Government Technology - September 2008 - (Page 18)

62 mph 60 mph The follow-up experiment to Mobile Rubber, Meet Road Many drivers already use ITS in some fashion whether they know it or not. John Q. Public may be oblivious to ITS because the term covers so many different technology pieces. California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Chief Deputy Director Randy Iwasaki did his best to sum up what exactly ITS encompasses. “Examples of ITS are 511, Web sites where motorists view real-time traffic speeds, FasTrak, smart parking, bus rapid transit, Wi-Fi access at rest areas, ramp meters, closed circuit television, changeable message signs and the vehicle infrastructure According integration program,” he said. to the Vehicle On their own merits, 511, Infrastructure changeable message signs and Integration ramp meters, aren’t too exciting. consortium, in 2006 some But taken together, an ad hoc web 6 million trafﬁc develops that reaches into almost accidents occurred every part of the transportation — or one crash experience. And California, like uses GPS-enabled mobile phones to transmit every five seconds. many other states, is working on a vehicle’s position and speed data to genIn addition, every cutting-edge stuff, such as the erate real-time traffic information without 12 minutes there Vehicle Infrastructure Integra- costly technology installation. The project was a trafficis operated jointly by Caltrans; the Califortion (VII) program. related fatality. The U.S. Department of nia Center for Innovative Transportation; ITS advocates Transportation, the American the University of California (UC), Berkeley; hope technology Association of State Highway Nissan; NAVTEQ; and Nokia. In February, can improve these figures. Transportation Officials and a the consortium conducted an experiment number of automobile manu- to test the validity of using GPS phones as facturers are driving the national traffic sensors. The experiment, called the Mobile Century, VII program. The goal is to create a nationwide network of communication-enabled infra- involved 100 UC Berkeley student volunteers. structure. In other words, VII is an attempt to Each student was given a Nokia phone and proceeded to drive up and down a connect vehicles on the road to prescribed section of Interstate 880. the things surrounding them The students drove for 10 hours — intersections, onramps while the phones relayed speed and even other vehicles. If the and location data to a command infrastructure communicates center. The experiment’s goal to the vehicles and vice versa, was to see whether the phone drivers should be able to travel data could accurately predict more efficiently and safely. traffic and help drivers avoid and The auto manufacturers prevent congestion. Transportaonboard with VII are working Randy Iwasaki, tion officials and UC engineers on data-transmitting tech- Caltrans chief deputy were thoroughly pleased with the nologies that would interface director, has been instruexperiment. The results suggested with similar devices embed- mental in California ITS the system has potential. ded in the infrastructure. One projects. He has led efforts “Even though the phones are project to accomplish this feat to recycle old tires into capable of sending their posiis a test in Berkeley, Calif., that rubberized asphalt and SEPT_08 58 mph 55 mph 60 mph 62 mph 60 mph Century is expected to take place in October. Approximately 1,000 drivers will motor around a test bed that stretches from the Paciﬁc Ocean to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As before, each participating driver will do nothing more than drive around with a GPSenabled Nokia mobile phone. This larger experiment will test additional features, chief among them is collisionavoidance technology using Wi-Fi embedded in vehicles. The original project partners — California Department of Transportation; University of California, Berkeley; California Center for Innovative Transportation; Nokia; Nissan; and NAVTEQ — will all return, this time with an additional $2.9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration. 58 mph 57 mph 60 mph Mobile phones transmit speed and location data to produce real-time trafﬁc analysis. tion and speed every three seconds, an efficient traffic-monitoring system should not need to transfer such a large amount of data, which would require enormous bandwidth,” Alex Bayen, UC Berkeley assistant professor of systems engineering, told Berkeley News. “Our challenge is to find the optimum subset of this data for effective traffic monitoring. The quantity and quality of data provided by GPSequipped cell phones present an unprecedented enhancement to mobility tracking technology and traffic flow reconstruction mechanisms.” Data from the experiment suggests such a system could warn drivers of impending roadway problems en route and also show a scheduled meeting on a driver’s phone and cross-reference that against the data being collected. If a meeting were to commence at 9 a.m. and traffic data showed problems on the road, a driver’s phone could alert her, and provide an alternate route before she even gets in her car. Every year, billions of hours and billions of gallons of gasoline are wasted due to traffic congestion. This kind of innovative ITS solution could greatly reduce those numbers while avoiding the significant expense, according to Iwasaki. “California has made significant strides in rebuilding its transportation infrastruc- pushed for the use of costeffective LED traffic lights. 18 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - September 2008

Government Technology - September 2008 Contents Point of View On the Scene Big Picture Four Questions for... Up Close Fork in the Road On Time and On Target On the Record, Off the Charts Government’s Greatest Asset? Easy Access Finding the Money Security in the Wireless World The Case for Mobility Spectrum Products Two Cents signal:noise Digital Communities Contents A New Government Paradigm News is Now Transformation Web 2.0 Style Protecting Community Media Thinking Regionally Government at La-Z-Boy Speed

Government Technology - September 2008

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