FUTURE PERSONAL GROUND TRANSPORTATION

The recent revolution in electronics and computers may for the first time offer us an opportunity to at least mitigate traffic congestion without creating any disbenefits and without tearing up the existing infrastructure. The "Intelligent Vehicle/Highway System" is a way to balance traffic densities throughout an urban area and give drivers enough up-to-date information that they can make smart decisions about where to drive to avoid congestion and reduce wasteful miles. You might think of this system as a grand extension of the highway traffic advisory system based on helicopters and commercial radio used today. This system will do that job much better though and do much more besides. The Intelligent Vehicle/Highway System basically consists of four parts: a naviation system on board the vehicle, a traffic control center for the urban area, two way communication between the vehicle and the traffic control center, perhaps using transponder beacons along the highway, and sensors on the highway to detect traffic densities and vehicle speeds. Project Pathfinder to be conducted in the Santa Monica SMART Corridor is to be a 3-year experiment of an Intelligent Vehicle/Highway System. General Motors is providing 25 Oldsmobile Delta 88 cars for this test, and they will be equipped with Etak Navigators. The project is supported by Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration. The purpose is to test the system and determine just what benefits are realized for the individual driver and what the costs might be. Europe and Japan are already conducting experiments in such systems.

• Corporate Authors:

  General Motors Corporation

  Research and Development Center, 30500 Mound Road
  Warren, MI  United States  48090
• Authors:
  • Agnew, W G
• Publication Date: 1988-9-22

Media Info

• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: 53 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Experiments; Intelligent transportation systems
• Geographic Terms: Europe; Japan; United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00490605
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GMR-6419
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 31 1990 12:00AM