 National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C. Vol. 31, No. 9 * May 10, 1999 Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story Smart roads will ease congestion By Rick Keister
"If you Build it, they will come" is the famous line from the hit movie Field of Dreams. The "it" was a baseball field carved out of an Iowa cornfield. The "they" were hoards of people dying to watch a baseball game. Transportation planners know the concept. Across the country, they carved out superhighways, interstates, beltways, primary and secondary roads, local roads, backstreets and alleys. And boy have they come! Cars, trucks and more cars all jamming roads in what seems at times like gigantic coast to coast gridlock. In 1995 alone, highway officials estimated that Americans spent more than two billion hours in traffic jams. That translates into 83 million days and lost productivity of more than $100 billion. And for anyone who’s ever been locked into one of those jams, there’s also a frustration quotient impossible to measure. But, Congress and the nation’s road builders have not been sitting idly on the sidelines watching helplessly as the traffic noose tightens. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 and its successor, the recently enacted NEXTEA, called on the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation to promote "intelligent transportation technologies" and insure compatibility throughout the states. Both politicians and engineers recognize that despite improvements in mass transit, the best option for bucking the trend toward gridlock is to make better use of roads through what has become known as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ITS has become a catchall phrase and a sometimes confusing concept to grasp. It includes everything from one remote road sensor designed to detect wet or icy roads to sophisticated computer networks that control traffic, mass transit, and emergency vehicles. It can include new "smart" electronic toll cards that speed cars through collection booths as well as in-vehicle navigation devices that tell you where you are and the best way to get to your destination. John Collins, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) simply says, "ITS is an umbrella term that embraces all aspects of people using technology to save lives, time and money in surface transportation." People using technology to solve problems rolls easily off the tongue. Not so easy, however, to put to work on federal, state and local highways. That’s why the federal government, businesses in the ITS industry and professional transportation associations have been working on a set of standards to help planners tie all the complex technologies together. In the jargon of engineers and government experts, it is called the National ITS Architecture. And it is important because any agency wanting federal funds on ITS projects must meet those standards. Thinking about a National ITS Architecture need not be a scary proposition. Just imagine you are reading a blueprint that tells you how all the building blocks are going to go together to make a house. It’s a way of tying all the pieces together so each is compatible with the other. That’s what the Atlanta Regional Traffic Management Center did to prepare for the expected transportation crunch of the 1996 Olympic games. First they developed a blueprint to integrate technologies and coordinate the actions of eight agencies responsible for moving people around Olympic venues. They were able to provide more than two million visitors with real-time transit and traffic information, available through cell phones, local cable television, the internet and 130 kiosks. Everyone from athletes to visitors could see where congestion occurred and choose traffic options to avoid delays. The result was one of the most congestion-free Olympic games of modern times. Unlike other federal programs, the National ITS Architecture is built on the experience and advice of state and local transportation agencies throughout the country. The goal is to find generic building blocks that transportation agencies can use to develop an ITS strategy locally, in a region or an entire state. At the same time, private manufacturers of transportation technology will now be able to look at ITS standards and make products that match the needs and specifications of its buyers. That, in turn, could lead to lower prices, higher quality, and continual upgrades that will extend the life of technology systems across the country. For many transportation and elected officials, ITS offers a chance of turning road and traffic nightmares, not into a field of dreams, but at least a vision of a better future.
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