THIN KING

HIG HW AYS
NORTH AMERICAN EDITION
Volume 1 • Issue 1 • Nov/Dec 2006

DARPA IMAGE
Automated vehicles
head for the city
AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
Yuka Gomi, Rick Weiland and Valerie
Shuman on making telematics work

ASSISTANCE REQUIRED
Richard Bishop on the
future for ADAS

JOINED-UP THINKING
The systematic thoughts
of Phil Tarnoff

GET WITH THE PROGRAM

California and Michigan
on the VII trail

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LAUNCH ISSUE policy • strategy • technology

• finance • innovation • implementation
• integration • interoperability
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 Foreword Thinking

Kevin Borras

Kevin Borras is
publishing director
of H3B Media and
editor-in-chief of
Thinking Highways.
To contact him email
kevin@h3bmedia.com
In one era...
Technology without policy is a bit of equipment in a
box. Policy without technology is a piece of paper
I’m not particularly well-
known for my learned,
philosophical sayings or
deeply insightful teachings.
I did, however, utter the
phrase that is in bold text
above (the bit about
technology being a bit of metal
in a box without the policy to
implement it) while discussing
the very reasons for setting up
a brand new advanced
transportation management
magazine.
It’s amazing what you come
up with when you’re under
pressure to perform, not that
I’m suggesting that Einstein
suddenly stumbled upon his
theory of relativity while he
was in a meeting with his
prospective new bank
manager. The pressures of
setting up and running a new
multimedia company and
launching three magazines in
the space of three months have
made Luis and I think like
we’ve never thought before.
There have been times when
we’ve been forced to think like
we never thought possible.
It may be hard to imagine if
you’ve ever had more than a
few fleeting minutes in our
company but we've spent the
last eight years in the With this jigsaw, looking at the
advanced transportation picture on the box is just not
industry listening to people. enough. So, although we may
As a journalist and editor I’m not be new to the market,
in the privileged position of Thinking Highways is. The
being on both the inside and ‘thinking’ doesn’t just refer to
the outside of the ITS the capabilities of the
community. highways themselves or the
I can look in from outside vehicles that drive on them.
and look out from the inside. This ‘thinking’ also refers to the
Whichever way I look (I’m thought processes of the
people and organisations that
“We have spent are charged with turning
fantastic ideas into life-saving,
the last eight time-saving, money-saving
years listening to realities.
Many people have
people” supported us greatly in the
creation of our company and
about to mix my senses here, our new magazines and we
but bear with me) I hear thank them very much indeed.
people saying that they want to They know who they are. They
read more articles that focus can now read this first issue of
on policy and strategy and the North American edition
finance and politics and safe in the knowledge that it
innovation and integration and would not exist without them.
implementation and Please visit our website
interoperability as much as where you’ll find online
they do on the technology. All versions of all three of our
of these aspects are integral titles and the promise of a lot
pieces in the industry jigsaw. more to come in the very near
You can see some of the future.
picture with some of the pieces If you’d like to contribute to
missing, but the only way to Issue 2, out at the beginning of
see the whole picture is to March 2007, why not start
have all the pieces in place. thinking now... TH

Editor-in-Chief
Kevin Borras
Sales and Marketing
Luis Hill
Design and Layout
Phoebe Bentley, Kevin Borras
Sub-Editor and Proofreader
Simon Whitmore
Senior Editorial Advisor
Phil Tarnoff
Columnists
Mark Johnson and Robert Kelly,
Paul Najarian, Harold Worrall
Contributors to this issue
Bruce Abernethy, Kevin Aguigui,
Charlie Armiger, Richard Bishop,
Ron Coello, Yuka Gomi, Tom
Good, James Joseph, John Kasik,
Greg Larson, David LeBlanc, Ben
McKeever, Antony Melihen, Michael
Modjeska, Valerie Shuman, Dylan
Stanley-Borras, Peter Sweatman,
Phil Tarnoff, Rick Weiland
Web Design
Leigh Millard
Printing
Stones the Printers, Banbury, UK
Distribution
Pharos International, Westerham, UK
Subscriptions and Circulation
Pilarin Harvey-Granell
Financial Director
Martin Brookstein
Editorial and Advertising
H3B Media Ltd, 15 Onslow Gardens,
Wallington, Surrey SM6 9QL, UK
Tel +44 (0)870 919 3770
Fax +44 (0)870 919 3771
Email info@h3bmedia.com
Managing Director
Luis Hill
Publishing Director
Kevin Borras
Visualisation Director
Tom Waldschmidt
Conference and Events Director
Odile Pignier
odile.pignier@air-de-paris.fr
www.h3bmedia.com
Thinking Highways is published by H3B Media Ltd.
Thinking Highways is published four times a year by H3B Media Ltd in the United
Kingdom on the first day of the week, every three months. US subscriptions cost US$50.
Distributed in the USA by SPP, PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318. Periodicals postage paid at
Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to H3B Media, c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville,
PA 17318 USA.
Although due care has been taken to ensure that the content of this publication is accurate
and up-to-date, the publisher can accept no liability for errors and omissions. Unless otherwise
stated, this publication has not tested products or services that are described herein, and
their inclusion does not imply any form of endorsement. By accepting advertisements in this
publication, the publisher does not warrant their accuracy, nor accept responsibility for their
contents. The publisher welcomes unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations but can accept no
liability for their safe return.
© 2006 H3B Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
The views and opinions of the authors are not necessarily those of H3B Media Ltd.
Reproduction (in whole or in part) of any text, photograph or illustration contained in this
publication without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.
Printed in the UK

www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 1

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 D rg
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of e N

To in W

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T O

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re in at
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ce g H ww
k
CONTENTS

iv ig w

’t !
e
fu hw .h3
tu ay bm
re s
04 Welcome to Thinking Highways

is reg dia
su is .
es te co
COLUMNS
06 Bob Kelly and Mark Johnson

e
10 Paul Najarian ‘s Connected World

r m
12 Harold Worrall’s Bright Ideas

NEWS
16 Thinking Highways signs its first strategic
media partnership deal

THE THOUGHT PROCESS

18 Bernie Wagenblast, editor, Transportation
Communications Newsletter

COVER STORY
22 As the DARPA Challenges moves from the
desert into the city, Anthony Melihen charts the
rebirth of autonomous vehicles

THE THINKER
28 ITS guru Phil Tarnoff’s thoughts on global
transport thinking

ADAS
32 According to Richard Bishop, the advanced
driver assistance market has come a long way.
But has it come far enough? p44
VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE
INTEGRATION PROGAM TELEMATICS
40 Greg Larson and Ben McKeever report with the 58 Yuka Gomi, Richard Weiland and Valerie
latest VII developments from California... Shuman with a telematics business model that
works
44 ...while Peter Sweatman and Dave LeBlanc
present the activities from Michigan ALTERNATIVE FUEL
64 James Joseph on the viability of ethanol,
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Brazil’s secret weapon in the oil replacement
48 ITS has a vital role to play in how emergency battle
medical centers deal with the victims of
terrorist attacks, says Bruce Abernethy T-FOCUS
Emergency Management Data Management
70 SpeedInfo’s Charlie Armiger espouses the
Intelligent Transportations Systems’ (ITS) architec- use of emergency services from other jurisdictions, the
ture typically includes Emergency Management EOC may be activated.
Centers (EMCs). These are responsible for assign-
ing emergency resources to emergency requests Levels of responsibility
received via a Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) also There are multiple jurisdictional levels for an EOC
known as a 911 Call Center. including City, County, regional association of govern-

use of new technology and a different way of

Most EMCs have the 911 call center integrated with
the emergency dispatchers. Smaller cities may utilize
911 call-takers as emergency dispatchers. EMCs typi-
cally arrange dispatching positions by service type
such as police, fire and emergency medical. In cities
where the fire department is also responsible for emer-
ments, and State. If the emergency covers a multi-juris-
dictional level, then the EOC associated with the area
would be activated. The EOC is staffed only when acti-
vated. There is a core staff that has the responsibility of
keeping the EOC’s communications network, informa-
tion processing, and information display system envi-

thinking
gency medical services, then dispatchers are arranged ronment ready for immediate activation.
by police and fire/emergency medical. A supervisory The major function of the EOC is to provide critical
and a training position are usually implemented with information to senior decision makers to allow them to

A call and
911 rollover to the supervisory position, should this be
required. The EMC dispatcher and the “first respond-
ers” are a team that work together to take care of the
emergency.
There is also an Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
that is a critical part of emergency management archi-
make significant decisions related to saving lives of citi
zens and minimizing loss of property. Senior service
directors related to the jurisdictional area are key
participants. The EMC(s) implements management
decisions of the EOC. Public Works may be a support
element in clearing debris from corridors in support of

response
tecture. During a major emergency that requires evacu- evacuation.
ation and/or quarantining, use of service resources over Public Works is equally responsible for advising sen-
and above those under the management of the EMC, or ior decision makers related to the condition of the water

BRUCE ABERNETHY examines the

roles of ITS and trauma center
hospitals in emergency management
High Occupancy Toll Lanes
74 EFKON USA’s John Kasik has a new product
that he is confident enough about to claim will
revolutionise the HOT and HOV market

RFID
HOMELAND SECURITY 76 Michael Modjeska on a brand new, bespoke
54 Kevin Aguigui wonders if the advances in solution for the ITS market
digital video for surveillance and HS purposes
are as advanced as they should be 80 Advertisers Index
What we did while
we were away
Kevin Borras, Publishing Director, H3B Media
Policy, technology, strategy,
finance, innovation, inter-
operability, implementation
and integration.
These, ladies and gentlemen,
are the basic ingredients of the
Thinking Highways constit-
ution. Presumably your
interests lie in some or all of
these areas of the advanced
transportation management
‘game’ and so, we feel, you will
find Thinking Highways
fascinating, educational,
thought-provoking, possibly a
little bit controversial,
entertaining and above all
highly readible.
Thinking Highways will be
published quarterly from 2007,
in February, May, August and
November in two regionally
focused editions, North
America and Europe/Rest of
the World. From Issue 2
onwards this page won’t
feature almost life-size photos
4 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
Luis Hill, Managing Director, H3B Media
of us but an insightful column
from a world-renowned ITS
expert, you’ll no doubt be
relieved to discover.
It feels like we’re going back
to school after a very long
summer holiday, but it’s not
really a launch into the
unknown. After all, we know
the industry and the industry
knows us rather well by now,
but it’s daunting and not a little
exciting to be presenting the
fruits of our concerted labours
to you after the best part of five
months in self-imposed exile.
We have spoken to literally
hundreds of people about our
new venture and by and large
we asked them the same
questions: are we doing the
right thing and is this the right
time to be doing it? Unequiv-
ocably, the answer to both
parts of the question was ‘yes’.
“There’s a yawning gap in
the market for a magazine like
Photo by Ron Coello (www.coellophotography.co.uk)
this,” came one enthusiastic
response. “One that doesn’t
see the technology as the be
all and end all – because it's
not.” Before you ask, this came
from someone who is CEO of a
large technology supplier.
Sneak preview
Those of you who attended
what is being hailed as the
best ITS World Congress to
date, held in London in
October, may have already
seen a copy of our Europe/
Rest of the World issue. If you
have, then you will already
have a good idea of what we
are aiming to do and where we
are aiming to go with this
magazine. The chance to
launch a new magazine at a
World Congress is not one that
any company worth its salt
would turn down.
The remarkably positive
reaction we received both
www.h3bmedia.com
 Welcome to Thinking Highways

during and after the congress

has confirmed our suspicions -
that we have hit a very large
industry nail pretty much
square on the head.
Just a couple of weeks before
London we travelled up to
Banbury in Oxfordshire to see
the first issue of the Europe/
Rest of the World edition being
printed (see photo).
For anyone who has been
present at the birth of their
children (obviously if you are a
mother you must have been)
then this was not far short of
that experience. It was one of
the most fulfilling things that
either of us have ever done,
professionally at least.
So, there you have it. What we
have done is created a mouth-
piece for the advanced
transportation industry to use finance, innovation, interop- If you wish to receive Thinking Highways on a
in the most eloquent way erability, implementation and regular basis, please visit our website and
possible. integration” mantra off by register online. Go to: www.h3bmedia.com
And by the way, there really heart. If you would like to know more about
is no need for you to learn our It’s not our mantra anyway. marketing opportunities in either regional
“policy, technology, strategy, It’s yours. TH edition please email luis@h3bmedia.com

SOME QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU READ ON...

Do you want to be noticed?
Do you want to stand out from the crowd?
Do you want to reach a regionally focused, high quality audience?
Do you want to use a new and innovative approach to market your
technology and services?

HERE’S THE ANSWER YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

Thinking Highways

Available in PRINTED and ONLINE formats.

To register or to enquire about marketing opportunities visit
Thinking Highways’ TransPortal at:
:www.h3bmedia.com
Robert Kelly and Mark Johnson
Divide and rule
The final vehicle ‘Black Box’ rule has been released by
NHTSA... and a new can of worms has been opened
This past August the
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration
(NHTSA) released its final
rule for the deployment of
event data recorders (EDRs,
or otherwise commonly
called “black boxes”) in
vehicles sold in the United
States.
EDRs collect information
about the status and change in
that status of a vehicle before,
during and after a crash.
Recorded information may
include vehicle speed,
braking, change in direction,
use of seat belts and so on,
when an accident occurs.
EDRs function by continuing
recording – and then
overwriting – the record
information until a triggering
event occurs (such as a crash
of a certain severity), and then
the EDR retains the crash-
related data from a few
seconds before and after the
crash.
EDRs are not a new
technology. According to
NHTSA, the agency has been
considering EDRs for at least
the past decade, although it is
only recently that there have
been significant improvements
in the technology and
widespread deployment.
NHTSA estimates that
approximately 64 per cent of
new vehicles are now
equipped with EDRs.
EDRs can provide important
benefits for emergency
responders, accident
investigation, medical
research and transportation
safety research. While
recognizing these benefits,
privacy watchdog and
6 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
consumer interest groups
contend that EDR data can be
used to track the location and
movement of individuals,
unnecessarily store personally
identifiable information and
be used by insurance
companies to raise rates or
deny coverage. These groups
urged NHTSA to answer such
“NHTSA
concluded that
standardiszing
the format of
collected data
would enhance
the quality of
EDR data”
questions as whether the
vehicle owner owns the EDR
data, how EDR can be
discovered and used for
criminal and civil litigation,
and whether EDR data may be
obtained by the police.
While not mandating the
installation of EDRs, the NHTSA
rules does provide for the
standardization of data
collected by EDRs. The final
rule also prescribes
requirements for the
survivability (i.e., after a crash)
of collected data for
retrievable by “intended” or
“authorized” users. However,
two major policy issues are left
unresolved by the NHTSA rule:
privacy and data access and
ownership. New light vehicles
manufactured on or after
September 1, 2010 that are
equipped with an EDR must
follow the final rule.
Robert Kelly is a
partner with the
Washington, DC
based law firm
Squire, Sanders,
Dempsey
The decision by NHTSA to
prescribe national standards
for EDR data is based on
several factors. First, the
agency noted that the
penetration of EDRs in new
vehicles has reached 64 per
cent without any mandate for
installation.
Given this high market
penetration, NHTSA concluded
that standardizing the format
of collected data would
enhance the quality of EDR
data and encourage the further
installation of EDRs in vehicles.
Required data elements
include, for example, vehicle
speed, braking status, seat belt
status, air bag warning and
deployment and, most
important, changes in velocity
and direction (known as
“delta-v”).
Recording intervals for each
data element are also
prescribed. Using a standard
data set, according to NHTSA,
will also be more useful for
Automatic Crash Notification
and telematics systems.
The final rule also requires
that light vehicles (i.e.,
passenger vehicles and
smaller trucks) equipped with
Mark Johnson is an
an EDR must include a notice attorney at law with
statement in the owner’s the Washington, DC
manual. (Vehicle based law firm
manufacturers may provide Squire, Sanders,
Dempsey
additional information, such as
about an installed Automatic
Crash Notification or
telematics systems.)
NHTSA’s prescribed notice
statement describes the
purposes and benefits of EDRs,
what type of data are recorded
and for how long, that no data
is recorded during normal
driving conditions, and that no
www.h3bmedia.com
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Robert
RobertKelly
Kellyand
andMark
MarkJohnson
Johnson
law enforcement and by
litigants in private lawsuits.
NHTSA, citing a lack of
statutory authority to address
these privacy concerns. In
addition, the agency noted that types of EDRs covered by the
EDRs do not generally collect
personally identifiable data.
For these reasons, NHTSA
concluded that these privacy
matters are better addressed
by other federal agencies with
personally identifiable clearer jurisdiction or the
information is recorded. states.
However, the statement notes Already, several states have
that law enforcement and enacted laws or considered
others could combine EDR legislation to address the
data with personally shortcomings in the NHTSA
identifiable information rule. California was the first, in requirements on vehicle OEMs
normally collected at accident 2004, requiring that vehicle
scenes. Finally, the statement OEMs disclose to customers
notes that retrieving of EDR the presence of EDRs in
data requires a special tool to vehicles and prohibiting
be made commercially access to recorded data
available by the vehicle OEMs. except with the vehicle
Many commenters on the owner’s permission or a court
draft rule released in 2004 order.
contended that NHTSA had the Nine other states (inlcuding
responsibility to provide basic Colorado, Maine, New
privacy protections and to Hampshire and Virginia in
provide “clear” information to 2006 alone), have so far passed are best left to the States, and
the public as to how EDRs laws addressing EDRs and
would be used and who would another 20 state legislature at
have access to the recorded least considered proposed
data. legislation.
NHTSA, however, expressly The majority of enacted state
declined to address the issues laws – and introduced
of data ownership, access by legislation – generally follow
the California precedent.
Notice of an installed EDR must
be provided to the vehicle
owner. The vehicle owner
must provide his or her
permission for third party
access to recorded data (or, in
a few states, in specified
circumstances without the
owner’s permission, such as
for accident investigation,
vehicle diagnostic services or
to transportation and medical
researchers). In other statues,
such as Virginia, the EDR
statute specifies that insurance
companies cannot refuse to
insure a vehicle if the owner
refuses to provide access to
data recorded on the device.
NHTSA agreed with the
vehicle manufacturing
industry that its final rule
should preempt inconsistent
state and local laws and
regulations. Consequently,
state or local regulations that
would require or prohibit the
NHTSA rule or that would
affect their design or
operation, would create a
conflict with the NHTSA rule
and are therefore preempted.
Moreover, such preemption
includes EDR technical
requirements, data elements,
and technical performance or
survivability requirements.
Any state or local law that
requires additional disclosure
is also preempted.
Not preempted, however, are
state or local laws on access to
and ownership of EDR data,
how EDR data may be used in
criminal or civil proceedings,
and whether and to what
extent private entities (i.e.,
insurance companies) have
access to EDR data. Such
issues, according to NHTSA,
they already appear to be
stepping up in force. TH
The authors can be contacted
via email at
rkelly@ssd.com and
majohnson@ssd.com or visit
the website at www.ssd.com
Paul Najarian
Deep impact
What effect could the World
Radiocommunication Conference
have on the ITS industry?
The International Telecom-
munication Union (ITU) is an
inter-governmental agency
of the United Nations that
specializes in the field of
telecommunications.
It is a Treaty-based
organization. The Radio-
communication sector of the
ITU (ITU-R) focuses primarily
on the regulatory aspects of
telecommunications. While
this sector issues Recommend-
ations on technical character-
istics or specifications, it is not
primarily a standards organ-
ization. The ITU-R views its
role as a regulator and co-
ordinator of global telecom-
munications networks,
services, and technologies.
Every three to four years,
the ITU convenes a World
Radiocommunication
Conference (WRC), formerly
known as the World Admin-
istrative Radio Conference
(WARC). The WRC focuses
solely on the global aspects of
Radio Regulations, in terms of
allowing new allocations or
modifying the existing table of
allocations and/or its
footnotes.
As the WRC is the Treaty
component of the ITU, the
Radio Regulations that result
from the WRC have far
reaching implications on all
the Administrations that are
signatory members of the ITU,
as well as radio manufacturers
and users in Treaty countries.
For example, the WRC
allocates radio frequency
spectrum to radio services,
including ITS. The Land
Mobile radio service covers
ITS applications that depend
on terrestrial and wireless
transmission. The Broad-
casting service covers ITS
10 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
applications, such as RDS-
TMC. The WRC establishes
global and/or regional rules
for the operation of radio
equipment, including
equipment that provides
Telematics services and
Multimedia applications. The
WRC allows for the physical
movement of radio equipment,
such as a wireless phones,
across member countries. The
WRC establishes criteria for
“Most member
nations are
relectuctant to
make frequent
changes to the
Radio
Regulations”
coordination and band sharing
among radio services. In the
past, WARCs focused on the
allotments of the geostationary
satellite orbit and the
associated assignment of radio
frequency spectrum.
Resolution items
Procedurally, a WRC
conference resolves regulat-
ory issues and responds to
specific Agenda Items and
associated Resolutions
adopted at previous WRCs.
For example, the Agenda for
WRC-2007 and a baseline
Agenda for WRC-2010 were
promulgated at WRC-2003.
An Agenda Item emerges
from a Resolution which spells
out the necessary technical
studies or reports that are
required to resolve a specific
technical or regulatory
problem.
In order to address a WRC-
Paul Najarian was
director of telecoms
at ITS America from
1996-2006. He can be
contacted via email:
pnajarianits@aol.com
2007 Agenda Item (which was
approved based on a
Resolution adopted at WRC-
2003), the ITU-R conducts a
number of complex technical
and regulatory studies during
the 2003-2007 period. The
conclusions of these studies
dictate the outcome of the
Agenda Item at WRC-2007.
A WRC is preceded by a
Conference Preparatory
Meeting (CPM), usually 6 to 9
months prior to the WRC. The
CPM consolidates the output of
the technical and regulatory
studies that were conducted
during the past several years,
and produces a baseline
document or text for each
Agenda Item to be presented
at the WRC. Member countries
are then invited to submit
contributions or dissenting
views directly to the WRC.
Complex issues
Although the timelines appear
lengthy, this allows for serious
negotiations on bilateral or
multilateral levels in order to
resolve diverging positions
among countries or regions.
Overall, WRC Agenda Items
are extremely complex. Most
member nations are reluctant
to make frequent changes to
the Radio Regulations.
The stability of the Radio
Regulations provides long
term confidence to telecom-
munication manufacturers and
network operators, and
encourages them to produce
equipment or deliver services
within its guidelines.

While the ITS industry has
been moderately successful
within the ITU-R, it has not
made any marks on the WRC.
Recommendations on
Dedicated Short Range
Communications (DSRC) and
short-range collision
avoidance radar, previously
adopted by the ITU-R, are still
in force. The ITU-R is also in
the process of publishing an
ITS Handbook for the benefit
of developing countries. Work
on a draft new Recommend-
ation on millimeter wave ITS
radiocommunications is also
on-going. This work is co-
ordinated with the standard-
ization effort on the Communi-
cations Air interface Long and
Medium range (CALM)
millimeter wave within ISO/
TC204 Working Group 16.
The implementation of these
Recommendations is not
binding on ITU member
nations.
Harmonious relations
During WRC-2003, Canada
attempted to introduce a
Resolution for a WRC-2007
Agenda Item on ITS. The
intent of the Resolution was to
study the harmonization of
frequency spectrum for ITS
applications, particularly for
DSRC. As the allocation of
spectrum for DSRC differs
among Japan, the Asia-Pacific
region, Europe and North
America, the intent of the
Resolution was to conduct the
necessary studies that would
have identified a harmonized
frequency band.
The studies could have also
identified additional spectrum
for DSRC, particularly for
Europe, if the existing
bandwidth was deemed
inadequate.
Although the Canadian
proposal was thought to have
merit, it was not previously
coordinated with other
countries or regions, nor was it
available as part of the CPM
text. As the proposal was
directly submitted to the WRC
Paul Najarian’s Connected World
without prior consultation, In the US, the recently signed
many nations were reluctant to “Security and Accountability
support it. As a result, Canada for Every (SAFE) Port” Act of
withdrew the proposal. 2006, also known as the Port
In the absence of any Security Act, has elevated the
Agenda Items relating to ITS, visibility of technologies
the ITS industry should review (including scanning
the entire list of Agenda Items technologies and
and identify specific items that telecommunications) for Port
may impact the deployment of Security and the transportation
ITS services. It may also wish of dangerous goods.
to contribute to specific As a result, a number of
Agenda Items in order to Administrations are
assert the size and viability of considering introducing a
the industry. In other words, WRC-2010 Agenda Item that
the ITS industry should piggy- would seek to harmonize
back on existing Agenda frequencies for Port Security,
Items. Hazmat transportation and
Border Crossing. If such an
Future impact Agenda Item is added to WRC-
The agenda for WRC-2007 2010, the ITS industry should
includes several Agenda Items immediately jump on this
that will impact future deploy- opportunity, especially for
ments of ITS. Some of these freight mobility, commercial
Agenda Items deal with the vehicle and intermodal
GPS network (essential for car applications.
navigation systems or Both a short-range
communications solution, as
“Although the well as a wide-area wireless,
Canadian may be proposed as a viable
solution.
proposal had
merit it was not Looking forward
Another anticipated topic at
previously WRC-2010 is the proliferation
coordinated with of radio frequency
identification (RFID). RFID
other regions” devices have been operating,
as unlicensed low-power
location-based services) or devices and on a secondary
with the future of Third basis, across every possible
Generation (3G) wireless frequency band, as long as the
systems. Agenda Item 1.4 of cost and complexity of the
WRC-2007 will identify RFID device is kept low.
spectrum for 4th Generation A potential WRC-2010
wireless systems, known as Agenda Item on RFID would
IMT-Advanced. ITS attempt to harmonize the wide
applications, especially those range of frequencies used for
that are multimedia-driven, such devices, which in turn
could easily influence the might provide a solution to the
amount of bandwidth interoperability problem
necessary to deliver such across RFID devices.
services. The ITU will hold the CPM
Other Agenda Items dealing from February 19-March 2,
with GPS or the radio 2007. WRC-2007 will be held
broadcasting service could from October 22-November
also impact ITS (and vice 16. An ITS-related Agenda
versa). For WRC-2010 (or Item at WRC-2010 will clearly
2011), a number of topics are elevate the visibility of the ITS
being proposed and circulated industry in the telecom-
for consideration. munications arena. TH
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 11
Harold Worrall’s Bright Ideas
Fields of view
Toll concessions are commonplace in South
America. Now they are heading North...
Concessions are going to
become a reality in the US
marketplace and the
ultimate form they take will
be affected by the contextual
framework that exists.
Technology is a key
contextual issue for
concessions, but to date the
concessionaires and public
agencies are more enamored
with the financial potential of
concessions. The ability of
technology to radically alter
the financial viability of a
concession is not understood.
Concessions are nothing
new in Europe or the world
outside of the US, especially in
South America, but the form
that concessions might take
here is just developing. The
predominant form thus far has
been long-term leases of
existing toll facilities
(brownfields) rather than the
construction of new ones
(greenfields).
www.h3bmedia.com
Harold Worrall’s Bright Ideas
The Chicago Skyway, Indiana
Toll Road and Virginia’s
Pocahontas Parkway have held
the attention of the media and
several other agenices are
considering similar
arrangements. The value in
these projects is driven by the
ability to raise toll rates on a
prescribed formula, to bring
about efficiency improve-
ments, and the ability to
depreciate the asset.
This last feature is unique to
the U.S. market and allows the
leaseholder to depreciate the
asset on an accelerated
schedule, so long as the lease
period exceeds approximately
50 years. Most of the leases are
driven by the desperation of
public officials who are trying
to generate funding for
transportation.
The balance between public
policy and private sector profit
motivations is evolving slowly.
Public concerns for equitable
Dr Harold Worrall is
president of
access to transportation, Transportation
transparent procurements Innovations and is
past chair of ITS
processes and an opportunity
Florida, ITS America
for public input on the and the International
management of public Bridge, Tunnel
facilities must be balanced and Turnpike
with the profit motive. While it Association (IBTTA).
From 1992 until 2004
may be some time before the
he was executive
public sector realizes the director of the
difference between long term Orlando-Orange
leases and the more County Expressway
meaningful public/private Authority
partnerships of shorter term
concessions, technology
awaits the opportunity to have
its contribution to the mix. The
next era of electronic toll
collection could impact the
course of privatization in
America.
The introduction of
Electronic Toll Collection
(ETC) nearly 20 years ago was
hailed as the means by which
operating costs could be
significantly reduced. While
ETC was a huge success in
many areas, reducing
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 1
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Paul
Harold
Najarian
Worrall’s Bright Ideas
operating costs was generally
not one of them.
Instead, ETC back office
costs were added on top of the
labor costs for manual
collection, providing physical
facilities for cash collection
and other costs of handling
cash. The industry is now
seeing the emergence of
Global Positioning Satellite
(GPS) and video tolling which
shows promise for eliminating
cash collection costs
completely. Certainly, many
technical, political and social
considerations must be
addressed, but the
implementation of GPS and
video tolling applications offer
a glimpse of cashless
operations.
Will concessions offer a
fertile environment for new
technology? Can advanced
technology significantly
enhance the financial value of
a concession? Consider two
brownfield operations each
generating US$100 million,
one under public control, the
other under a long term
private lease, otherwise
identical.
Assume that a technology is
developed that allows the toll
road operators to eliminate
cash collections with the only
risk being the loss of 5 per
cent of gross revenue. Let’s
further assume that the new
technology offers the potential
to reduce the costs of
collection from 30 per cent of
gross revenue to 10 per cent.
When the public agency is
given such an alternative, the
concern is the negative
publicity surrounding the
“annual loss of US$5 million in
public money.” The agency
would likely be severely
14 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
“The question is
not one of public
sector
management
inadequacy”
criticized for such a large loss and the acceptance of
of funds. Though the public
agency is perfectly capable of optimize the efficiency of toll
analyzing the risks and making roads.
the correct decision, the risks
would preempt the analysis.
On the other hand, a private
operator or concessionaire
would be more likely to accept in favor of concessions and
the advanced technology and
the public would judge them
as a private for-profit company. private side of the ledger. TH
If they lose money it doesn’t
come out of the public coffers.
In fact, the private sector may
not be required to report its
financial information. If not
publicly traded, there is no
necessity to report profit or
losses.
Might such circumstances
provide an edge to the
decision on whether to
execute a long term lease or
concession? If private
enterprise can improve
operational efficiency to a
degree that it approaches the
example, a large financial
advantage accrues to the
concession.
Perhaps there other
advantages the private sector
possesses over public
management of roadway
assets, in construction,
maintenance, design,
operations.
The question is not one of
public sector management
inadequacy. The public sector
certainly has many very
competent managers and
employees. The public sector
is quite capable of evaluating
alternatives, setting strategic
direction and organizing for
efficiency.
However, it is the perception
of public and private entities
that may make the difference
in the future of concessions
advanced technologies to
The adoption of new
technology by toll road
concessionaires will likely
yield a situation that is skewed
that will see the rewards for
risk taking accruing to the


  





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News
The world is
connected
TOM GOOD reports from the ITS World Congress in London with
news of an exciting collaboration involving this very magazine
and a brand new on-line networking platform
Launched during the 13th World Congress on ITS
held last month in London, the World ITS Directory
project provides an on-line networking platform
helping ITS professionals contact each other.
Being worldwide, it is expected to grow very rapidly
over the next few years, aiming at reaching 10,000 users
by the end of 2009. Thinking Highways has been
appointed the Directory’s strategic media partner for
North America and Europe, while Vial magazine will be
performing that role in Latin America .
Based on an ITS Spain initiave, this project is being
directed by Jaime Huerta, who in turn gas has desig-
nated Odile Pignier, Air de Paris director and former
ERTICO contractor, to manage the Directory. “Visit the
16 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
website, sign in, wait for the green light and navigate
your way around the Directory,” says Pignier. “Enjoy the
ride and stay in the loop!”
“We are delighted to be working with Odile, not just
on the Directory but also on many other innovative
projects that will be to the benefit of the ITS industry,”
says H3B Media managing director Luis Hill, publisher
of Thinking Highways. “We have already formulated
several new, creative formats that will bring our organi-
sations closer together.We very much enjoy collaborat-
ing with like-minded people.”
Says Pignier: “The Directory is a fantastic tool but
could not grow without being promoted on a large scale.
Thanks to a close collaboration between the Directory
project management and Thinking Highways magazine,
our dream will soon turn into reality. It’s something that I
am looking forward to very much.”
The website is up and running now and can be found
at www.worlditsdirectory.com.
A permanent networking platform
The Intelligent Transport Systems community is truly
global. It spans many countries, all time zones, many
languages and represents very large numbers of pro-
fessionals working in different activity sectors world-
wide. Many of these community members already meet
once or twice each year in local or national seminars
and meetings, national and regional ITS associations
and so on.
However, there is a strong demand for some form of
network that is available at all times and enables ITS
professionals to identify key executive and technical
specialists through targeted searches; read personal
and professional information on each of them; and then
contact them for more.
The benefits from such a directory are multiple for
www.h3bmedia.com
 News

individuals, organisations and sponsors. They mainly

derive from providing information on individuals’ back-
ground and experience and on an organisation’s know-
how facilitating networking activities, thus improving
business opportunities, projects and partnerships. PhD
and ITS Master students may also sign in as they repre-
sent future ITS professionals. Priority will be given to
keeping data up-to-date through regular checks and
data cross-matching. A bi-yearly overall check of the
directory will be carried out systematically and will
give another chance to each user to update his data. The
official language of the site will be English.

Data protection
From the legal viewpoint, this project complies with
high-level security standards, notably the stringent
Spanish personal data protection law called LOPD ( Ley
Orgánica de Protección de Datos, 15/1999 dated 13
December 1999). Throughout the data collection proc-
ess, all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that all
contacts have ITS-related activities and that only author-
ised users have access to the information in order to
avoid unwanted correspondence.
All users are clearly informed about their rights (con-
sent required) and duties (commitment to respecting
the networking purposes of the directory). Individual
information collected mainly consists in contact infor-
mation, biography, area(s) of expertise and ITS topics.
Regarding organisations, the Directory collects data on
their legal status, headquarters address, know-how and
so on. All passwords are encrypted.
Free access
From the financial viewpoint, inclusion and access to the
directory are free for individuals and organisations, as
long as they work in the ITS sector. This is a very valua-
ble promotional tool for small companies unable to
dedicate much funding to advertising. Large organisa-
tions and companies will also see an efficient way of
directing their potential customers
and partners to their ITS department. “There is a strong
Nevertheless, in order to ensure that
the Directory remains a specialised demand for some
reference, the administrator together form of network
with the Steering Committee reserve
the right not to validate any applica- that is available at
tion form deemed inappropriate. all times”
Sponsorship opportunities
In order to cover expenses, sponsorship opportunities
are offered to all ITS-related organisations wishing to
support and contribute financially to this project.
Sponsors will benefit from the following:
• Logo visibility on the website, on all publications
including press and on promotional tools made availa-
ble at ITS events.
• Advertising space in the “Sponsor News” section will
enable sponsors to highlight upcoming events, new
projects or products.
• Participation in a Steering committee, if they wish.
Each sponsor will be given the opportunity to put for-
London, October 2006: H3B Media managing director Luis Hill,
World ITS Directory manager Odile Pignier and director Jaime
Huerta somehow all manage to shake hands at the same time on
the deal that sees Thinking Highways confirmed as the Directory’s
strategic media partner for North America and Europe
ward suggestions for new services, funding, give guid-
ance and recommend individuals and organisations for
inclusion in the directory. These may include partners,
clients or staff.
In order to keep contributions affordable, 20 organi-
sations are being sought in the private
and public sectors, each of them con-
tributing €2,500 (US$4,000) if the con-
tract is signed before 31 December
2006 and €3,000 (US$4,750) as of
1 January 2007. A comparable budget
is being considered for the following
years.
Organisations such as the UK
Department for Transport, ITS Canada and the ITS
Nationals network are already sponsoring the project.
Other companies and organisations were approached
recently and many of them have expressed their interest
in supporting this project. Confirmations are still pend-
ing. Opportunities will be given on a first-come first-
served basis. TH
If would like to become a sponsor of the World ITS
Directory, please contact either Odile Pignier at either
odile.pignier@air-de-paris.fr
or admin1@worlditsdirectory.com
or Jaime Huerta at jhuerta@itsspain.com

www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 17

The Thought Process
Bernie
Wagenblast
The New Jersey-based editor of the Transportation
Communications Newsletter tells KEVIN BORRAS of his life
in information dissemination
The Transportation Communications Newsletter
combines the two fields I’ve worked in throughout
my career. When I was attending Seton Hall University
in the 1970s, and majoring in communications, my inten-
tion was to work in broadcast journalism. In fact, my first
jobs while I was in school, as well as immediately after
graduating, were in radio.
About a year after I finished school I learned of a new
company called Shadow Traffic. Shadow, which had
its start in Philadelphia, was coming to New York City. At
the time two stations in the city had helicopters and most
other stations listened to those reports to provide their
own updates. The idea behind Shadow was that it would
serve most of the stations in the market and because it
was providing information to so many stations, they
could afford the resources to cover a wider area in
greater depth than any one station could on its own. I
was fortunate to be selected as one of the original on-air
reporters.
My time at Shadow was my first exposure to what
would later be known as ITS and traveler informa-
tion. Technology at the time was pretty straight forward.
Much of our information came from spotters in the air, in
cars, and atop the Empire State Building and World
Trade Center. Information flowed from the operations
desk to the studios over a Radio Shack computer which
used a cassette tape as its hard drive.
Technology has advanced quite a bit since then. Per-
sonal relationships are still the most important, and often
the most overlooked, aspect of transportation
operations.
18 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
I was at Shadow for a little over five years, but that
was enough to whet my appetite for doing more work
in transportation. After Shadow I joined the New York
City Department of Transportation. They were setting
up a communications center which was designed to
gather traffic information from around the five boroughs
and coordinate it with other city agencies and share it
with the public. At that time about the only way an agency
could get real-time information to the public was via the
radio stations. The creation of the NYCDOT Communi-
cations Center was one of the first examples in the met-
ropolitan area of a traffic operations center whose
purpose included responsibility of getting traffic infor-
mation to the public. In the mid-80s, traffic cameras were
just being introduced to NYCDOT. Most of the views we
could watch were of the nearby Queensboro Bridge. If
something was happening elsewhere in the city we had
to rely on the NYPD or NYCDOT field personnel to let us
know what was happening.
At about the same time NYCDOT’s Communications
Center was being established, the Port Authority of
New York & New Jersey had the idea for a group
called the Transportation Operations Coordinating
Committee, better known as TRANSCOM. Anyone
familiar with transportation in the New York City area
knows there are multiple agencies responsible for many
different pieces of the transportation network. Not only
do you have three states (New York, New Jersey and Con-
necticut) but there are also various toll agencies, police
departments and mass transit operators. When some-
thing went wrong on one part of the network, the affects
were quickly felt by many other agencies. Traffic prob-
lems didn’t respect jurisdictional lines.
www.h3bmedia.com
 “Personal relationships are
still the most important and
often the most overlooked
“What ITS can do is aspect of transportation
support policy objectives operations”
and improve knowledge,
information and
Photo by Joy Wagenblast

management”
The Thought Process
Formally coordinating information among agen-
cies in the NYC area was a revolutionary idea, and
one which certainly wasn’t immediately embraced
by all of the agencies. While sharing information might
seem like a pretty benign activity, most agencies were
very turf conscious and one of the points we had to
emphasize again and again was that TRANSCOM had no
power over any of the agencies. In fact, TRANSCOM
could make no policy decisions without the unanimous
consent of all its member agencies. As I learned at
Shadow, the importance of building personal relation-
ships was something which could not be overlooked.
New and improved technology made it easier to do
our jobs, and sometimes provided a foot in the door
to an agency. An early example at TRANSCOM was
something we called the Velcro truck. This was a truck
which could be driven to the site of a traffic problem. It
had a retractable board upon which Velcro-backed
words could be attached to alert drivers. It was a far cry
from the electronic changeable message signs found
along highways today, but this simple piece of equip-
ment was a big help to agencies who didn’t have the
resources to communicate with drivers.
While at TRANSCOM I had the chance to witness the
early stages of two technologies in widespread use
today. The first was a video camera attached to a cellu-
lar phone to transmit pictures back to our operations
centre. The cell phones at that time were as big as bricks
and coverage was pretty spotty, but the ability to send a
picture back from the field was something that had not
been seen by most of the transportation agencies.
TRANSCOM also had an early version of a naviga-
tion system in the early 1980s. A van was equipped
with a CRT screen and a tape deck which plotted the
location of the vehicle as it moved about the area. Maps
were stored on a cassette tape and since GPS was not yet
available to the public, it depended upon dead reckon-
ing to track the van’s movements.
20 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
A lesson I learned while serving as the operations
manager at TRANSCOM is that its important to
remove as many barriers to cooperation as possible.
Since TRANSCOM was a new concept, and many people
at the agencies seemed to feel they were doing just fine
before TRANSCOM came along, it was sometimes tough
convincing hardened operations people of the value of
picking up the phone to report an incident. It’s some-
times surprising how bureaucracy can throw up hurdles.
For instance, the phones at the operations desks of many
agencies couldn’t dial another area code so calling
TRANSCOM became impossible. We overcame that
hurdle by establishing a toll-free number which could
be called from any number in the region and to make it
simple, it was a number that was easy to remember.
While I was working at TRANSCOM the idea of the
I-95 Corridor Coalition was created. The I-95 Coali-
tion initially stretched from Maine to Virginia, and in
some ways resembled TRANSCOM on a larger scale.
Here again the idea was to share information among
agencies that weren’t in the habit of working together on
a daily basis. For example, over the years technology
had developed so that many agencies now had variable
message signs on their roadways. These signs were
usually used only for problems on that agency’s prop-
erty.There were instances though, when major incidents
caused the closure of a major highway for many hours
and it was important to reach long-distance travelers
with that information many miles, and states, away from
the location of the incident.
I served as one of the original co-chairs of the High-
way Operations Group, the operations arm of the
coalition. At its start the Coalition had no money and no
staff, but by bringing people together at meetings, rela-
tionships developed and low-cost communications
techniques were used to share information throughout
the northeastern US. TH
For more on the Transportation Communications
Newsletter, send an email to i95berniew@aol.com
www.h3bmedia.com
THIN KING HIG HW AYS
is proud to be the World ITS Directory’s strategic
media partner for North America and Europe

In association with
THIN KING
HIG HW AYS
Strategic Media Partner
for North America & Europe
Cover Story

Dream, then do
The DARPA Challenge and the rebirth and
vision of automated driver assistance
by ANTHONY MELIHEN

22 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com

 Under starter’s orders: the contestants for the 2005 DARPA
Challenge prepare to break the tape..

A good idea is a good idea. As fast as a new science

fiction work can be unpacked at a bookstore, the
engineering-inclined are critiquing its ideas,
assessing its values and visualizing the technical
possibilities. Criticisms may end up on a blog site,
but anything with merit and marketability will more
likely end up on a CAD system.
Whether motivated by profit or curiosity, so often goes
this flow from story to actuality – creativity, fueled by
necessity, pushes forward ingenuity and style. The cel-
lular flip phone, the touch screen, the laser, the sub-skin
microchip, the space station, travel beneath the sea,
around the world, and to the moon all started in imagina-
tive minds removed from the presence of such technol-
ogy but knowing it could happen. In fact, the way we
travel has been such a particularly important theme
throughout the genre for so long that it could be said that
futurists have offered as much influence as urban plan-
ners on our evolving transportation systems, how they
influence our cities’ shapes, and affect our daily lives.
Transportation is one of the most capital intensive
infrastructure investments any society makes. It’s also
one of the most difficult – or rather impossible – invest-
ments to change and modify all at once. The longevity of
vehicle technology, road systems, and communication
networks we use today, as well as the transport habits we
hold onto so guardedly, mean that working to improve
that which we have until something revolutionary comes
along is seemingly our most popular and most easily
ratified development option.
Perhaps the most actively sought-after transportation
technology possibilities to rise from the promising
pages of science fiction over the past 20 years – and one
that makes better use out of existing infrastructure – has
come in the form of automated vehicles. Recent achieve-
ments in this area have begun to reveal the growing
value that such technology can offer society, literally
throwing the notion of driverless cars from screenplay
to roadway overnight and enabling people to believe a
mass-market solution will arrive sooner than later.
A future with safe driverless vehicles is one ideal end
goal being pursued, and this is widely accepted to be a
worthy challenge.We can make vehicles move, turn, and
stop on command better than ever, and we are already
marketing vehicles under the guise that they are
“smarter”. From our present vantage point, we can see
how vehicle automation can soon become an attainable
future avenue for making road vehicles that much bet-
ter. But before we can reshape transportation ideas
within our cities through engineering, we truly need to
better comprehend the role of dynamic vehicle posi-
tioning and orientation systems (POS), and understand
the many reasons why this is an indispensable part of
the robotic navigation equation.
Vehicle motion begins with, continues with, and
changes with servo-activations produced by decision-

www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 23

Xxxxx
processing algorithms based largely on constant and
accurate position and orientation information. Even
though terrain evaluation sensors such as LIDAR scan-
ners, radar, and other active measurement technologies
are vital for real-time situational adjustments along a
given path, they would arguably be deemed secondary
given a clear highway and networked vehicles continu-
ously sharing their POS data to avoid collision.
Accurate POS data, however, must constantly be avail-
able hundreds of times each second to process in robust
fashion not only where the vehicle is located and where
it is heading but also to relay the exact orientation of all
onboard sensors. Although still in the pioneering days
of research, and driven in large part by unexpected
forms of competition, progress in GPS-aided inertial
measurement technology is gaining acceptance as one
of the most reliable sensor inputs needed for any auton-
omous vehicle design.
Catalysts for change
Beyond our instincts to improve, two main reasons to
support the advancement of automated vehicle technol-
ogy stand out: saving lives and realizing greater effi-
ciencies in transportation. Each traffic fatality represents
an immeasurable tragedy. In 2004, there were 42,636
such tragedies in the United States alone; roughly 14.5
deaths per 100,000 people and 1.46 fatalities per 100
Million Vehicle Miles Traveled (the “VMT rate”) . Sur-
prisingly, these figures are not exceptional; however,
with each loss, an associated cost is introduced beyond
the incomparable measure of grief.
Losses in productivity, payout and compensations,
damages and repairs are only part of the equation
beyond the death or injury of a vehicle occupant. Fur-
thermore, there is a staggering lost opportunity cost
hidden within each individual that make up the sum total
of fatalities.
Freight and commercial benefits expected from vehi-
cle automation are much simpler to envision and fiscally
24 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
justify. For example, whether discussing taxis or tractor
trailers, a savings per unit on delivery costs may easily
be calculated from not having a trained driver constantly
on salary during all hours of vehicle operation. There is
also an implicit economic ideal that an autonomous
vehicle may be safer and capable of running non-stop.
These benefits, along with many others, measurably
outweigh those of having a driver on hand to address
unforeseen circumstances.
Above all (at least through these relatively early devel-
opmental steps),the most vocal proponents of unmanned
vehicle technology have come from the ranks of the mil-
itary. A U.S. Congressional mandate authorizing that a
fleet of military ground vehicles possessing autono-
mous capabilities be in active service before 2015 offers
powerful encouragement that this technology is cer-
tainly on the way. Spurred on by experiences of war
fighters, progresses made in drone technology, and
support from the public treasury, there is increasing
confidence that such ambitious efforts are now achiev-
able or will soon become very possible.
The dirt road to DARPA
In October, 2005, the DARPA (Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge was held.
The goal: to create and successfully race a driverless
vehicle across a desert environment with natural and
man made obstacles in place designed to interrupt or
distort GPS signals, break wheel struts, and humble
institutional sized egos… all in under 10 hours.The 131.6
mile (211.8 km) course was kept secret until just prior to
race time. 195 teams entered, 43 would be chosen to
qualify, 23 raced as finalists, and 5 successful prototype
concepts were produced, varying from a hybrid SUVs to
a full sized 16 ton tactical cargo hauler.
Over a decade before race day, the latest concept of
robotic vehicle assistance at the time was demonstrated
to the world. Prototype “auto-control” (quasi-robotic)
cars traveled bumper-to-bumper in platoons along spe-
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Cover Story
cial highway lanes while drivers read newspapers. From
this achievement, technical and economic limitations
were better understood, and yet research stalled in the
face of a practical solution. Attentions shifted more
towards new infrastructure designs, driver/roadway
information management systems, and command and
control centers.
The driver remained the sole relied upon all-in-one
vehicle navigation component, flaws and all. It would
take the abolishing selective availability on GPS signals
and losses on battlefield supply lines, as well as the
acknowledgement of critical human driving weak-
nesses before automated vehicle technology would be
actively pursued again. Meanwhile communications
and network data sharing improved. GPS aided inertial
navigation systems were engineered as cooperating
partners instead of stand-alone technologies, deliver-
ing the first seemingly perpetual sub-meter positional
accuracies needed for automated vehicles.
Better driver information systems were becoming
more and more of a familiar utility. A basic foundation
for the automated road/vehicle data sharing model that
visionaries had long expected to become essential in
our lives was beginning to take firm root.
And so what has past has become prologue. The suc-
cesses at the DARPA Grand Challenge demonstrated
how automated vehicle research had leapfrogged over
numerous technical hurdles and a decade of relative
stagnation in driverless vehicle development. Now that
the once fictionalized method of travel suddenly seems
more achievable, greater attention, and of course rapid
investment, is being placed on the vehicle side of this
broad transit equation.
Secret of success
As much as or possibly more than the various forward
looking scanners (radar, laser, or a variety of choices)
showcased at the DARPA Grand Challenge, the inclu-
sion of a GPS tightly coupled with inertial measurement
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Xxxxx
units (IMU) and distance measurement instruments
seemed essential for success. All five vehicles that fin-
ished the race included an IMU of various forms, from
somewhat improvised systems to high end commercial
off the shelf POS solutions. Both Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity vehicle entries, longtime race favorites, sat on
the winner’s podium carrying Applanix POS LV GPS
supported IMU systems onboard, and all top three com-
petitors finished within mere minutes of each other. In
comparison with the older, inflexible “follow the mag-
netic breadcrumb” auto-control concepts from a dec-
ade earlier, this combined sensor approach
demonstrated vastly superior potential.
There were problems scheduled into the challenge
that only an IMU could solve. For example, the 1Hz
refresh rates of even a strong GPS system would not
prove to be reliable enough for robotic vehicles, espe-
cially through tunnels. Even at a leisurely pace with an
accurate clock, a significant distance can be covered
within only one second.
Without additional guidance, a vehicle can suddenly
become “lost” at a critical moment when other relied
upon vehicle sensors are fooled, confused, or blocked.
GPS signals, for example, experience inherent prob-
lems such as multipath effects (reflection of GPS signals
off nearby surfaces, causing incorrect ranges to be com-
puted) that only become amplified in an urban road
environment. And in such settings, where pedestrians
are often interacting with traffic, the room for error drops
from feet to inches and from seconds to milliseconds.
A sensor “jury” approach to navigation produces the
most accurate and robust position estimate possible,
and provides a critical advantage that is now being
appreciated. Given the results from the early prototypes
seen and raced, and given the projected relative cost
effectiveness as solution anticipated in the not-so-dis-
tant future, this approach and technology will one day
play a central role in automated vehicle development
and continue to do so for decades.
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 25
Cover Story
One constant is change
If we believe technology will solve many of today’s
transportation problems while providing greater road
utility, we may be only half right and thirty years too late.
Consider the following:
• Even modest projections estimate a population
increase in North America of over 20% between the
years 2000 and 2030. Asian growth projections for the
same interval are expected to exceed 30% with grow-
ing demand for mobility. European data suggest little
change. Overall, more people will be using the roads.
• Automated vehicles may potentially change
how we license drivers. Age restrictions may no longer
apply. A parent could conceivably program a vehicle to
deliver a child to school and return. Senior citizens will
maintain their mobility longer. The roads may therefore
become busier with each family member traveling
more and more independently.
Non-transit technology will hopefully help reduce
stress on our roads. Fundamental shifts in how we work
are already taking place, allowing some lucky people to
avoid commuting at least some of the time. But every-
thing we invent now, including work hour policies and
the development of automated vehicles, may seem
reactionary. Furthermore, given a sober sample of driv-
ers, freeway traffic (moving in physically segregated
directions where relative vehicle velocity variances are
minor) is still relatively safe. Yet these will be the first
roadways used to test or apply the newest technology.
The first real challenge will be adopting automated
vehicles to city streets.
Military agencies will continue to be the earliest adop-
ters and most vocal proponents of this technology, even-
tually followed by commercial cargo carriers.
Throughout these early user experiences, a great deal
of feedback will be shared with the research community
and vehicle manufacturers.Wider private civilian adop-
tion still remains a big price drop away.
The extent that autonomous vehicle development will
impact regional urban dynamics through evolving tran-
sit networks and applications shall remain a mystery for
many years to come. Practical examples are remarkably
26 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
easy to envision and extend far beyond daily commut-
ing. Imagine a truck depot in the future, where “drivers”
never leave their families for days at a time. A robotic
cargo truck arrives after traveling cross-country in pla-
toons with similar rigs. It detaches its trailer in exchange
for new freight and a new destination. Meanwhile, a
transport specialist then takes responsibility for local
deliveries with their (driver assisted) vehicle, handling
loading, unloading, and other duties.
There can be no mistaking that the regional urban and
inter-urban travel will change as our transport needs
and methods change, and a price will be paid for the
upgrading of the urban infrastructure environment that
will change along with it. It is simply one of the prices we
pay as a society for progress that we deem beneficial
and advantageous.
Going from here
We are on the verge of exploring real gains in how we
use our transportation networks thanks in part to robotic
development and automated driver assistance technol-
ogy. Next generation IMUs and GPS devices and active
sensors will offer even greater possibilities for freer
roadway navigation at an affordable price. First as driver
assistance systems, which we are seeing now, then soon
as driver behavior override systems, and finally one
day with complete driver reliance upon the vehicle, our
transport destiny seems well plotted and finally achiev-
able. What fiction authors could only dream of, our chil-
dren will see as unimpressive and granted.
Considering how our roadway environments will
change to reflect this technology is almost its own exer-
cise in fiction, for there will constantly be change in
human transport methods and it will not stop with vehi-
cle automation. But we have a better idea now of how it
can be and it is still our fascinating task to build it and
then pass it on to the future.
The efforts we dedicate to this proposed progress –
our next step forward in improving how we live and
move – will be… and can only be… validated by creat-
ing new efficiencies within our cities, our suburbs, and
in our lives. TH
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The Thinker

A holistic view of transportation

thinking by PHIL TARNOFF

are we
nearly
there yet?
“There is more
energy available
than Iceland can
possibly use”

28 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com

 The Thinker

Imagine that a major US airline is experi-

encing a high level of demand for one of its
popular routes. In fact, the demand is so
high that potential passengers are being
turned away.
The airline has two choices; either increase the fare for
this route, thus reducing demand or add additional
capacity to the route either through the scheduling of an
increased number of flights or the use of larger planes.
These two actions are not mutually exclusive. The first
action reduces demand, and the second action increases
supply. One of the primary objectives of these actions is
to establish a supply-demand equilibrium point that will
maximize the airlines profitability.
Unlike the airline industry, the highway transporta-
tion system is not usually operated with the objective of
maximizing profitability. The objectives of this system
may include minimizing travel times and/or providing
high levels of travel time reliability. Although the objec-
tives may vary, their achievement through adjustment
of the supply-demand relationships remains applica-
ble. Unfortunately, few if any in the highway transporta-
tion community view their role in the management and
operations of the system in these terms.
Transportation agencies are increasingly confronted
with the need to compensate for significant increases in
demand (increases in vehicle miles of travel – VMT)
without adequate funding or the political will, for
increasing supply through new construction. Thus the
application of the traditional countermeasure to
increased VMT, the construction of additional lane-
miles of roadway is no longer a viable option. Demand
reduction measures such as value pricing, and HOV
lanes become the only available alternatives. It is
important to be able to analyze these options within the
context of the total set of feasible transportation man-
agement alternatives if we are to ensure that the road-
way infrastructure is being utilized in the most efficient
manner.

Supply-demand applications
Within the transportation community, much effort is
devoted to the project level impact assessment of vari-
ous transportation measures. Little attention is paid to
the interactions that may occur among multiple meas-
ures, nor the regional impact of these measures. The
need for this more strategic impact assessment is criti-
cal, since interactions among measures might have con-
sequences that are more significant than the impact of
any one individual measure.
One particularly striking example of this relationship
occurred many years ago, when a state decided to elim-
inate the mainline toll booths on a major congested
interstate. The motivation was to increase the capacity
Photo by Dylan Stanley Borras

of the interstate (supply) by eliminating the delays and

queues caused by the tolls. However, eliminating the
tolls also increased demand on the interstate, with the
result that the quality of service being offered remained
unchanged or degraded. Although the regional impacts
were not evaluated, it is possible that the quality of serv-

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The Thinker
ice on alternate routes improved due to reduced demand
on these routes, or alternatively, that the overall demand
increased due to reduced usage of mass transit due to
the lower cost of travel on the interstate. This one exam-
ple points to the importance of considering supply-
demand relationships as well as regional impacts when
considering operational changes.
These relationships can be most readily visualized
through the use of traditional supply-demand plots such
as the one shown in Figure 1. In this figure, the vertical
(Y) axis represents disutility (also called level of serv-
ice) which may be represented in terms of increased
travel cost, trip time, user costs, or level of service.
The horizontal (X) axis represents demand, which is
usually expressed in terms of vehicle miles of travel
(VMT). The supply curve shown in the figure is a repre-
sentation of the degradation of service (increasing disu-
tility) that occurs for a fixed amount of supply (roadway
or corridor capacity) with increasing demand.
The demand curve depicts the quantity of travel
demand that will be generated, when differing levels of
service are incurred. The slopes of these lines are known
as the elasticity of demand. The point at which these two
curves intersect is the equilibrium point. It represents
the demand that occurs for a given amount of supply.
From A to D
In their definitive analysis of these relationships Wagner and
Gilbert identified four classes of measures as follows:
Class A – Actions that reduce travel demand such as:
pricing (tolls, fares, value pricing, etc), transit enhance-
ments, telecommuting and ridesharing.
Class B – Actions that enhance highway supply such as:
construction (additional lanes, grade separations, inter-
section improvements, etc.), improved signal timing,
elimination of mainline tolls and ramp metering
Class C – Actions that reduce demand and degrade sup-
ply such as: take a lane for high occupancy vehicles
(HOVs), auto restricted zones and reductions in off-
street parking and;
Class D – Actions that reduce demand and enhance sup-
ply such as: new HOV lanes and on-street parking restric-
tions.
The impacts of these actions described using the clas-
sical supply-demand curves which are shown in figures
30 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
2 through 5. Note that these figures represent increased
supply by the downward movement of the supply curve,
and increased demand by a shift to the right of the
demand curve. From these figures, it can be seen that all
classes of measures improve mobility (reduce disutil-
ity) except for Class C. However, since Class C reduces
demand, it offers the potential benefits of reduced fuel
consumption and reduced emissions.
Class dismissed
These figures also demonstrate that Class B actions
which increase VMT, tend to work against the Class C
actions which are intended to reduce VMT. Other con-
clusions that can be reached from these curves include
the fact that actions which tend to reduce demand also
offer the potential to reduce emissions and fuel con-
sumption. These curves do not account for the relative
magnitude (impact) of the changes they represent. Data
must be obtained from project results available from
sources such as the Deployment Support Databases of
the US Department of Transportation’s Joint Program
Office.
The approach described here is a powerful analysis
tool. It provides the ability to represent the impact of
growth in demand (VMT) without any change in supply
(no additional roadway lane-miles) by sliding the
demand curve to the right, and observing the change in
the location of the equilibrium point which, in turn, will
show an increase in disutility.
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The change in the equilibrium point can be used to
represent improvements in mobility, fuel consumption
and emissions, depending on its direction of change.
When the point of equilibrium moves downward, mobil-
ity has been improved. When the change in the equilib-
rium point is downward and the right (both disutility
and demand are being reduced), energy and emissions
benefits are being reduced.
An interesting example
It is important to thoroughly understand these concepts
prior to their application. One potentially confusing
example is the construction of a new toll road. It would
be tempting to consider this facility a Class A action,
since pricing has been listed within this category. How-
ever, the Class A pricing actions are oriented toward the
pricing of existing facilities with the specific intent of
decreasing demand.
A new toll road represents an increase in supply which
is a Class B action. The tolls imposed on this new facility
are, in fact, a technique for regulating the demand on the
road, but their net result is to ensure that the newly sup-
plied capacity is operating at peak efficiency, rather
than to achieve an overall reduction in regional VMT.
Thus the new toll road must be considered a Class B
action with the end result that disutility will be decreased
(level of service improved), while demand will be
increased.
This conclusion is consistent with the expectations of
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The Thinker
regional transportation officials when a facility of this
nature is being constructed.
Criticism of new facilities is often based on the very
possibility that the new facility will result in increased
VMT. To counter this argument, a combination of actions
must be taken that produce results such as those shown
for Class D actions, which produce improved levels of
service without increasing demand.
This is accomplished through the use of complemen-
tary Class A measures such as transit improvements,
increased cost of parking, encouraging telecommuting,
etc. that will reduce total VMT without reductions in
capacity. The combined impact of these actions can be
analyzed as described earlier, using data available for
individual projects that make up the combined package
of actions being considered.
This analysis framework will both enhance the agen-
cy’s understanding of the potential impacts of a pro-
posed project, and will serve as an effective graphic for
communicating with the public and elected officials,
many of whom are more familiar with the economic
analysis than with the details of transportation engi-
neering.
The holistic view
Unfortunately, the ability of transportation agencies to
take a holistic approach toward improving mobility is
hampered by stovepiping of operations that occurs
within the industry. Examples of the negative impacts of
stovepiped operations are easy to find.
For example, individual modes (highway, transit, and
rail) are operated independently by agencies with little
concern about the impact of their operations on each
other. Nowhere is this problem more evident and poten-
tially damaging than in our failure to integrate measures
that impact transportation system supply and demand.
State DOTs emphasize the use of supply-oriented meas-
ures such as freeway ramp metering, traffic signal con-
trol and rapid incident clearance.
When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks
like a nail. The overall effectiveness of a transportation
system is determined by its individual components. For
this reason, it is essential that the roadway and vehicle
infrastructure be considered as a system rather than its
individual parts. TH
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 31
Homeland Security
The future
and how to
map it
RICHARD BISHOP believes
that we’ve come a long way
with advanced driver
assistance systems, but
wonders how much further
we have to go
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) based
on radar, lidar, and image processing technology
are now available around the globe on dozens of car
models – offering increased driver convenience and
safety.
Even in the lawyer-saturated US, the most challenging
market for active safety technology due to liability con-
cerns, sophisticated emergency braking systems are
now available.
The current offerings are really just a beginning, but
they are nevertheless impressive. If you’re on the high-
way side of ITS, it can be a bit challenging to stay abreast
of how far the car industry has come. You know – those
metal and plastic things that keep filling up the roads?
Here’s a brief run-down.
The automotive industry is moving rapidly from crash
protection to ADAS. In recent years, industry decision-
makers reached a consensus that we have reached the
point of diminishing returns with occupant protection --
active safety is the way forward. Why not avoid the crash
in the first place?
The forerunner of all ADAS was Adaptive Cruise Con-
trol (ACC), which operates like regular cruise control
when the road ahead is clear. It uses forward sensing
(radar or lidar) to detect slower vehicles ahead and
32 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
matches their speed at a constant gap. Essentially, foot-
free driving. Early versions only operated at highway
speed, offering quite a benefit to commuters but leav-
ing one hungry for more support at lower speeds.
Today’s Full Speed Range ACC does just that – it will fol-
low a lead car to a full stop, thereby extending the con-
venience of ACC to city driving. Collision warning
systems are built on top of the ACC technology, and Col-
lision Mitigation Braking systems actually hit the brakes
full-on if the driver doesn’t respond to warnings and a
collision is imminent. Lane departure warning and blind
spot warning systems are also available.
Blurred vision
Night vision systems arrived with great fanfare on Cadil-
lacs in the 1990s, but were only marginally useful due to
blurry images. Now, a new generation of night vision
systems is on the march, spreading rapidly through the
luxury vehicle models. Oops … did I say luxury? What
about the rest of us that want to avoid a crash but can’t
readily afford a luxury car?
Well, when it comes to high tech electronics, this is
how the car industry works – the price of ADAS range
from several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars.
That’s a modest percentage of the purchase price of the
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average Mercedes or Infiniti. However, the good news is
that early systems such as ACC are starting to move into
mid-range vehicles. For instance, BMW now offers ACC
on the 2007 3-Series. With a base price of US$36,000, the
3-Series dominates BMW sales in both Europe and North
America.
Sales are close to 60 per cent higher than the com-
bined sales of their luxury models –
close to 400,000 3-Series vehicles will “The good news is
be sold this year. ACC and related sys-
tems are now available on many makes that early systems
and models by the likes of Volvo, such as ACC are
Volkswagen, and Toyota.
ADAS entered the heavy truck mar- starting to move
ket in the early 90s with radar-based into mid-range
forward collision warning and blind
spot monitoring. Today well over vehicles”
50,000 trucks are equipped with this
type of system in the U.S. and penetration in Europe is
creeping upwards. Lane departure warning became
available in the late 90s and tens of thousands of systems
are now on the roads. Stability systems, preventing roll-
overs and jacknifing, are now widely available. Imagine
– we have begun an era where road closures, traffic
fatalities, and infrastructure damage due to truck rollo-
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Homeland Security
vers will begin to decrease.
ADAS systems are poised for ever-more growth. In
2006 we passed the 100,000 annual unit sales mark for
ADAS worldwide. In coming years, a rapidly growing
older driver population will highly value ADAS. As
prices come down due to larger volumes, the appeal
will broaden to encompass the average family who now
values airbags and side crash protec-
tion.
What are the major trends going
forward? Two main themes will revo-
lutionize our experience of driving in
the future. One is “the connected
vehicle,” i.e. ubiquitous communica-
tions to/from our vehicles, which is
the focus of the current U.S. Vehicle
Infrastructure Integration (VII) pro-
gram and similar programs world-
wide. VII has received so much attention that I’ll not
dwell on it here. But there is another major theme not
quite as prominent – map-supported vehicle systems.
Mapping the future
Let’s dig into this a bit. We’re not talking about naviga-
tion systems here, as useful as they are. We are talking
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 33
ADAS

