Sustainability

Environmental problems such as air pollution, noise and vibration caused by road traffic are crucial issues in Japan. ITS is expected to be one of the key components aiding the solution of these problems. The objective of this study is to develop an emission monitoring system that estimates NOx (nitrogen oxides), PM (particulate matter) and CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions on each road section using vehicle detectors. The study roads are Route 6 (a total length of 12km) , Route 8 (a total length of 10km) and Route 16 (a total length of 29km) in Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan, where 181 ultrasonic vehicle detectors are installed. First, a method to estimate vehicle emissions from running patterns was established by analyzing time-dependant emission data. This data was obtained through the use of a chassis dynamometer. Next, a method to estimate running patterns from the detector data was developed. Test-car runs were carried out in order to collect vehicle running patterns on 238 road sections of the study roads. In conjunction with the test-car runs, vehicle detector data for the time period that the test car passed under each detector was collected. The emissions generated on the study roads were
estimated using the detector data from March 19th, 2003. The results from the system include the road maps that indicate the emissions in each road section, and the time-space diagram of the emissions on the study roads. In order to examine the accuracy of the estimated results, calculated NOx emissions on Route 16 were compared to the NOx concentration that was observed alongside the same road. The results illustrated that the fluctuation patterns of estimated NOx emissions were similar to that of observed NOx concentration; although, some partial inconsistencies were presented. The developed system is useful to identify the problematic road sections and the time periods that exhaust emission was excessive. Therefore the system is expected to be a useful tool in the design of detailed traffic management scheme to alleviate environmental problems.

Traffic Division, National Research Institute of Police Science

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

The evolution of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has resulted in improved traffic management techniques, public transportation improvements, advanced information technologies, driver aids, and vehicle safety enhancements. However, an often overlooked aspect of ITS operations is the environmental impacts of managing a modern transportation system. Thus, this paper will take a closer look at ITS-related environmental impacts and how ITS can play a greater role in future environmental improvements. With this in mind, this paper will explore the environmental uses of data harvested via existing ITS deployments, and future deployments of Connected Vehicle technologies. This paper will summarize the research behind the SwRI demonstrations of environmental technologies at the ITS World Congress.

Keywords: ITS, Environment, Greenhouse, Ozone, Air, Quality, Connected Vehicle

Southwest Research Institute

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

It is a fact: systems that are implemented but not properly maintained have more odds to fail. The same applies for deployments of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ITS being such a “new" area within the transportation field requires a different approach for maintenance. ITS involves technologies that are not only constantly changing but also subject to extreme environmental conditions making maintenance unique and challenging. ITS maintenance is consuming more time and resources than originally expected, and budgeted, by many transportation agencies; mainly due to little or no previous experience to use as a baseline. Even through ITS started to be deployed more than 20 years ago under various acronyms (i.e., IVHS), maintenance has generally been kept “in-house” and few lessons learned experiences have been documented. Maintenance is not glamorous! The purpose of this paper is to share with the ITS community an experience obtained from over 3 years of maintenance of an ITS deployment including both legacy systems and system expansions.

TransCore

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

The paper reports the results of a study where the transport workload of home-help personnel has been analysed. The results show that time spent on transportation together with operational costs for vehicles represent major costs for municipalities and society as a whole. Still the transportation aspect is not emphasised when strategic decisions are made concerning the physical location of the elderly care, or when home-help service activities are planned on a daily basis. This implies that there is a great need for ITS-applications that could be used in order to make the transports more efficient and sustainable. This could be achieved by using the applications for gathering information about transport patterns and time spent on travelling, operational planning of home-help service activities, and navigation support and on-trip traffic information when the personnel perform their journeys.

Transportforskningsgruppen i Borlänge AB

Dept. of Media and Communication Dalarna University

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

The present National Dialogue on Transportation Operations provides a timely opportunity to consider the surface transportation system in its entirety, including but not limited to the role of information technology (e.g. ITS) in supporting effective system management. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by drawing upon to related infrastructures—air traffic control and energy management—for lessons in devising policies (and underlying technologies) to calibrate supply and demand, thereby enhancing system efficiency. The paper first considers the steps taken by FAA to accommodate rising air demand through their slot allocation, and then considers federal legislative actions taken by US Congress to encourage a wider range of supply sources for the energy demand. While these examples are taken from the 1970’s because there is a track record on their impact, the current conditions relative to energy and air travel are also reviewed. Based on these infrastructure experiences, the case of surface transportation and ITS is then considered. Like energy and air, transportation is a complex infrastructure where with significant gaps between policies surrounding the provision of transportation supply and information signals (including price) provided to manage the demand. While special cases of integrated dynamic management have been proven successful (e.g. FETSIM, Los Angeles Olympics, ITS Model Deployment), from a national policy level, several gaps exist. Consequently, the paper concludes with a series of recommendations, including: establishing new institutional relationships, developing benchmarks on system performance, enhancing choice of travel options (supply), and an enhancing the role for private sector in information (ITS) provision.

Claremont Graduate University: School of Information Science

University of California, Berkeley: California PATH Headquarters

William Reany Associates

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida