Testimony of Professor Chelsea C. White III

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA

400 Virginia Ave., S.W., Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20024-2730
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http://www.itsa.org

United States Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works

Round Table Discussion:

"Reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Research Program"

March 15, 2002, 9:30 a.m.
406 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Testimony of Professor Chelsea C. White III
Member, Board of Directors
Intelligent Transportation Society of America

Introduction and Background

Chairman Jeffords, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Research Program with you today. My name is Chelsea White; I am a Member of the Board of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), on whose behalf I will be testifying today. ITS America is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, with over 600 members, including state departments of transportation, associations, non-profits, universities, and private companies. These member organizations represent some 60,000 individuals involved in intelligent transportation programs around the world. ITS America also serves as a utilized Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of Transportation, rendering programmatic advice to the US DOT on issues of research, development, and deployment of ITS technologies.

Since its founding in 1990, ITS America has been, and continues to be, the only public-private partnership focused exclusively on fostering the use of advanced technologies in today's surface transportation systems. ITS America first received modest Federal funding under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 (P.L. 102-240, Dec. 19, 1991). Since 1991, the national ITS program has pursued research, technology development, and field-testing of ITS technologies and has promoted the deployment of ITS applications.

In addition to serving as a volunteer Board Member of ITS America, I also serve as the ISyE Professor of Transportation and Logistics in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Over my career, I have participated in surface transportation research in a university setting, including research involving ITS technologies.

I am honored to appear before you today to discuss the need for continued investment in ITS in the Reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Research Program. Through the investments in ITS research and deployment in ISTEA and TEA-21, the United States has made great strides towards creating a transportation system that is safer, more secure, and increases mobility of all citizens. Yet, there remains much work to be done before we will fully realize the benefits of ITS technologies.

Toward a More Secure Transportation System

On September 10, 2001 ITS America last testified before this Committee on the oversight of the Federal ITS Program. We could not have foreseen at the time how the tragic events of the following day would alter the role that ITS would play in securing America's surface transportation system. On September 11, traffic operations centers in Northern Virginia and in metropolitan New York City that were designed to monitor traffic flows and respond to crashes became enablers of the command, control, and communications needed for efficient evacuations and the effective management of emergency response personnel.

The traffic operations center in Arlington, VA, less than a mile from the Pentagon, used ITS technology to quarantine roads around the Pentagon and to facilitate emergency communications with first responders. To ease the evacuation of Washington, D.C. traffic operators optimized signal timings, reversed lane directions on I-395, and provided evacuation route information to drivers on dynamic message signs, through web sites, and via broadcast media. Without ITS systems in place, the evacuations of Washington and New York would have certainly been slower and less orderly.

Ensuring the security of America's surface transportation system is a new purpose for ITS, and a purpose that both public and private sector members of the ITS community take to heart. Reauthorization legislation should be crafted with this purpose in mind. ITS America's Homeland Security Task Force, composed of public and private sector members, academics, of which I am one, and representatives of the public safety community, is examining new ways to use existing and emerging ITS technologies to protect our critical transportation infrastructure and the traveling public. This Task Force has recommended that in reauthorization attention be given to the following security-related applications of ITS:

Planning for Evacuations and Quarantining. Traffic flow information collected through ITS technologies allows engineers to pre-plan for the implementation of optimal evacuation routes to meet a variety of potential incidents.

Traffic Surveillance and Detection; Infrastructure Deployment. Closed circuit television cameras, traffic sensors (loop detectors, wireless sensors, and mobile phones as data probes), transponders, and optical image sensors can be used to monitor roads for suspicious vehicles or to provide tracking of high-threat or high-interest vehicles.

Emergency Communications Hardening and Redundancy. ITS communications employ fiber optic cables, either deeply buried or, in urban areas, encased in conduit or ducts, resulting in a hardened communication system. ITS systems often also provide redundant network communications links, facilitating communications with and between traffic managers, law enforcement, and emergency services. Such systems may prove to be of crucial importance if natural disasters or terrorist attacks severely damage or destroy other telecommunications facilities.

Asset-Tracking for Commercial Vehicles, Transit Systems, and Cargo. The security goal of the tracking function is to quickly recognize deviations from planned routes or other baseline information, and to effectuate measures to interrupt the further movement of an errant asset. This is especially useful in tracking HAZMAT shipments.