about vehicles becoming safer and more efficient

because their “information horizon” has been extended
to hundreds and even thousands of meters ahead of the
vehicle. Communications provide the dynamic look-
ahead picture, while advanced digital maps provide
highly detailed but relatively static information. With
increasingly lower cost GPS receivers, geo-position and
maps together make a powerful combination.

The digital age

So, how can ADAS systems perform more robustly when
informed by digital maps? What new ADAS applications
are enabled by digital maps?
A variety of research projects have investigated these
questions, including EDMap in the U.S. and NextMAP,
ActMAP, and MAPS&ADAS (www.prevent-ip.org) in
Europe. By far, the most significant development work
in this area is in Europe, funded by the European Com-
mission eSafety program. Other programs at the national
level, include the Swedish Intelligent Vehicle Safety Sys-
tems (IVSS) program. Several auto manufacturers and
suppliers are actively developing map-supported
ADAS, and mapping companies such as Intermap,
Navteq, and TeleAtlas are quite active.
In fact, the first map-supported application is already
on the market in the latest BMW ACC system. Map data ADAS applications. A new generation of 2D maps is
from the navigation system is interfaced with the ACC needed and they will require increased accuracy. There
controller to adapt to the degree of road curvature is also increasing interest in adding the third dimension,
ahead, and to refrain from accelerating improperly on i.e. elevation or slope data, to better support vehicle
freeway exit ramps. Siemens VDO developed the sys- functions. While this has been a major challenge for the
tem for BMW. mapping industry, some new techniques have emerged
that are very promising.
The benefit of maps The table below lists ADAS applications that are ena-
Generally speaking, map-support becomes more use- bled/supported by 2D and 3D maps. A “supported”
ful the greater the range in front of the vehicle. Close-in application is one which can be accomplished with
applications, such as blind spot warning and lane depar- other sensors but performs better with map data. An
ture warning could only benefit marginally from map “enabled” application is one which requires map data
data. However, lighting applications, forward sensing, to function.
passing support and similar functions can benefit
immensely. Electronic Stability Control
Today’s digital maps are two dimensional, essentially ESC maintains vehicle stability in emergency maneu-
laid out on a “flat earth.” Unfortunately, the accuracy of vers through individual wheel braking. Knowledge of
these maps offers limited help when it comes to most road curvature, transverse slope (banking), and longi-

Map-Supported ADAS Safety

and Efficiency Applications
2D Map 3D Map
Application Supported Enabled Supported Enabled
Electronic Stability Control •
Forward Sensing* •
Curve Speed Warning • •
Dynamic Pass Prediction • •
Predictive Adaptive Lighting • •
Lane Change Support • •
Brake Cooling (trucks) •
Predictive Powertrain •
* Includes ACC, Forward Collision Warning, Collision Mitigation Braking

34 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com


tudinal slope would assist in optimally actuating brakes
to optimally adjust the vehicle trajectory. There is disa-
greement in the industry as to how much benefit can be
gained.
Forward Sensing
Forward sensing is the classic long-range function for
which map data can be very useful. Typical sensing
ranges are 80-100m. Over this range, road curves/
slopes can certainly be present. Current forward sens-
ing systems attempt to assess road curvature via vehicle
yaw rate and steering angle, which
works better on freeways than on
smaller roads. Next generation for-
“Lighting
ward sensing will integrate radar/lidar applications,
with forward-looking cameras.
Image processing to detect lane/
forward sensing
road boundaries will help immensely and similar
with target tracking. Nevertheless,
road slope in particular will tend to
functions can
confuse the sensing system, as targets benefit immensely
will “disappear” as they crest a hill and
then reappear as the host vehicle
from map support”
crests the same hill. Knowledge of
road slope will inform the target tracking algorithms so
as to maintain robustness.
The industry is moving towards implementing these
enhancements via “sensor fusion” techniques, which
are actively being researched and prototyped. Eventu-
ally, a sensor fusion subsystem will exist on the vehicle,
which will accept data from all on board physical sen-
sors, as well as data sources such as maps, and data
communicated wirelessly from outside sources (other
cars, road agencies, private providers, etc.). Thus, the
opportunity for map support for this function will track
with the implementation of sensor fusion.
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ADAS
Even though the customer’s ability to perceive the dif-
ference between today’s forward sensing systems and a
sensor-fused, map-supported forward sensing system
is limited, vehicle OEMs are moving towards sensor
fusion to make their systems ever-more robust.
We may see map-supported ADAS for forward sens-
ing, using 2D maps, as soon as 2011, with 3D maps not far
behind.
Curve Speed Warning (CSW)
CSW advises the driver as to whether their current
speed is appropriate for an upcom-
ing curve. This function is enabled by
an on-board digital map. Research
and evaluation thus far has focused on
2D map support as to the radius of the
curve. The complete system, of
course, would also integrate knowl-
edge of tire-road friction. Further, a
complete safe speed calculation
would also take into account road
slope within the curve.
From a user perspective, the driver
wants his/her vehicle to maintain a
“situation appropriate speed.” ACC does this by
responding to slower vehicles ahead. CSW would do
the same by responding to the road ahead. CSW could
very likely be an add-on to a future generation ACC.
Predictive Adaptive Lighting (PAL)
As currently offered, adaptive lighting steers headlight
beams into curves based on the steering wheel angle. It
is a relatively cheap safety application which is rolling
into the market quite rapidly. Predictive adaptive light-
ing uses map data to anticipate a curve and begins
swiveling the lamps earlier for optimum illumination of
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 35
ADAS
the intended vehicle path. All work thus far to prototype
PAL has focused on 2D maps. Clearly, the function also
calls for 3D maps so as to better illuminate the road
ahead in hilly areas even when the road is not curving.
PAL is one of the strongest applications driving map-
supported ADAS. It is readily understood by the cus-
tomer, and the benefit is provided virtually every day
(night). Compared to other active safety systems which
use expensive sensors such as radar, PAL can be imple-
mented at low cost.
3D PAL is only at the “talk” stage currently, as auto sup-
pliers are wait on a full 3D road vector
database. In terms of automotive inte-
gration, sources indicate that actuation
“Compared to
in the vertical dimension is already other active safety
covered by a European regulation for
automatic headlamp levelling. This
systems PAL can be
was put into place to ensure that, as the implemented at low
pitch of the vehicle varies due to load
and other factors, the headlights are
cost”
not misaligned angled and blind
oncoming drivers. The dynamic headlight levelling
systems are quick-response respond quickly, and
appear to be a perfect match for 3D PAL.
First introductions of 2D PAL could come as soon as
2010. The first systems may actually be 3D if the maps
are ready in time. Uptake on PAL is expected to be rela-
tively strong, as regular adaptive lighting will be fairly
mature in the marketplace. by then.
Dynamic Pass Prediction (DPP)
Dynamic Pass Prediction, developed by BMW but not
yet on the market, informs the driver when it is not rec-
ommended to overtake -- based on vehicle dynamics
and road information from digital maps. The current
system uses the existing 2D map database in the naviga-
tion system. This function could be enhanced signifi-
cantly with a 3D map database.
DPP has the same advantage as PAL, in that the cus-
(Left) Predictive adaptive lighting (PAL) uses map data to anticipate a curve and begins swiveling the lamps earlier for optimum
illumination of the intended vehicle path. (Right) Regular ‘straightahead’ headlamp illumination
36 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
tomer sees the system in operation every day. It is
unclear as to how much the customer would value DPP.
Customer demand for the feature is expected to be
stronger in Europe, where there is more travel on two-
lane roads and more inclination to pass.
DPP has the advantage of relatively low cost. Industry
sources have noted that no additional or upgraded
hardware is needed to integrate DPP into today’s navi-
gation systems.
Lane Change Assist (LCA)
LCA comes in many forms, from blind
spot monitoring to long range sys-
tems. Map-support applies to long
range systems, which (typically) use
radar to look far behind the vehicle to
detect fast-approaching vehicles in
the adjacent lane. This is a real con-
cern when changing lanes on high
speed freeways, such as the German
Autobahn. However, most freeways
have only very modest curves and slopes. Map-support
would theoretically be helpful, but the degree of utility
needs to be established through additional research.
Brake cooling
Brake cooling is important for heavy trucks on long
downhill slopes. Knowledge of the extent of the slope
can assist an on-board system in activating counter-
measures to the brake pads overheating – if the pad
temperature is approaching a critical level, yet the slope
is about to end, no action need be taken, whereas a
longer slope would call for the countermeasures to be
implemented. This function, currently at the conceptual
stage, is enabled by a 3D map.
Predictive Powertrain
Predictive powertrain systems using digital maps hold
significant promise in improving fuel economy for both
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Driving Life
Leading the world in technology solutions
for safety and mobility

All too often we communicate with other drivers only by flashing lights, sounding
horns, making brief eye contact, and with short gestures. But for the most part, we
remain unaware of interesting and important information from other road users.

Volkswagen is using new communication technologies that actually enable

vehicles to communicate with each other and with the infrastructure. The result
is a qualified exchange of information that ensures greater safety, efficiency,
comfort and driving enjoyment.

For example, vehicle-to-vehicle communication can warn of traffic hold-ups like

the end of a traffic jam just around the curve ahead. Communicating road signs
can actively inform drivers of potential hazard zones and make those data
available in the vehicle.

We predict that direct communication and conversations between vehicles will

be considered completely normal in the not-too-distant future.

internal combustion engines and gas-electric hybrids.
Commercial trucking is the target market. Three key
applications are in play:
• Predictive speed control
• Predictive gear shifting
• Predictive control of auxiliary systems
Predictive speed control can be used either for con-
ventional cruise control ACC. The key function of pre-
dictive speed control is to accelerate ahead of a slope so
as to bring more kinetic energy into the slope. Also, to
decelerate prior to the crest of the hill and allow a speed
reduction but have enough forward motion to reach the
crest and then gain the benefits of the downhill. This
also reduces braking on the downhill sections, and
therefore reduces brake wear and brake maintenance
costs.
With predictive gear shifting, the benefit of gear shift-
ing based on instantaneous measurement of road slope
versus shifting based on preview information must be
examined. Today’s transmission controllers can detect
slope and adjust in milliseconds – thus, some would
argue that only limited gains can be had with preview
information.
The operation mode of vehicle
accessories that may affect the fuel
consumption (A/C, fan, defogger) can
“Many challenges
be scheduled with respect to road remain, such as
data. The idea is to switch accessories
off in a situation where high power out-
how to keep the
put is required, such as in an uphill next generation of
slope, and switch accessories back on
when the higher power output no
maps current”
longer is required. On a typical heavy
truck, the combined energy consumption of all auxiliary
systems is estimated to account for 4–7 percent of the
total fuel used. The opportunity is in developing algo-
rithms to manage their energy consumption appropri-
ate to the demand on the engine due to road slope.
A fair amount of academic and corporate research has
been done in these areas, and more is underway. Work
in Europe (primarily in Sweden and Germany) has
focused on heavy trucks, along with some work in North
America. Work in Japan has focused more on passenger
cars. Several studies focusing on heavy trucks indicate
a fuel economy savings of 2% for predictive powertrain
is feasible.
Qualitatively, there is wide (but not 100 per cent)
industry agreement as to fuel economy benefits derived
from slope data. Extensive and more in-depth investi-
gations need to be completed to scope the degree of
benefit, which depends on (in part):
• Nature of terrain
• Transmission system design
• Throttle system design
• Cruise control system design
• Portion of long haul travel on terrain in which bene-
fits are significant
In terms of market timing, 3D map availability is the
dominant factor. The prevalence of GPS navigation sys-
tems on heavy trucks will also play a role. Navigation
has not yet been of strong interest to the trucking indus-
www.h3bmedia.com
ADAS
try, as drivers are expected to be able to find and follow
proper routes as part of their professional duties. How-
ever, in a key development, Kenworth has introduced
optional GPS navigation on several Class 8 models.
Where will the data come from?
Currently, the perception that today’s maps are not up to
the job of ADAS support is dampening product-oriented
activity. R&D momentum is reasonably good for map-
supported ADAS; however the entire field will not be
taken seriously until a map player steps up to the plate
with a reliable and consistent map, and cost-effective
means of gathering and updating the map data.
While the major mapping companies are constantly
updating their maps for navigation, the prospect of re-
acquiring all of the roads at greater accuracy to support
ADAS is daunting.
A technique from the geo-spatial industry has recently
come onto the scene. Intermap Corporation (www.
Intermap.com) acquires topographical information for
entire countries using an aerial interferometric syn-
thetic aperture radar technique. They have developed
methods to extract roadways from this data, promising
accuracies in the less than 2 m range
for the x and y dimensions and less
than 1% slope for the z dimension.
Their current plans are to have com-
plete, national 3D map datasets avail-
able in 2008 for Europe and 2009 for
the U.S.
Interestingly, map accuracies at this
level are meeting or going beyond
the accuracy offered by current mass
market GPS receivers.
Smart thinking
Between the combined forces of the established map
players and these new techniques, it appears that the
much-needed next-generation maps are on the way.
Many challenges remain, such as how to keep them cur-
rent – this is yet another area in which vehicle communi-
cations will be a key enabler.
With applications such as predictive adaptive lighting
and predictive powertrain, we will rapidly evolve from
2D ADAS maps to 3D maps. These vast databases will
underpin a substantial amount of the “smarts” going
into tomorrow’s vehicles. TH
Richard Bishop, founder of Bishop Consulting, supports
clients internationally in research and business develop-
ment within the intelligent vehicles arena - providing
services in partnership development, intelligent vehicle
applications, industry trend analysis, and business
strategy. Clients include federal government agencies,
public transit providers, vehicle manufacturers, suppli-
ers, research laboratories, state DOTs, and technology
firms worldwide. He lectures as an expert in intelligent
vehicle systems and is publisher of IVsource.net, the only
website focusing exclusively on coverage of intelligent
vehicle developments. He is the author of Intelligent
Vehicle Technology And Trends, published by Artech
House in 2005.
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 39
VII

Leader of
the pack
GREG LARSON and BEN McKEEVER with the latest VII California
Bay Area testbed developments. Improved satety and mobility
The core of VII is vehicle-to-roadside and
are high on the priority listif we’ve come as
roadside-to-vehicle far as we should
communications

VII California is a joint public and private sector ini-
tiative. Originally conceived of by the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) and Caltrans,
the first phase of the program included participa-
tion from DaimlerChrysler Research & Technology
NA, Inc. and Volkswagen of America, Inc.
More recently, Toyota InfoTechnology Center USA and
BMW of North America have joined the program part-
nership. MTC and Caltrans are now seeking to expand
the program through partnership with additional Origi-
nal Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), other public and
private sector entities, and new applications and serv-
ices. This expanded program will enable the partners
to demonstrate and evaluate the potential of VII with a
successful conclusion serving as a catalyst for the deci-
sion on national deployment.
VII California is being implemented in two phases: a
World Congress Demonstration and a VII Proof of Con-
cept Testbed.
• We successfully implemented the World Congress
Demonstration (Phase I) in November 2005 as part of
the Innovative Mobility Showcase (IMS).
• Our focus has now shifted to the full deployment of
Phase II, the VII California Bay Area Testbed.
Background
MTC and Caltrans view the VII Program as an opportu-
nity to provide significant improvements to the safety
and operation of the transportation system. To that end,
both organizations are active members of the National
VII working group.
While there is considerable activity at the national
level, the California partners believe that VII in the San
Francisco Bay Area can play a valuable role to facilitate
national decision making regarding VII deployment.
The San Francisco Bay Area consistently ranks as one

40 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com


of the most congested metropolitan regions in the coun-
try. It recently placed second behind Los Angeles in
terms of annual hours of delay per traveler1. Part of the
reason for this high level of congestion is the unique
geography of the Bay Area, which is surrounded by
mountains and several bodies of water. The result is a
transportation system that relies on a limited number of
freeways and seven major toll bridges.
In response to these challenges, Bay Area transporta-
tion agencies have already deployed one of the most
advanced transportation system management pro-
grams in the country. Important tools to better manage
our transportation system include ramp metering, elec-
tronic toll collection (FasTrak) and advanced traveler
information (511).
Hence, one of the biggest values of our VII testbed
demonstration will be its ability to help transportation
agencies around the country understand how VII can
support the deployment and operation of these system
management tools.
Silicon Valley is also an important asset with its vibrant
community of technology innovators prepared to pro-
vide the public sector useful tools based on current
technologies, and to develop new applications to sup-
port and enhance the transportation and economic ben-
efits of a VII system. These innovations also offer the
opportunity to collaborate on the development of future
transportation technology products.
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VII
These are our goals
The goals of VII California are to better manage the
safety and productivity of the surface transportation
system; to combine the resources, research, and innova-
tions of the public sector, universities, the auto industry,
aftermarket suppliers, and other private sector partici-
pants for the benefit of the traveling public; to build
upon California’s already considerable existing infra-
structure investments; and to create opportunities for
innovation in the transportation system, and explore
commercial uses of the system to fund its deployment
and operation.
The VII California partners believe that these goals
are achievable, but before the California partners – or
the nation – can commit the financial resources and sup-
port any companion legislative actions, there needs to
be concrete evidence of the feasibility and value of VII.
This evidence should be based on a combination of field
testing and off-line simulation and analyses.
The field testing results should be made available in a
timely fashion to inform national program decision
milestones. Accordingly, the VII California partners
have identified the following objectives for Phase II of
the program: To assess real-world implementations of
VII infrastructure, architecture and operations; to inform
future decisions for California and Bay Area investments
for system management programs; and finally to inform
the decision for the National VII Program in 2008.
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 41
VII
Strategy
Our key strategy to meet these goals is to produce a test-
bed that will showcase the value of VII in terms of safety
and mobility benefits. We believe that the urgency of
the 2008 decision makes the concept
of a showcase even more important. “As owner and
The viability of the VII California
applications will be evaluated by Cal- operator of the
trans, MTC, and their contractors. state highway
Safety and mobility benefits will be
evaluated in terms of user perception system, Caltrans
of the usefulness of VII-generated leads the
traveler information delivered in-
vehicles, as well as value provided to development of
the public agencies. roadside
Caltrans and MTC have already
begun the deployment of the testbed, infrastructure”
through initial installations of 10 road-
side equipment (RSE) locations equipped with 5.9 GHz
radio units (partially compliant with the emerging Ded-
icated Short Range Communications specifications) in
and near the city of Palo Alto. We are now finalizing our
Volkswagen of America are among the leading developers
of on-board equipment (OBE) devices and are responsible
for providing vehicles to the testbed
42 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
concept of the remainder of the testbed for a much
larger installation. The VII California program will strive
to complement other work being done, while taking
advantage of the unique attributes of the San Francisco
Bay Area. We will therefore coordi-
nate our Bay Area testbed with tests
conducted elsewhere in the US.
Caltrans and the MTC have identi-
fied the following public sector VII
applications as testing priorities:
Traveler Information, Ramp Metering,
Electronic Payment (Tolling), Inter-
section Safety and Curve Overspeed
Warning. In addition to these applica-
tions, Caltrans and the MTC are inter-
ested in supporting innovative,
commercial applications that would
be developed and provided by indi-
vidual automobile companies or other private sector
organizations.
In the current work, the VII California partners have
adopted the following roles and responsibilities. These
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roles and responsibilities are carried out through an
informal agreement between the partners.
As owner and operator of the state highway system,
Caltrans leads the development of roadside infrastruc-
ture and serves as overall project manager. Caltrans has
contracted with the University of California PATH Pro-
gram to develop the RSEs, including vehicle-to-infra-
structure messaging and communication of the VII data
at the roadside.
As a regional transportation agency with various
operational responsibilities, MTC operates some criti-
cal system management tools, such as the region’s 511
traveler information system and the Fastrak electronic
toll collection system. MTC serves as facilitator/coordi-
nator with local agencies.
MTC is leading the effort in back-end processing,
backhaul communications and development of traveler
information applications for the VII testbed. MTC has
contracted with Telvent Farradyne to design backhaul
communications and handle data collection, processing
and archiving. As owners of the vehicles and onboard
equipment, DaimlerChrysler Research & Technology
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VII
NA, Inc., Volkswagen of America, Inc, Toyota InfoTech-
nology Center USA, and BMW of North America are
leading the development of on-board equipment (OBE)
devices and are responsible for providing vehicles to
the testbed.
VII California approach
A key issue in testing the technical feasibility of VII is
confirming its ability to work in a multiple OEM environ-
ment. In order to have a meaningful sample of data to
evaluate, VII California will need a relatively large fleet
of vehicles equipped with OBE or aftermarket products
capable of performing the desired VII functions, and a
large network of RSE locations.
Ideally, this would consist of hundreds of vehicles and
RSEs. Therefore, VII California is inviting additional
OEM partners and other public or private sector par-
ticipants, including fleet owners and managers, to help
build out the Phase II testbed. Some of the steps that we
are taking to increase the size and scope of its testbed
are:
1). Soliciting participation from additional light vehi-
cle OEMs. MTC and Caltrans are reaching out to OEM
executives to encourage them to participate in the VII
California testbed. Ideally, this participation will include
provision of hundreds of vehicles equipped with VII
OBE and full scale testing on the VII California testbed
corridors. In return, these participants will be permit-
ted use of the testbed for their own commercial applica-
tion development.
2). Soliciting participation by vehicle fleets. MTC and
Caltrans are considering direct provision of additional
vehicle fleets. In return, fleet partners will receive
access to data from the testbed, including estimated
travel times and other VII functions.
3). Exploring opportunities for public-private
partnerships with telecommunications firms. MTC and
Caltrans are pursuing opportunities with telecommuni-
cations companies to provide telecommunications
services to the VII California testbed in exchange for
access to State right of way.
4). Exploring partnerships with other public agencies.
MTC and Caltrans are interested in inviting local juris-
dictions to participate in the showcase. We are in dis-
cussions with various local agencies whose jurisdictions
overlap with our planned testbed corridors: US-101,
I-280 and State Route 82 in San Mateo and Santa Clara
Counties.
MTC and Caltrans are strongly committed to investi-
gating the potential for VII to significantly improve
safety and mobility for California. We believe that the
VII California testbed, used in conjunction with our part-
ners, will enable us to quantify the magnitude of these
benefits. TH
Greg Larson is Chief of the Office of Traffic Operations
Research at Calfiornia DOT’s Division of Research and
Innovation. Ben McKeever is 511 Program Co-ordinator
for Metropolitan Transportation Commission
1
Urban Mobility Study, Texas Transportation Institute
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 43
Homeland Security

The road
ahead

The University of Michigan Transportation Research

Institute’s PETER SWEATMAN and DAVE LeBLANC look at the
evolution of the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration program
(VII) and at what is in store

12 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com


VII is many things to many industries, governments,
R&D organizations and academic disciplines. VII
has political, economic, social and technological
dimensions. After a century of motorization, our
world of personal mobility still comprises the three
somewhat independent elements of vehicle, infra-
structure and driver.
VII is trying to change that throughout the United
States, by forging a more or less formal relationship
between the automotive industry and the community of
highway managers. That relationship
will need to allow for a sustained long
term investment on both sides, pro-
“Crashes at
viding a durable architecture for com- intersections
munication – communication among
vehicles and the roadside to support
involving vehicles
systems with attributes of quality and with intersecting
immediacy as if they were contained
within the vehicle.
paths will simply be
These VII systems (or “applica- prevented from
tions”) will provide totally new and
purposeful ways to improve safety,
occurring”
mobility and convenience. For exam-
ple, crashes at intersections involving vehicles with
intersecting paths will simply be prevented from
occurring.
Incubation period
Under the auspices of the US Department of Transporta-
tion (USDOT), and with strong automotive industry input,
VII is being incubated as both a set of technologies and
a business partnership. VII became firmly grounded
when Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) at
5.9 GHz was set aside for licensing by VII applications.
Clear plans were made to develop and assess certain
VII applications and the USDOT has awarded significant
funding for critical safety applications being developed
Figure 1.VII architecture
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VII
collaboratively by the major players in the US auto mar-
ket under the VII Consortium (VII-C). Figure 1 (below)
shows the VII communication architecture adopted
nationally, in this case representing priority passage for
emergency vehicles.
While VII may seem revolutionary, it is evolutionary in
important respects. First it represents further steps
down an already established path of advanced driver
assistance. Second, it will be deployed gradually, with
the numbers of VII-equipped vehicles and highways
increasing incrementally over a
period of many years. The protracted
deployment period will mean that
newer technologies will need to be
incorporated and that stages of driver
(consumer) acceptance and market
demand will need to be negotiated.
UMTRI has been active in develop-
ing and evaluating advanced safety
systems involving driver assistance
for well over a decade. More recently,
we have seen Michigan move to the
forefront of VII, with strong leadership
from the Michigan Department of Transportation
(MDOT).
MDOT’s efforts are establishing a VII Test Bed in South-
east Michigan for evaluating all types of VII applications,
as well as providing a focus on business systems for
maximizing VII benefits to highway agencies.
Bedding in
The VII Test Bed is a conurbation of freeways and major
arterials with DSRC installed, including 32 signalized
intersections and encompassing several key locations
where the headquarters of major automakers are to be
found, as well as facilities of Michigan DOT (MDOT) and
the Road Commission of Oakland County (RCOC). Vari-
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 45
VII
Figure 2.VII intersection warning application
ous components of VII have already been demonstrated.
The Motorola MOTODRIVE 5.9 GHz system is being
demonstrated in the vicinity of the RCOC Traffic Control
Complex in Waterford MI. Utilizing two DSRC roadside
units located at intersections and two DSRC-equipped
vehicles, we have seen video being streamed from one
vehicle to another and from the RCOC facility to the
vehicles. Similar demonstrations have been carried out
by Ford in the vicinity of their Dearborn facilities.
This is not a test
Preparations are now being made for several thousand
OEM fleet vehicles to be equipped with DSRC, and to be
operated through the Test Bed. The OEM will benefit
from data such as maintenance status and component
performance; MDOT and its partners will obtain asset
management and safety data, such as low surface fric-
tion and emergency response.
The first round of OEM-wide VII applications is cur-
rently being developed by VII-C, based in nearby Novi.
This package of applications is heavily biased to safety
but includes examples for mobility, commerce and asset
management. The safety applications include elec-
tronic brake light, intersection warnings and curve
46 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
speed warning. Such applications have benefits for
consumers even when VII-equipped vehicles are
present in the traffic stream in very small numbers.
In-vehicle signage is also included and offers certain
benefits for early adopters, and eventually major
opportunities for asset managers when high density
deployment is achieved. Figure 2 shows the architec-
ture for a VII red light warning application at an inter-
section.
The deployment of VII vehicle and roadside units,
and its many and varied applications, will depend on
consumer reactions and acceptance; and real system
benefits will only occur when VII applications bring
about actual changes in driver behavior. These chal-
lenges are not being under-estimated and the strong
USDOT research model of rigorous evaluation in large-
scale naturalistic driving studies will be put to good
use.
The research methods being used by UMTRI in the
current Integrated Vehicle Based Safety Systems
(IVBSS) program for NHTSA provide a powerful lead.
This program takes four warning applications and
combines them, filtered and prioritized, into a single
system which communicates to the driver through a
single Human Machine Interface (HMI).
Field of view
Rigorous IVBSS evaluation will take place under sus-
tained usage by drivers going about their normal busi-
ness. We call this a Field Operational Test (FOT),
amethodology we have perfected over more than a
decade. We will be looking for measurable changes in
driver behavior. And the changes we will look for will
be based on driving scenarios we have identified by
poring over many miles of naturalistic driving data
from previous FOTs. We have found that certain pat-
terns of driving behavior repeat during certain inci-
dents. These incidents,some of which rate as“conflicts”,
are defined in terms of proximity to crash, for example
time to collision, and may be extracted from our huge
naturalistic databases using special query tools.
Figure 5 shows that these scenarios, while totally dif-
ferent in driver intent, can only be distinguished within
a small window of time. Good data and database tools
Figure 3. Forward
crash warning
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Figure 4. Accessing FOT data
Figure 5. High resolution data needed to identify scenarios
are definitely needed to develop and evaluate VII appli-
cations.
This same thinking will be applied to the evaluation of
VII applications in the Southeast Michigan Test Bed. We
can be certain that a successful VII deployment will have
impact far beyond the applications being studied today.
The only thing that is certain is that, in the process, spe-
cific areas of knowledge will be pushed ahead:
• Better understanding of “what traffic is like,” includ-
ing models and databases that capture how drivers
manage the motion of their vehicle, how drivers can
share the driving task safely with other tasks, how to pro-
vide safe and effective driver interfaces;
• Reliability of communications, both the wireless
channels specifically related to VII as well as the archi-
tectural ones on the vehicle;
• Transformation of public agencies that will be direct
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VII
users of VII information, since their operations will
undergo a sea change from standard operating proce-
dures to data-driven ones;
• Privacy: law, ethics, and public perceptions need to
be carefully treated; and
• Business models: who will take on the challenge of
finding the models to sustain VII? Government and
OEMs are probably not enough to do more than catalyze
VII. TH
The authors may be contacted via email at
sweatman@umich.edu and leblanc@umich.edu
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 47
Emergency Management

A call and
response
BRUCE ABERNETHY examines the
roles of ITS and trauma center
hospitals in emergency management

12 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com

Intelligent Transportations Systems’ (ITS) architec-
ture typically includes Emergency Management
Centers (EMCs). These are responsible for assign-
ing emergency resources to emergency requests
received via a Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) also
known as a 911 Call Center.
Most EMCs have the 911 call center integrated with
the emergency dispatchers. Smaller cities may utilize
911 call-takers as emergency dispatchers. EMCs typi-
cally arrange dispatching positions by service type
such as police, fire and emergency medical. In cities
where the fire department is also responsible for emer-
gency medical services, then dispatchers are arranged
by police and fire/emergency medical. A supervisory
and a training position are usually implemented with
911 rollover to the supervisory position, should this be
required. The EMC dispatcher and the “first respond-
ers” are a team that work together to take care of the
emergency.
There is also an Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
that is a critical part of emergency management archi-
tecture. During a major emergency that requires evacu-
ation and/or quarantining, use of service resources over
and above those under the management of the EMC, or
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use of emergency services from other jurisdictions, the
EOC may be activated.
Levels of responsibility
There are multiple jurisdictional levels for an EOC
including City, County, regional association of govern-
ments, and State. If the emergency covers a multi-juris-
dictional level, then the EOC associated with the area
would be activated. The EOC is staffed only when acti-
vated. There is a core staff that has the responsibility of
keeping the EOC’s communications network, informa-
tion processing, and information display system envi-
ronment ready for immediate activation.
The major function of the EOC is to provide critical
information to senior decision makers to allow them to
make significant decisions related to saving lives of citi
zens and minimizing loss of property. Senior service
directors related to the jurisdictional area are key
participants. The EMC(s) implements management
decisions of the EOC. Public Works may be a support
element in clearing debris from corridors in support of
evacuation.
Public Works is equally responsible for advising sen-
ior decision makers related to the condition of the water
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 13
Emergency Management
and sanitation system and its ability to support safe liv-
ing conditions various jurisdictional areas. City (and
County) public health director(s) will be involved in
coordinating activities of trauma centers, providing
communications to the public related to health related
actions (inoculation, decontamination, quarantining,
etc.) and coordination with federal agencies such as the
Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The jurisdictional coroner may be responsible for
managing the disposition, storage and identification of
the dead. The Director of jurisdictional social services
may be involved in evacuation center coordination,
assisting in providing information to family members
that have been separated, assisting in the coordination
of movement of handicapped, and other similar activi-
ties. Thus information provided to senior staff in the
EOC must be accurate, provided in a manner that can be
quickly understood and provided in a time line appro-
priate to managing the event, such as evacuation
progress related to the spreading time line of a HAZMAT
emergency plume.
The trauma centers of the jurisdictional area are the
ones that will receive the first casualties related to the
emergency. The trauma centers play a major role in
emergency management. Discussed herein is the role
of emergency management within the trauma centers.
Emergency Medical Comms Center
Major trauma centers typically have an emergency
communications center that includes a staff adequate to
co-ordinating incoming casualties. The center includes
wireless communications with ambulances and emer-
gency medical helicopters and the ability to provide
coordination information to the receiving area of the
emergency room and the staff. Communications may
also be established with temporary medical staging
areas established to coordinate loading of ambulances
at the disaster area.
Radios typically include 800 MHz for city emergency
communications and 150 MHz for County emergency
communications, with possibly low VHF frequencies as
may be required for wide area emergency communica-
tions and even HAM radio equipment as a backup. Sat-
ellite communications may be included from emergency
medical staging area to the EMCC. If there is an agree-
ment between the jurisdiction and any military base
emergency resources, them a military frequency radio
may be included.
Security begins at home
The SAFECOM initiative of the Department of Homeland
Security is addressing emergency communications
interoperability and is stressing the APCO P-25 radio
solution and transition to digital voice and data in inter-
net protocol (IP) packet form.Voice over IP (VoIP) digital
voice supports effective coordination between field and
center, field-to-field, and center-to center. Phase 2, P-25
defines the new digital voice standard. Phase 1 P-25
standard defines carrier air interface supporting digital
transmission and analog voice; various radio manufac-
turers offer proprietary options for enhanced radio
50 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
communications, which ultimately defeats the purpose
of the open standard.
Information of interest to the EMCC includes:
• Causality Identification;
• Estimated Time of Arrival at the emergency room
“dock”;
• Nature of trauma;
• Decontamination status.
For many EMCCs, this information is manually trans-
lated from voice messaging into digital form using a
workstation integrated with the hospital network. Unfor-
tunately many of the hospitals have not designed this
network to be fully fault tolerant, as it should be for criti-
cal emergency operations. Information is received at
the emergency room and preparation initiated to receive
the incoming causality. It is important that the emer-
gency room staff understand the status of the casualty
related to decontamination of exposed to chemical or
nuclear (dirty bomb) material. If the incoming causality
has been exposed to biological agents, then this infor-
mation is also critical in preparation to receive the casu-
alty. A decontamination dock and area may be required
and an isolation area may be required, depending on
the exposure.
Misinformation
It may be stating he obvious but casualties exposed to
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) must not be mixed
with normal patients at the hospital. In Homeland Secu-
rity exercises, one major problem encountered has
been mismanagement of information related to expo-
sure of the casualties to WMD and the need for decon-
tamination. Field to hospital communications and
coordination is necessary to prevent making a bad situ-
ation even worse through improper processing of cau-
salities exposed to WMD.
Technology that would help with emergency medical
co-ordination includes:
• Mobile Data Terminals with Automatic Vehicle
Location which could provide Current Location translat-
able to ETA considering evacuation route and status;
• Pre-processing of causality;
• Summary of all trauma;
•En-route sustaining treatment administered by
paramedics;
• Image of trauma scene which helps emergency staff
evaluate possibly injuries.
While transmitting causality’s vital biometric informa-
tion to a computer at the emergency room is definitely
helpful, in a major emergency with mass causalities,
most likely the emergency staff will not have time to
review this incoming information. With P-25 radios lim-
ited to 9600 baud digital communications, bandwidth
limits information transfer from ambulance to the hospi-
tal EMCC.
Possible use of 4.9 GHz, wireless mesh, Ethernet net-
work would support incoming ambulance “dump” of
en-route collected information on the causality before
the ambulance reached the “dock”. However, with per-
haps multiple, simultaneous attacks by terrorists, a mesh
network may not survive.
www.h3bmedia.com
CARE, COMPASSION
AND CONCERN ON
THE FREEWAY
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Hospital Emergency Management Center
Hospitals that are designated as major trauma centers
must have a hospital emergency management center
(HEMC). The HEMC is activated when the EOC is acti-
vated and is the primary point of communications
between the EOC and the hospital. The HEMC is staffed
by senior hospital staff, which is usually provided with
wireless communications devices to communicate with
key subordinate staff. The HEMC provides remaining
capacity information to the EOC and also information
related to:
• Remaining, critical medical supplies;
• Loss of public utilities and status of emergency back-
up resources;
• Additional diagnostics of casualties that may assist
the EOC in assessing the nature of the terrorist attack
and emergency situation;
• Answers to questions of EOC decision makers;
• Advice to EOC public information officer for com-
munications to the public.
The HEMC makes senior level decisions related to
allocation of staff and hospital resources to meet the
needs of the emergency. Unfortunately, few hospitals in
the USA are set up for effective communications and
management during a major emergency.
In summary
During routine emergencies, the emergency medical
communications center of the hospital is capable of
handling information on incoming trauma patients and
coordinating their arrival at the emergency room dock.
They are also capable of providing coordination to
emergency medical helicopter pilots assisting them in
www.h3bmedia.com
Emergency Managenment
“The trauma centers
of the jurisdictional
area are the ones that
will receive the first
casualties related to
the emergency”
locating the helicopter landing pad at night. However,
during a major emergency, it is virtually impossible to
manually process and manage information on incoming
ambulances and helicopters as well as information on
their “important payloads”.
The issue is that improper coordination can lead to
exposure of other hospital patients to chemical and bio-
logical agents as well as nuclear contamination. Even
worse, there is little provision for “air traffic control”
around the emergency helicopter pad nor even man-
agement provisions for queues of ambulances. EMCCs
in U.S. trauma hospitals are most likely a conference
room, rather than an integrated management center
with management information wall displays updated in
real time from data bases related to current status of
critical hospital resources and the ability of senior hos-
pital management to quickly communicate emergency
activity decisions and monitor their execution.
Integrated emergency management is necessary to
effectively manage a major disaster. There will not be
time for a lot of manual processing of information. Infor-
mation must be integrated and presented to emergency
management in a form that is readily understood. Hos-
pitals must be brought into the integrated emergency
management system related to the city, county and/or
regional area. For private hospitals, the public must be
willing to fund the cost of emergency communications
and emergency management within the private hospi-
tal. Otherwise, the emergency medical system will fail
the public during a major disaster. TH
Bruce Abernethy is president of Vector Alpha Systems
Inc in Dallas, Texas. He can be contacted via email at
b.abernethy@ieee.org
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 53
Homeland Security
Safe and
secure? Sa and secure?
KEVIN AGUIGUI looks at the potential for digital
video for surveillance and homeland security
purposes and wonders if we’ve come as far as we
should have done…
The use of cameras for surveillance and security
has typically been done using analog-based sys-
tems. This required each camera to be brought to a
central location for processing and viewing.
In addition, each camera required a dedicated analog
communications channel which required baseband
video to be transported which resulted in very ineffi-
cient use of communications mediums. Now, with the
overwhelming demand and feasibility for IP-based
video systems, there are tremendous opportunities for
implementing robust security and surveillance systems
including the capturing, distribution, recording and
retrieval of video on demand.
There are many wireless systems that offer highly reli-
able and secure communications with mesh networking
topologies utilizing licensed spectrums dedicated to
emergency responders. These systems make it more
possible than ever to deploy cameras in hard to reach
target areas in a cost effective manner. Moreover, ven-
dor products have become significantly more afforda-
ble, and technologies for encoding and analyzing video
on demand have become more robust.
However, even with all of the research and offerings of
automated video monitoring and processing systems
that use video analytics, there is only so much a video
12 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
analytics application can accomplish before human
intervention is necessary. This article describes some
of the issues associated with IP-based video and video
analytics and the limitations of using video as part of
Homeland Security.
Homeland security
The use of digital video for surveillance is no doubt very
effective. The major challenge is the effective place-
ment of cameras at strategic locations to properly cover
a target area. For airports where passengers are fun-
neled into lines at security checkpoints and access
points, cameras can be placed to capture each and
every passenger, or at toll plazas to bridges and toll
roads, each passenger in each vehicle and their license
plate can be captured on video for processing.
In other target areas such as transit stations, and port
facilities a significant challenge can present itself. These
facilities typically have wide open multiple access
points where passengers and movements are more dis-
tributed and random as they enter and exit the facility.
Agencies must place numerous cameras to attempt to
capture a majority of the passenger’s faces for facial
recognition or to attain the proper fields of views and
viewing angles (i.e., typically a face must be turned
www.h3bmedia.com

