Cross-cutting Issues

The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are the combination of many complex
engineering components, and they need the application of multidisciplinary investigations. An
adequate background for professionals to come means implies the knowledge acquisition in
various adjacent sciences and the skills in close teamworking. One of possible variants of
learning methodology to attain these ends is the creation of a virtual proving ground (VPG) to
study the diverse functional problems of ITS elements. The paper discusses the VPG concept
based on the integrated software environment, which addresses the in-depth training of
undergraduates and postgraduates in automotive engineering.

Technical University of Ilmenau

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition,November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

Providing traffic telematic applications to the fleet of European vehicles has proven to be
difficult. Cellular networking technologies (e.g. UMTS – Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System) and WAVE (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments)
technologies are now available to provide ubiquitous connectivity. The paper will detail the
German Aktiv CoCar project that aims to progress the usability of cellular communications
for Car-to-Car and Car-to-Infrastructure applications and aims to develop a lightweight
communication protocol for traffic telematics applications. Additionally it will be outlined
what role Vodafone as a cellular network provider may play the field of telematic services.

Vodafone Group R&D

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

In the coming ubiquitous network era, the motor vehicles, like the other devices, are expected
to be networked. This provides a new data stream connecting the pedestrians, vehicles and
roads each other, which can be used for the safe drive, congestion avoidance and environment
protection. Aiming at those, six companies including KDDI R&D Laboratories jointly
conducted their R&D on “Ubiquitous ITS,” funded by the National Institute of Information
and Communications Technology (NICT) for three fiscal-years since 2005. With its focus on
the utilizations of various wireless media, the research conducted on the three main areas of
(1) vehicle-to-vehicle and -roadside communications, (2) telematics service enhancements
and (3) traffic information distributions over a terrestrial digital broadcasting. This paper
reports the research activities conducted by them and their outcome.
Keywords: vehicle to vehicle communications, vehicle to roadside communications,
telematics, digital terrestrial broadcasting.

KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc.

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

Benefits from traffic information examined using three methods; focus groups, stated
preference-studies (SP) as well as simulated work-trips on the internet. The SP-results show
that that there is a clear relationship between message content and the valuation. They also
show that the value of decreasing uncertainty, when informed about a travel time delay with ±
10 minutes, corresponds to SEK 3.80 (EUR 0.4). The travel simulation shows that radio
messages in general have a larger effect than VMS messages on route choice. Repeated
information has however an impact, since a large share of the respondents who did not switch
route at the first decision point, switched at the next decision point where updated information
was given.

WSP Analysis & Strategy

Movea Trafikkonsult AB

Royal Institute of Technology

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

This paper discusses a method for estimating travel time in urban arterials using  video
detector data and a strategy for locating the detectors. Relationship between link travel time
and  traffic measurements  obtained from video  detectors  was  investigated using simulation
data. Then, a link travel time estimation model was  proposed  as  sum of  running time and
control delay. Regression analysis was used  to estimate  parameters of the model for two
lengths of links and various detector location alternatives. Estimation results supported the
statistical significance of the model and presented optimal number and locations of detectors
for travel time estimation. The results imply that the proposed model is applicable to traveler
information service and the detectors need to be placed at suitable locations for this purpose.
Paramics,  a microscopic traffic  simulation program, was used to  generate data needed for
estimating and validating the model, respectively.

Seoul National University

Korea Transport Institute

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York