Sustainability

This paper underlines the importance of efficient logistics for the European economy and
describes how European freight transport policy is currently supporting this idea with its concept
of co-modality. It also describes the role ITS plays in freight logistics policy nowadays, in
particular in the freight transport logistics action plan and the upcoming ITS action plan.
However, both action plans not fully recognize the unique and crucial role ITS plays in logistics.
ITS makes it possible to unite potentially conflicting policy and business objectives thus
simultaneously strengthen the effectiveness in several policy fields. This way of thinking is the
core of a vision of ‘accumulating gears’, based on the following ‘ITS gears’: smart and efficient
logistics, reliable and flexible logistics, green and sustainable logistics, and safe and secure
logistics. When the European Commission as well as industry bodies like EIRAC, ERTRAC,
ERTICO and the ITS Nationals Network implement this way of thinking in their strategies and
implementation plans, Europe can truly benefit from the promising potential ITS offers.

TNO Mobility & Logistics

ITS Nationals Network

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

Ecology and sustainability are key political issues in France today. In the transport sector, these concerns are reflected in the use of the term “sustainable mobility” which describes the drive to strike a new balance between the use of personal vehicles on the one hand, and public transport and soft transport options on the other.

Use of personal vehicles can only be reduced by making public transport more attractive and ercoming negative perceptions about journey times and changes from one mode of
transport to another, seen as troublesome and a waste of time. One of the priority is to mprove the quality of journeys with information and better communications – which help save ime – plus access to consumer and public services along the way.

INRETS (French National Research Institute for Transport and Safety)

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

Today a rich amount of information about location, grade, and traffic speed
can be made available to a vehicle. It is proposed to use this information to design a smart
engine control strategy using predictive control that will trade off fuel economy versus
trip duration, with only minor hardware modifications. 
 
The predicted vehicle state and traffic information are used to determine a velocity
envelope that a vehicle may take over a given path. A predictive control strategy
optimizes the engine torque to trade off fuel consumption and trip time while keeping the
vehicle within a time-varying vehicle speed envelope. This paper presents the control
design approach and preliminary simulation results. The vehicle parameters used in
simulation have been provided by Audi, a premium brand of Volkswagen Group.

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. Electronics Research Laboratory

University of California at Berkeley 

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

This paper considers how ITS can be harnessed to reduce harmful emissions and therefore
enhance air quality and reduce the effect on climate change from CO2. It does so from two
angles; firstly it considers the benefits that can be achieved by managing and reducing highway
congestion through the use of technology based systems, and secondly, it considers the balance in carbon use between the building and operating of traffic congestion management schemes and the resultant reduction in emissions from traffic. The CO2 produced when constructing, operating and decommissioning technology schemes is often overlooked. To determine the true impact that an ITS scheme has on CO2 emissions it is essential to quantify both the benefits and dis-benefits over the life of the scheme. This is illustrated with a case study of the UK M25 J15 to 16 Variable Mandatory Speed Limit (VMSL) Scheme. Whilst the calculations relate to the specific example (M25 VMSL) the principals can be adopted, and further refined, for other ITS schemes.

Mouchel Group plc

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

The Capital Beltway HOT Lanes will be a 14 mile subset of the Washington, D.C. region‟s Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) upon completion in December 2012. Buses, carpools (HOV-3+), motorcycles and emergency vehicles will be able to access the Capital Beltway HOT lanes for free while drivers with fewer than three occupants must pay a toll to use the HOT lanes. Upon opening, they will be among the most advanced variably priced toll lanes in the world. A dynamic toll algorithm (DTA) will be responsible for making adjustments to the toll prices at regular intervals based on measured traffic density. An effective means to examine, develop and test the toll system capabilities prior to implementation was considered essential.

Transurban, USA

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida