Intelligent transportation system
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The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) program is a worldwide initiative to add information technology to transport infrastructure and vehicles. It aims to manage factors that are typically at odds with each other such as vehicles, loads, and routes to improve safety and reduce vehicle wear, transportation times and fuel costs.
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Background
Interest in ITS comes from the problems caused by traffic congestion worldwide and a synergy of new information technologies for simulation, real-time control and communications networks. Traffic congestion has been increasing world-wide as a result of increased motorization, urbanization, population growth and changes in population density. Congestion reduces utilization of the transportation infrastructure and increases travel time, air pollution and fuel consumption.
The Developed World saw large increases in both motorization and urbanization starting in the 1920s that lead to migration of the population from the sparsely populated rural areas and the densely packed urban areas into suburbs. The industrial economy replaced the agricultural economy leading the population to move from rural locations into urban centers. At the same time, motorization was causing cities to expand because motorized transportation could not support the population density that the existing mass transit systems could support. Suburbs provided a reasonable compromise between population density and access to a wide variety of employment, goods and services that were available in the densily populated urban centers. Further, suburbs can be built quickly, supporting a rapid transition from a rural/agricultural economy to an industrial/urban economy.
Recent governmental activity in the area of ITS—specifically in the USA—is further motivated by the perceived need for Homeland Security. Many of the ITS systems proposed also involve surveillance of the roadways, which is a priority of homeland security. Funding of many systems comes either directly through homeland security organizations, or comes with their approval. Further, ITS can play a role in the rapid mass evacuation of people in urban centers after mass casualty events or as a result of a natural disaster or threat. Much of the infrastructure and planning involved with ITS parallels that needed for homeland security.
In the Developing World the migration of people from rural to urbanized habitats has progressed quite differently. Many areas of the Developing World have urbanized without significant motorization and the formation of suburbs. In areas like Santiego, Chile a high population density is supported by a multimodal system of walking, bicycle transportation, motorcycles, busses and trains. A small portion of the population can afford automobiles, but the automobiles greatly increase the congestion in these multimodal transportation systems. They also produce a considerable amount of air pollution, pose a significant safety risk and exacerbate feelings of inequities in the society.
Other parts of the Developing World such as China remain largely rural, but are rapidly urbanizing and industrializing. In these areas a motorized infrastructure is being developed along side motorization of the population. Great disparity of wealth means that only a fraction of the population can motorize and therefore the highly dense multimodal transportation system for the poor is cross-cut by the highly motorized transportation system for the rich. In these areas the urban infrastructure is being rapidly developed, providing an opportunity for building new systems incorporating ITS from the beginning.
Intelligent Transportation Technologies
Intelligent Transportation Systems vary in technologies applied, from basic monitoring applications to more advanced applications which integrate live data and feedback from a number of other sources, such as realtime weather, bridge de-icing systems, and the like. Additionally, predictive techniques are being developed, to allow advanced modeling and comparison with historical baseline data. Some of the constituent technologies typically implemented in ITS are described in the following sections.
Wireless Communications
Various forms of wireless communications technologies have been proposed for intelligent transportation systems. Short-range communications (less than 500 yards) can be accomplished using IEEE 802.11 protocols or the Dedicated Short Range Communications standard being promoted by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the United States Department of Transportation. Theoretically the range of these protocols can be extended using Mobile ad-hoc networks or Mesh networking.
Longer range communications has been proposed using infrastructure networks such as WiMAX (IEEE 802.16), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or 3G. Long-range communications using these methods is well established, but unlike the short-range protocols these methods require an extensive infrastructure beyond what is installed in a vehicle. There is lack of consensus as to what business model should support this infrastructure.
Computational Technologies
Recent advances in vehicle electronics have lead to a move toward fewer more capable computer processors on a vehicle. A typical vehicle in the early 2000s would have between 20 and 100 individual networked microcontroller/Programmable logic controller modules with non-real-time operating systems. The current trend is toward fewer more costly microprocessor modules with hardware memory management and Real-Time Operating Systems. The new embedded system platforms (computing) allow for more sophisticated software applications to be implemented, including model-based process control, artificial intelligence and ubiquitous computing. Perhaps the most important of these for Intelligent Transportation Systems is artificial intelligence.
Sensing Technologies
New sensing technologies have greatly enhanced what can be done using Intelligent Transportation Systems. Sensing systems can be either infrastructure systems or vehicle based systems. Infrastructure sensors tend to be devices that are installed in the road or around the road, usually as part of road construction/maintenance, while vehicle sensors tend to be those sensors that are found installed in a vehicle.
Infrastructure
Traffic Flow/Speed measurements
Inductive loop detection
Inductive loops can be placed in a roadbed to detect vehicles as they pass over the loop by measuring the vehicle's magnetic field. The simplest detectors simply count the number of vehicles during a unit of time (typically 60 seconds in the United States) that pass over the loop, while more sophisticated sensors estimate the speed, length and weight of vehicles and the distance between them. Loops can be placed in a single lane or across multiple lanes, and they work with very slow or stopped vehicles as well as vehicles moving at high-speed.
Infrared vehicle detection
Video vehicle detector
Speed detection devices
Surveillance devices
Vehicle
Position/Speed/Bearing detectors
Image Processors
Intelligent Transportation Applications
Electronic toll collection
Electronic toll collection (ETC) makes it possible for vehicles to drive through toll gates at traffic speed, reducing congestion at toll plazas and automating toll collection. Originally ETC systems were used to automate toll collection, but more recent innovations have used ETC to enforce cordon zones in city centers and ETC Lanes.
