Personal Mobility

The main objective of this research was to investigate four types of RGI (Route
Guidance Information) systems and evaluate the suitability of the systems, which will
improve safety and mobility of foreign drivers who drive temporarily in Japan. Twelve
foreign drivers were asked to operate a driving simulator while using four types of route
guidance information developed by utilizing arrow-type and map-type information. Glance
behavior including fixation time, glance frequency, and mental workload were measured.
Results suggest that the most suitable navigation system for foreign drivers is to provide
selectable information by driver’s control, which is supported by more explicit and simple
information than that of a current navigation system.

Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University

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

The main objective of this research was to investigate four types of RGI (Route
Guidance Information) systems and evaluate the suitability of the systems, which will
improve safety and mobility of foreign drivers who drive temporarily in Japan. Twelve
foreign drivers were asked to operate a driving simulator while using four types of route
guidance information developed by utilizing arrow-type and map-type information. Glance
behavior including fixation time, glance frequency, and mental workload were measured.
Results suggest that the most suitable navigation system for foreign drivers is to provide
selectable information by driver’s control, which is supported by more explicit and simple
information than that of a current navigation system.

Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University

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

Providing improved transit traveler information (TTI) has advanced significantly over the past ten years with the advent of new technologies, such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) and advanced communications, and of new dissemination mechanisms and media, such as wireless application protocol (WAP) mobile telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).  Today, transit travelers, particularly choice riders, expect to have comprehensive information about
multiple modes (including traffic information) available to them quickly, in one place or from one source, and on a variety of media.  Transit agencies are being challenged to meet these travelers’ needs given declining budgets and the continuing needs to provide efficient service. Paper schedules, manually operated customer information telephone services, and the need for
travelers to make several telephone calls to obtain information will not satisfy travelers anymore.  
This paper describes strategies for using information technology to improve individual mobility-
related decision-making.  Examples of how public transportation providers can become part of
regional- and/or community-based, information dissemination systems that include, but are not
limited to, hand-held (e.g., PDAs, pagers, and smart telephones), vehicle-mounted, kiosk-based, and web-based communications is covered.  This paper also discusses four key strategies for improved TTI that were developed based upon research conducted by the author for the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) project, entitled “Strategies for Improved Traveler Information.

TranSystems Corporation

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

Kansas City Scout is Kansas City's bi-state traffic management system. The Kansas and Missouri
Departments of Transportation (KDOT, MoDOT) designed Scout to lessen traffic jams by
improving rush-hour speeds, to increase safety by decreasing the number of rush-hour accidents,
and to improve emergency response to traffic situations. Kansas City Scout first became
operational in January 2004. Kansas City Scout manages traffic on more than 100 miles of
continuous freeways in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. Scout uses closed-circuit
television (CCTV) cameras to monitor the highways from its traffic management center in Lee's
Summit. The Scout system relies on sensors to gauge traffic flow, uses large electronic message
boards to send urgent traffic notices to drivers along the freeways, and activates a Highway
Advisory Radio system that motorists in Missouri can tune to in the event of a freeway incident.

Kansas City Scout Traffic Center

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

Reverse parking requires the driver to perform complicated steering operations while verifying
the safety of the maneuver all around the vehicle. Many drivers are not skilled at reverse
parking and there is a need for assist systems. To accommodate this need, an efficient
high-performance reverse parking assist with automatic steering was developed and
commercialized in 2003 (1). Subsequently, further development was performed to improve user
operability and convenience, such as the length of time required for setting the target position,
improving the understanding of the starting position, and parking on uneven or sloping ground.
This was followed in 2006 by the development of a function to determine the target parking
position by parking space recognition using ultrasonic sensors, and  parking space line
recognition using image processing, to reduce the time required to set the target position (2)(3).
As a result, the satisfaction level and use frequency by users has dramatically improved.
Furthermore, based on the results of parking space recognition  using an ultrasonic sensor, an
audio assistance function that informs the driver of the reverse parking starting position to make
it easier to know the starting position, and a function to improve parking accuracy by capturing
and tracking the parking space lines were developed.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.

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