IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DIRECT PROJECT

The Driver Information Radio using Experimental Communication Technologies (DIRECT) Operational Field Test (OFT) Project was initiated by the Michigan Department of Transportation as a way to bring advances in communication and computer technology to motorists with as little expense as possible. A primary guideline was to keep in-vehicle equipment costs down to an incremental maximum of approximately $50 to $100 dollars over the base in-vehicle entertainment system. The need to keep incremental cost to a minimum steered development to audio-based traffic advisory alerts. Graphic displays were too costly and there were severe ergonomic problems with trying to use either the radio-based text display or a satellite text display. The four methods finally developed and implemented are: 1) Low Power Highway Advisory Radio (LP HAR); 2)Automatic Highway Advisory Radio (AHAR); 3) Radio Broadcast Data Service / Subsidiary Communications Authority (RBDS/ SCA); and 4) Cellular Call Server (CCS). A second goal of DIRECT was to minimize disruption of the in- vehicle entertainment system by extraneous traffic advisories. All delivery methods would transmit on an "exception" basis. That is, they would only transmit if there was an active traffic situation in their coverage area. The LP HAR and AHAR systems were purposely designed with limited transmission range so the advisory message could be tailored to the coverage area of each transmitter. At MDOT we refer to this as "localcast." In contrast, commercial traffic advisory services on broadcast radio must cover the entire region with one transmitter. This often requires the broadcaster to filter the incidents reported, perhaps skipping the one pertinent one. Another problem with broadcast messages is listening to all of the incidents reported in order to select the ones of immediate interest

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication Date: 1998 Published By: ITS America, Washington DC
• Authors:
  • Mullin, Thomas D
• Conference:
  • ITS America 8th Annual Meeting and Exposition: Transportation technology for tomorrow : conference proceedings
  • Location: Detroit Michigan, United States
  • Date: 1998-0-0 to 1998-0-0
• Publication Date: 1998

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 9 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Advanced driver information systems; Highway advisory radio
• Identifier Terms: Direct (Program : Michigan)
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00776840
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
• Files: PATH
• Created Date: Nov 17 1999 12:00AM