Until recent years most ETC systems were based on using radio devices in vehicles that would use proprietary protocols to identify a vehicle as it passed under a gantry over the roadway. More recently there has been a move to standardize ETC protocols around the Dedicated Short Range Communications protocol that has been promoted for vehicle safety by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
Other systems that have been used include barcode stickers, license plate recognition, infrared communication systems and Radio Frequency Identification Tags (see M6 Toll tag).
Emergency Vehicle Notification Systems
Cordon Zones
Cordon zones are used primarily in urban centers where mass transit is an alternative to driving. Drivers entering a cordon zone are charged a toll that exceeds the cost of mass transit
Cordon zones have been implemented in Singapore and in London, England where a special toll is collected when entering a congested city center using Electronic Toll Collection, licence plate
ETC Lanes
Traveler Information Systems
ITS History in the United States
- 1970s - Electronic Route Guidance (ERGS)
- 1990 - Mobility 2000
- 1991 - Formation of ITS America
- 1991 - Strategic Plan Development
- 1991 - ISTEA, Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act
- 1994 - ITS Architecture Contracts
- 1996 - Major Regional Initiatives
- 1997 - Automated Highway Demonstration in San Diego
- 1998 - TEA-21
- 2002 - Ten-Year ITS Plan
- 2003 - TEA-21 Reauthorization
Outline
The ITS program was originally called Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems.
Intelligent Transportation Systems are a set of related technologies, including:
- archived data
- archived data mart
- archived data warehouse
- archived data virtual warehouse
- advanced public transit systems
- transit vehicle tracking
- transit fixed-route operations
- demand responsive transit
- passenger and fare management
- public travel security
- transit maintenance
- multi-modal co-ordination
- en-route transit information
- multi-modal connection protection
- advanced traveler information systems
- in-vehicle navigation systems
- variable message signs
- broadcast traveller information
- Transport Protocol Experts Group (TPEG)
- TMC, Traffic Message Channel
- VICS, Vehicle Information and Communication System
- interactive traveller information
- 511 - example of a traffic infoline
- autonomous route guidance
- dynamic route guidance
- ISP-based route guidance
- traffic estimation and prediction
- traveller services payment and reservation
- ride matching
- in-vehicle signing
- RFID based intelligent traffic signs or road beacons
- ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaptation)
- Floating Car Data
- advanced traffic management systems
- ramp meters
- traffic control
- traffic network flow monitoring
- probe-based flow monitoring
- surface street control
- highway control
- HOV lane management
- traffic information dissemination
- regional traffic control
- incident risk prediction system
- predictive demand management
- electronic toll collection
- Automatic number plate recognition
- emissions management
- virtual TMC and vehicle-based sensing
- basic at-grade crossing control
- advanced at-grade crossing
- modal operations co-ordination
- electronic parking payment and parking facility management
- reversible lane management
- road weather information system
- regional parking management
- roadway environmental sensing
- roadway and weather data fusion
- environmental information dissemination
- roadway micro-prediction
- maintenance fleet management
- smart work zones
- dynamic roadway warning
- variable speed limit and enforcement
- traffic signal management
- traffic signal enforcement
- mixed use warning systems
- automated non-vehicular road user protection
- advanced vehicle safety systems
- vehicle safety monitoring
- driver safety monitoring
- longitudinal warning systems
- lateral warning systems
- intersection collision warning
- pre-collision restraint deployment
- sensor-based driving safety enhancement
- longitudinal collision avoidance
- lateral collision avoidance
- intersection collision avoidance
- automated vehicle operation
- automated highway systems
- commercial vehicle operations
- fleet administration
- freight administration
- electronic clearance
- commercial vehicle administrative processes
- international border crossing clearance
- weigh-in-motion (WIM)
- roadside CVO safety
- on-board safety monitoring
- CVO fleet maintenance
- hazardous material planning and incident response
- freight in-transit monitoring
- freight terminal management
- electronic payment
- emergency management systems
- enhanced 911
- emergency response management
- emergency vehicle routing
- personal security and mayday support
- freeway service patrols
- disaster command and control
- disaster information dissemination
- e-Call
- intelligent vehicles
- automatic vehicle identification
- automatic vehicle location
Most advanced surface transportation technologies now are pitched under the ITS rubric. In Europe, it is often called Telematics.
See also
External links
- http://www.its-australia.com.au - Australian ITS Source - 1terabyte library website.
- http://www.its.dot.gov/ - U.S. DOT's ITS website.
- http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/ - site run by Professor Jerry Schneider at the University of Washington with best set of links to innovative transportation projects worldwide
- http://www.itsa.org - this is an industry sponsored .org, with a relatively short-term view
- http://www.njtide.org - Cooperative traffic systems lab of Rutgers, Princeton, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology
- http://www.ibec-its.org - International, Benefits, Evaluation and Costs Working Group for the ITS community
- - Transportation Communications Newsletter
- http://www.its.umn.edu/ - The Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute at the University of Minnesota
- http://www.itsregistry.org.uk - The UK ITS Registry, following the ISO 14871 approach
- http://www.ebu.ch/en/technical/projects/b_tpeg.php TPEG Draft Specificationsda:Intelligente transportsystemer
de:Verkehrstelematik es:ITS nl:Intelligente Transport Systemen ja:高度道路交通システム