Detection and Surveillance. ITS detection and surveillance technologies are also effective after the occurrence of the event. They allow traffic managers to pinpoint disaster locations, direct emergency response, and verify ability of a route to accept additional traffic to support a diversion or evacuation, and manage traffic during evacuations. ITS sensors can also detect structural damage to bridges and tunnels. Archived vehicle-location data and closed circuit television camera tapes can aid law enforcement investigations post-event.

Real-Time Traffic Control. Using ITS technologies, traffic managers can quickly redirect traffic, contra-flow HOV lanes, and expedite evacuations from metropolitan or other high-density centers to support the overall disaster or incident response plan.

Information Dissemination to the Public. Once the overall response plan has been developed, the supporting traffic flow and disaster information collected by ITS can also be quickly disseminated to the public through ITS. Electronic message signs on highways and traveler/weather information radio stations are two outlets that currently can provide notices to the public. Direct relationships with the media and information service providers also provides transportation information to radio and television stations as well as to traveler's personal information devices: mobile phones, personal digital assistants, e-mail, or telematics (in-vehicle) devices.

Telematics and Other Consumer Automobile Applications. Telematics systems are wireless in-vehicle communications and navigation systems. In those cases where an evacuation plan has not been established, navigation systems can provide dynamic route guidance, to empower the driver to make optimal evacuation decisions. Mayday services speed emergency response to an individual car by signaling a vehicle's location information at the push of a button or through an automated crash notification system.

Data and Response Archiving. Tracking of response actions, traffic flows, errant vehicles, and condition of systems can be accomplished through system reporting and archiving functions, providing detailed information for both internal agency use as well as for media and public debriefing as appropriate.

A Ten-Year Vision for ITS

Section 5205 of TEA-21 requires the Secretary of Transportation to maintain and update the National ITS Program Plan and in so doing, specify goals, objectives, and milestones for the ITS program. In January 2002, ITS America released the "National Transportation Systems Program Plan: A Ten Year Vision". The Plan, which outlines a vision for ITS research and deployment over the next ten years, was prepared as a cooperative effort between the public and private sector stakeholders, universities, and the United States Department of Transportation. The Plan proposes advancing Intelligent Transportation Systems to meet the following goals over the next ten years:

Safety: Reduce annual transportation-related fatalities by 15% overall by 2011, saving 5,000-7,000 lives per year.

Security: Create a transportation system that is well protected against attacks and responds effectively to natural and manmade threats and disasters, enabling the continued movement of people and goods even in times of crisis.

Efficiency/Economy: Save at least $20 billion per year by enhancing throughput and capacity through better information, better system management, and the containment of congestion by providing for efficient end-to-end movement of people and goods, including seamless intermodal transitions.

Mobility/Access: Provide universally available traveler information that supports seamless, end-to-end travel choices for all users of the transportation system.

Energy/Environment: Save a minimum of one billion gallons of gasoline each year and reduce emissions at least in proportion to this fuel saving.

Programmatic Themes

In order to meet these goals, ITS America's Ten-Year Program Plan, produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, proposes focusing the Federal ITS Program on four areas: an integrated network of transportation information; advanced crash avoidance technologies; automatic crash and incident detection, notification and response; and advanced transportation management systems:

An Integrated Network of Transportation Information: This Network involves the instrumentation of major intersections, freeways, and arterials in urban and rural areas, as well as data collection from commercial vehicles, transit, and freight and passenger rail. Once built, the Network will be the foundation for multiple aspects of transportation and ITS, notably including infrastructure management, safety management, traveler information, and freight management. The data collected will enable traffic managers to optimize the system performance of existing capacity; will facilitate seamless freight movement; will provide accurate travel information; will provide ground-based weather information for roads; and will enable first responders to quickly detect and respond to emergencies and crises. The resultant archived data will provide transportation planners with an unprecedented precision of information on traffic flows and travel patterns, allowing planners to efficiently utilize limited transportation funds on project needs. Dynamic traffic flow data will allow transportation managers to optimize system performance and quickly respond to incidents. Traveler information systems will utilize this data to provide the public with information on congestion and travel choices through web and broadcast media, variable message signs, telematics service providers, and the "511" universal traveler information telephone number. Finally, the creation of the Network is essential to ensuring the security of America's surface transportation system, by monitoring critical infrastructure, military and HAZMAT routes, tracking transit vehicles through Automated Vehicle Location technologies, and ensuring the timely and accurate provision of evacuation information to the traveling public.

Crash Avoidance Technologies: More than 40,000 Americans die in six million crashes each year. Crash avoidance technologies help drivers avoid the crash in the first place through the use of advanced in-vehicle safety systems for both consumer and commercial vehicles and through the use of infrastructure cooperative systems. The U.S. DOT is focusing resources on these important systems through supporting testing under the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative. Field operations tests are being conducted on technologies such as:

Forward collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control;
Rollover stability warning and control;
Obstacle detection and infrastructure-assisted hazard warning;
Lane departure and warning.

The development and deployment of these systems has tremendous safety benefits to all Americans. The federal government has an important role to play in continuing to support research on these technologies and in facilitating private-sector development of standards and guidelines to ensure the widespread introduction of these safety-enhancing technologies.

Automated Crash and Incident Detection, Notification and Response: Getting to the scene of a crash or other injury-producing incident as quickly as possible is critical to saving lives. The ability to dispatch first responders and treat patients in the first "golden hour" after a crash is a critical factor in survival rates. Urban crash victims received medical attention within 35 minutes on average, while their rural counterparts wait 52 minutes. ITS technologies, such as mayday response and automated collision notification (ACN) systems, coupled with integrated public-safety communications networks, can reduce the response times of emergency medical service providers in reaching crash victims in both urban and rural environments. Additionally, effective incident response aids in safely managing traffic flows at the scene of an incident while aid is being delivered to the injured, and returning traffic to normal as rapidly and safely as possible.

For this vision to become a reality, reauthorization should steer progress toward a nationwide wireless enhanced 911 network and facilitate information exchanges between vehicles, public safety answering points (PSAPs), traffic operations centers, and first responders. Federal funding is needed to support programs, research and standards setting activities that promote interoperability of incident notification and response systems. Continued research on refining and linking in-vehicle and external technologies for the automatic detection and reporting of crashes and protocols for data exchange are needed. Increased cooperation between public safety agencies and transportation management agencies is also critical to our success in increasing safety.

Advanced Transportation Management: ITS technologies, when integrated with a traffic management system, can help mitigate traffic congestion, ease freight movement, and increase the efficiency of existing highway capacity. Managing our existing transportation infrastructure more intelligently offers a timely and affordable solution to communities that are faced with increasing traffic and longer commuting times, yet cannot build additional capacity quickly enough to meet the rising demands of travelers.

Advanced transportation management systems intelligently and adaptively manage the flow of vehicles through the physical infrastructure, often across multiple jurisdictions and modes. Intelligently managing highways and transit systems involves the use of technologies that enable area-wide surveillance and detection, rapid acquisition of traffic flow data, real-time evaluation of traffic flows, predictive capabilities regarding near-term real-time operational responses to traffic flow changes and evaluation of the operational responses to traffic flow changes.

Although we have made great strides toward fulfilling this vision, there is much more to be done. While traffic management centers have been created in two-thirds of the 75 largest metropolitan areas, only 22% of major intersections in those same metropolitan areas are fully instrumented for traffic surveillance. The completion of this surveillance network will ensure better traffic data collection, allowing for improved traffic flow and safety.

Data sharing among adjacent regions will enable transportation corridors to be managed more efficiently. To realize the vision of advanced transportation management systems, reauthorization should enhance regional coordination, provide funding for the operation of traffic management centers, and continue research into newly emerging and converging technologies. Among the specific programmatic and research needs:

Continue to develop approaches and standards that enhance integration capabilities, center-to-center data sharing and data dissemination to other parties (e.g. third-party information venders, travelers);
Conduct operational tests of strategies for managing truck flows in urban areas using area-wide, small-scale, portable, and lane-based systems;
Conduct research on the design of regional traffic management and integrated corridor management system concepts;
Continue to research and develop surveillance and detection tools that can assist in providing travel times and the calculation of delay in real time.

Conclusion

To achieve the goal of intelligently managing our surface transportation system in light of the new security paradigm, ITS research and deployment must continue to flourish within the foreseeable future. ITS technologies hold the promise of continuing to provide our citizens the most secure, the safest, and the most efficient transportation system in the world. We look forward in working with you in designing research, demonstration, and deployment programs that will help keep this promise.

Thank you.