon enough to be among the big players, said Antoine Hobeika, director of Tech's transportation research center. "It's not a dream."
California is leading the way in smart highway research and public-private partnerships in the United States.
The most ambitious program being tested in this country is called PATHFINDER, a project of the California Department of Transportation, General Motors and the Federal Highway Administration.
GM has equipped 25 Oldsmobile Delta 88s with dashboard computer terminals. The drivers will get up-to-date information about traffic conditions on a 12-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Freeway into downtown Los Angeles. And they'll be advised on alternate routes to avoid accidents, traffic jams or fog.
A similar program, which is being put together with help from GM and the American Automobile Association, is scheduled to be tested in Orlando next year.
California is looking at other ways to put high tech to use on its highways and in mass transportation, Shirley said. Research is being done on:
The use of robots for road maintenance work such as striping and litter pickup.
Collision-avoidance systems that would allow platoons of cars to zip along the highway only a few feet apart.
Magnetically levitated trains.
Smart highways that will allow a driver to program a destination on a dashboard computer, then sit back and enjoy the ride.
Millions of dollars are being spent on research and development of smart highway technology at the University of California at Berkeley, Texas A&M University, the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.
But there is plenty of work to go around. "The more minds you get working on something like this, the better off you are," as long as researchers keep in touch and don't step on each other's toes, he said.
Shirley likes the idea of building a smart highway test lane parallel to the Blacksburg-Ironto expressway. In fact, he said, the California Department of Transportation needs a six- or seven-mile test road, too.
In Europe, auto makers, electronics experts and university researchers are taking part in PROMETHEUS - the Programme for European Traffic with the Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety - an eight-year, $800 million program begun in 1986 to develop cars with advanced control and communication systems. The goal is to reduce traffic fatalities by 50 percent by the turn of the century.
European Common Market nations also are taking part in a research and development program called DRIVE - Dedicated Road Infrastructure for Vehicle Safety in Europe - with emphasis on traffic management systems, including mass transportation.
In Japan, where traffic congestion is a major problem, there are two major research and development programs: AMTICS, the Advanced Mobile Traffic Information and Communication System, and RACS, the Road-Automotive Communication System.
In AMTICS, traffic control centers transmit information about accidents, weather and parking availability to display screens in cars. Drivers also use compact discs that show the location of gas stations and other useful information.
RACS goes a step farther, with digital road maps that show a car's exact location. This system is being tested in Yokohama and in Tokyo, where even cab drivers have a hard time finding their way through the maze of streets.
Putting smart cars onto smart highways in the United States would be expensive - though the cost might be offset in the long run by improvements in safety and reduced fuel consumption.
Without federal money, said the University of Michigan's Robert Ervin, "a lot will still happen . . . but nothing that looks like a coordinated national program." Industries are waiting for a commitment from the government before going full speed ahead with smart highway research and development, he said.
by CNB