Frames Resolution Encoding
per (CIF) Rate
second (Mbps)
15 4 1.50
30 4 2.00
15 4 1.5
30 4 2.00
30 4 2.00
towards a camera at least 35 degrees for a proper read-
ing of the up to 80 nodal points on a person’s face).
As more and more cameras as installed, the issue now
becomes that of properly staffing a command center for
both active monitoring and responding to alarm situa-
tions. This requires the video security and surveillance
system to be intuitive to the security personnel who will
use it.
Video encoding
Given the increased efficiency and use of encoding
techniques, including MPEG4 and MJPEG, high quality
video for surveillance is much more feasible to attain
than ever before. It is now very affordable to encode a
video stream at 30 frames per second with a full D1 (640
x 480) resolution. With the video streams in digital for-
mat, enforcement agencies are now able to process and
distribute the video information much more seamlessly
and with great accuracy and precision.
Video encoded using the MPEG4 standard requires
that all video information be sent to the viewer/decoder,
since delta or predicted frames are dependent on prior
frames. This is due to the compression technique utiliz-
ing key video frames as reference frames for predicting
future frames (also known as I frames).
If predicted frames are dropped or skipped due to
network issues, the video will appear corrupted (or
“pixelized”) until the next key frame arrives. To over-
come this issue, there are some surveillance systems
that automatically transcoding MPEG4 streams to MJPEG
during live viewing, since all frames using MJPEG are
key frames and thus losing any key frame will not affect
the video stream.
Video distribution and storage
With video streams encoded in a digital format (typi-
cally the stream is encoded and encapsulated within an
Internet Protocol - IP packet), it becomes much easier to
distribute the video to other parties and systems.
A video stream can be captured by multiple parties
simultaneously, processed separately for different
aspects and features (facial recognition and object
movement),and recorded by different systems if desired
so. A significant part of a video security system’s arse-
nal is its storage, processing and retrieval capabilities.
If one does the maths, the video storage for a single
camera can occupy as much as two-thirds of a terabyte
(650 gigabytes), or for 25 cameras, as much as 16.5 tera-
bytes (16,500 gigabytes). The table below provides a
brief summary of storage requirements for various con-
www.h3bmedia.com
Homeland Security
No of Days Storage
Cameras Recording Required
(terabytes)
1 30 0.49
1 30 0.65
25 30 12.15
25 30 48.60
100 30 64.80
figurations. With this much potential video “data”, it will
be essential to have a retrieval system that can search
the entire database or portions of it efficiently so as not
to waste valuable time and effort.
There have been many situations where security per-
sonnel have had to spend countless hours (as much as
40 hours to locate one scene) wading through video files
to gather specific video evidence without the use of an
effective video retrieval system. There are new video
retrieval systems that can search video files by type of
scene, type of alarm/event, or day/time.
Video authentication
Using encryption methods like hash authentication
(FIPS PUB 198) and other digital signatures, digital video
can be authenticated for prosecuting criminals. There
are some systems that record with one set of authentica-
tion techniques, and when the video is extracted to be
used as evidence, a second set of authentication rules
and processes are used for the video that is extracted.
Wireless networks
There are many wireless products that offer medium
bandwidth communications between two endpoints.
However, a growing concern amongst agencies respon-
sible for providing security and surveillance is the reli-
ability of these wireless links. There may be situations
where a wireless link can be down due to inclement
weather, power outages or a failed repeater site.
To overcome the potential situation of a downed wire-
less link, newer wireless systems are now offering mesh
topologies where access points act as repeaters with
other access points to form a fault tolerant wireless net-
work. In addition, with the freeing up of the licensed 4.9
GHz radio frequency for first responders and transit
agencies, the probability of interference with a wireless
transmission of significantly reduced compared with
the use of unlicensed radio spectrum (900 MHz, 2.4 GHz
and 5.8 GHz).
It should be noted that when designing a wireless sys-
tem for the transport of video, careful consideration
must be given to the total number of hops, or the number
of times a video signal has to be forwarded from one
access point to another access point. Each hop can add
in as much as 50 milliseconds of latency (delay) to a
video signal.
If several hops are needed to secure communications
to a target area, then the delays could become intolera-
ble, especially for security personnel wishing to track a
person or moving object in real-time. Thus, it is highly
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 55
Homeland Security
recommended to minimize the number of wireless hops
when designing a wireless system, preferably keeping
it to less than two hops total end-to-end, or to a wireline
access point.
Video analytics
If a system is performing video analytics using the live
video streams, producing high quality video with the
fewest amounts of dropped frames is essential. There
are numerous software systems being utilized to per-
form both simple and complex analytics anywhere from
tracking movements of people and objects (cars, trains,
boats) to facial recognition and determining whether
the image in a view is a human or an object.
Systems are now offering analytics that are applied to
the video stream at the point of capture (at or near the
camera). This is one way to avoid the need to send all
video to centralized servers for analysis.
The most common analytics include perimeter or area
detection (where an object enters, exits, or is moving
within a target area), facial recognition and object track-
ing (when an object is left behind or taken away from a
target area).
Camera preset views can be engaged when an event
occurs including an alarm sent to security personnel for
live confirmation of the event, or with the case of facial
recognition, the video analytics system is linked to a
database of photos of known criminals.
However, with the increased sensitivity of video ana-
56 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
lytics, so does the possibility of increased false posi-
tives, e.g., an object is detected to be left behind but in
fact it may be a permanently stationary object that was
mistakenly identified. These false positives combined
with the lack of confidence in the ability of the analytics
to identify different types of situations make the use of
analytics for incident detection less frequent for the dif-
ficult target areas.
Conclusion
Using IP-based video is much more effective and feasi-
ble for security and surveillance systems. From the per-
spectives of distribution, processing, storage and
retrieval, an IP-based video system provides more tools
for security personnel to conduct surveillance.
With the use of the licensed 4.9GHz spectrum and
wireless mesh networks, it is now more feasible than
ever to install surveillance cameras and communicate
with them in hard to reach target areas.
However, the use of video analytics for automated
real-time and on-demand detection of suspicious events
should be considered carefully. Requiring the video
system to perform too many complex tasks automati-
cally may actually result in more manual intervention
with security personnel spending more time confirm-
ing false positives.
Having an adequate number of security personnel
actively monitoring the surveillance cameras should be
considered in any security and surveillance system. TH
www.h3bmedia.com
DE:C9:H><C
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and network solutions for electronic toll collection,
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Personal
services
A business model for safety-oriented telematics that actually
works, as presented by YUKA GOMI, RICHARD WEILAND and
VALERIE SHUMAN
Telematics, the wireless provision of information
and services to a vehicle, has been used to encom-
pass everything from stolen vehicle tracking to
automatic crash notification to concierge services
to wireless mobile entertainment. In some of its
incarnations, such as fleet management, it has been
successful.
However, providers of consumer-facing telematics
have struggled to find a business model that is both
appealing to their customers and profitable. To under-
stand this situation better, let’s take a look at the range of
current offerings, think about why they aren’t working in
most contexts, and begin to formulate a new and more
promising business model for telematics.
Traditional services
“Traditional” vehicle telematics includes three kinds of
services, typically provided through monthly or annual
subscription:
12 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
• Vehicle Manufacturer-Centered Services. These
services are interactions between the vehicle manufac-
turer and the vehicle. More precisely, they are interac-
tions between a vehicle manufacturer computer system
and systems onboard the vehicle. Examples are remote
diagnostics, collection of anonymous data about vehicle
performance, support for customer relationship man-
agement, and the wireless management of the
in-vehicle software that is increasingly being used to
control basic vehicle functionality.
• Vehicle-Centered Services. Vehicle-centered
services help the vehicle and its driver operate more
safely and productively. Examples are automatic colli-
sion notification (ACN), remote door unlock, remote
activation of the horn and headlights to help locate a
vehicle in a parking lot, stolen vehicle tracking, and
probe data support for in-vehicle safety systems. While
a service provider is often involved and while some of
these services start with a telephoned request from the
www.h3bmedia.com

driver, the primary interaction is again with systems
onboard the vehicle.
• User-Centered Services. User-centered services
are the information and entertainment services that the
public most often associates with telematics, including
music download, email access, off-board navigation and
routing, emergency voice calls, and concierge serv-
ices.
While the user-centered applications have received
the most public attention, it is important to note that on
the whole, they really have nothing intrinsically to do
with the vehicle. In fact, consumers are increasingly
coming to expect the ability to access information and
entertainment services wherever they are. When the
inflexibility of having cellular phones built into vehicles
started to be recognized, the witty remark was “You
mean I have to sit in my car to make a phone call?”
Catching up with the current scene, the wits are now
asking “You mean I have to sit in my car to make a restau-
www.h3bmedia.com
Telematics
rant reservation?”
As a casual look around readily reveals, it is the new
generation of mobile phone (cum PDA, cum personal
media player) that is rapidly emerging as the primary
platform for personal portable applications, including
the applications that we are used to thinking of as user-
centered telematics.
Even navigation, now in the midst of migrating from
dashboards to portable devices, is likely to end up on a
near-future-generation phone. Some wireless carriers
are already offering a basic wireless navigation service.
Given sufficiently fast and cheap bandwidth, this has
some clear attractions.
The phone’s wireless capabilities can keep it in touch
with the latest version of the digital map and the latest
traffic information, with directions generated and trans-
mitted by a centralized service. And once navigation is
in your pocket instead of your dashboard, the field is
opened for delivering walking and cycling directions
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 13
Telematics

entertainment applications, a future phone will be able

Consumer Services Demand to link to the speakers for better sound, the LCD touch
screen for both better displays and easier inputs, the
80% microphone for voice commands, etc.
This kind of enhanced interface may eventually start
70% showing up in living rooms and offices as well, as the
phone-based application suite continues to expand. But
60% the applications, including the associated wireless con-
nectivity, will run on the phone, ready to continue pro-
% Requesting

50% viding the services wherever the user may go.

Information Services

Actual interaction
Stolen Vehicle Tracking

Remote Door Unlock

40%
In contrast, vehicle manufacturer-centered and vehicle-
Vehicle Diagnostics

centered services really do involve specific interaction

Safety & Security

30% with systems onboard the vehicle. Vehicle diagnostics

Communications

require a vehicle. Stolen vehicle tracking requires a

Entertainment

20% vehicle. What these services do not require is a sub-

scription.
10% The services are either so inexpensive to provide that
their lifetime cost can be readily built into the price of
0% even a mass market vehicle (e.g., ACN), or so infre-
Accenture Automotive Survey, 10 April 2006 quently needed that they can be charged as pay-per-
use (e.g., remote door unlock) or, they have the vehicle
manufacturer as their primary beneficiary (e.g., collec-
as well. tion of diagnostics and performance data), in which case
If the phone that handles the user-facing services hap- the owner should not be expected to pay for the service
pens to be in the vehicle, an appropriately equipped (and is likely to figure this out sooner rather than later).
vehicle can provide an enhanced user interface, for In the medium term at least, consumer-facing telemat-
example via Bluetooth. With a current Bluetooth-ena- ics services will continue to be offered by the manufac-
bled phone and car kit, you use the vehicle’s microphone turers of high-end vehicles to help nurture the
and speakers, but the call is still handled by the phone relationship with their vehicle’s purchasers and to pro-
in your pocket. Similarly, for other information and vide a very high level of personalized, manufacturer-

60 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com

 Telematics

Today’s Telematics Applications

Vehicle Manufacturer- Vehicle-Centered Services User-Centered Services

Centered Services

• Wireless diagnostics • Safety System Support • Information

• Data gathering • Automatic Crash Notification • Entertainment

• Customer relationship • Remote door unlock • Concierge services

management
•Remote horn/lights • Emergency calls
• Vehicle software configuration
management •Stolen vehicle tracking

branded services. But even these relatively price
insensitive customers do not appear to like telematics
subscriptions. We observe that the current approach of
the high-end manufacturers is to include several years
of user-centered telematics service in the purchase
price of the vehicle, and to offer some services (like
wireless traffic information) for the life of the vehicle
without any subscription charges.
For the mass market, however, a different kind of sub-
scription-free business model is needed, an important
part of which is to recognize that the
user-oriented applications that made
the subscriptions necessary are going
“The right focus for
to be provided via the user’s tele- telematics is on
phone, not through the vehicle. safety and other
A new approach to telematics services that are
The new mix of vehicle manufacturer-
oriented and vehicle-oriented serv-
inextricably linked
ices enables an entirely different to the vehicle”
approach to telematics. Freed from
having to rely on subscription revenue to deliver
telematics, vehicle manufacturers have the opportunity
to redesign their offerings to provide the safety and pro-
ductivity services that are genuinely inseparable from
the vehicle.
Let’s start by adopting a less fuzzy definition for
telematics: in the new vision, telematics is wireless-ena-
bled services provided by vehicle manufacturers to
help make their vehicles and their vehicles’ drivers
safer and more productive. Except for some high-end
vehicles, this implies an orientation toward vehicle
manufacturer-centered and vehicle-centered services.
The foundation of this approach is safety – an idea that
consumers consistently support.
Implications for wireless communications
Focusing first on delivering high-quality safety services
has important implications for wireless communications
in the vehicle. Safety as a vehicle-centered service
means that it is the vehicle that’s communicating with
land-based systems, not the driver. Take crash notifica-
tion as an example.
The first line of notification is still telephone calls:
emergency calls to 911 (North America) or 112 (Europe).
These can come from driver and passenger phones, ini-
tiated either manually or via a Bluetooth trigger from a
crash sensing system. However, these emergency calls
are not telematics – they’re emergency telephone calls,
and like all emergency telephone calls they are required
to include the location of the call.
The responsibility of the in-vehicle
telematics system is to send a data
message to a land-based center,
totally independent of the emergency
phone calls, providing as much infor-
mation about the crash, the vehicle,
and the occupants as vehicle sensors
are able to convey.
Indeed, throughout the suite of vehi-
cle manufacturer-centered and vehi-
cle-center services, there is not a
single service which requires a voice interaction. This is
a great advantage. It lets the telematics radio embed-
ded in the vehicle be data-only, allowing it to be a device
that is cheaper, more robust, and more likely to get a
message through in fringe coverage areas than a wire-
less telephone.
In addition, separating user-centered services out of
telematics means that the data-only telematics radio
can be securely embedded inside the firewall, with no
requirement for user interface. No user interface means
relatively cheap hardware. In addition, having the radio
inside the firewall is particularly important when, in the
medium term, vehicles will be ready to accept, from
trusted sources, road hazard information that may result
in a steering or braking intervention to avoid a crash.
Cost to consumers
Reducing costs for technology and communications
drives the most important aspect of the new model – the
cost to the consumer. Today, telematics subscription

www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 61

Telematics
New Safety Telematics Model
Vehicle Manufacturer-
Centered Services
Vehicle Manufacturer
•Wireless diagnostics
• Lower costs
• Data gathering
▼
• Better vehicles
• Customer relationship
• Lifetime CRM
management
• Larger market
• Vehicle software
configuration
management
fees are significant, typically ranging from US$200-400
a year. While many people do choose to pay these fees,
many more do not. And in a telematics environment
operated on subscription, when the subscription lapses,
so do the safety services.
So consider a different model in which:
• ACN is provided for the service life of the vehicle
through a modest up-front charge (around US$50-$100)
built into the purchase price of the vehicle;
• Remote door unlock, remote horn/lights, and stolen
vehicle tracking are pay-per-use with fees ranging from
US$15-50 per incident;
• Vehicle manufacturer-oriented applications are
paid for by their primary beneficiary, the vehicle
manufacturer .
Probably the most surprising of these numbers is the
ACN cost, so consider: industry estimates are that less
than one-half percent of all vehicles are involved in an
airbag-deploying incident in any year. If the cost of han-
dling one ACN data message was US$100 (in our view a
wildly high estimate), then the average cost per vehicle
would be about 50¢ per year!
The clear conclusion is that when user-oriented serv-
ices are separated out of telematics, the basic vehicle-
manufacturer-oriented and vehicle-oriented services
can be provided, for the service life of the vehicle, with-
out any subscription fees.
Probably the most important consequence is that the
safety capabilities are available not only to the relatively
affluent purchasers of new vehicles, but to all subse-
quent owners as well, including the college sophomore
buying his or her first, already-well-used car.
Details
Making this model work involves some important con-
siderations, which we touch on briefly here, leaving the
details for subsequent articles.
One consideration is that if the new telematics is going
to work for the service life of the vehicles, the embed-
ded communications device also has to work for the
62 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
Vehicle-Centered
Services
Consumer
• Safety support syste,m
• Safety
• Automatic crash
▼
• Convenience
notification
• Better vehicle
• Remote door unlock
• Lower price
•Remote horn/lights
• Stolen vehicle tracking
service life of the vehicle.
Communications devices do break, although they do
not break very often. (When was the last time you had to
take your car radio to be repaired?) An equipment fail-
ure, in the rare case it occurs, requires a repair. However,
a much more significant issue is the rate at which wire-
less technology is evolving, especially wireless data
transmission.
These days, vehicles last an average of 12 years, many
of them far longer. This represents several generations
of wireless data communications technology, and the
device risks becoming incommunicado by becoming
obsolete far more probably than by breaking.
As long as the wireless carriers are prepared to han-
dle the aging protocols, the land-based systems that
receive them can be backward compatible. But if the
wireless pipe goes away (as analog cellular is about to
do), both the vehicle and the land-based systems are
potentially out of luck.
One approach to dealing with this situation is the use
of software-reconfigurable radios that can adapt to new
communications environments. Such devices are cur-
rently being energetically explored in standards organ-
izations and government spectrum agencies.
Variability
The second consideration is more complex. It would be
nice if the messages a vehicle sends, particular safety-
intensive messages (like ACN, could go directly to their
final intended recipient (in this particular case a public
safety answering point (PSAP), the people who answer
911/112 calls).
If would be nice if vehicles could send one another
safety messages when one of them discovers a potential
road hazard that other vehicles should know about.
Evolving in an evolutionary way
However,vehicle sensors are going to continue to evolve,
and the messages that will start getting sent in a few
years are going to be very different from the messages
www.h3bmedia.com

that vehicles will be able to send five (or 10) years later.
Variations will arise from manufacturer to manufac-
turer and model to model, as well as from year to year. It
is unreasonable to expect every PSAP to be able to keep
up to date with potentially hundreds of new ACN mes-
sage variants arising each year. It is probably impossi-
ble for vehicles to be able to remain reliably forward
and backward compatible with all of the other vehicles
on the road.
Standards come to mind, but speak-
ing as enthusiastic supporters and
developers of ITS standards, we sug- “The basic services
gest that this is not the place to create can be provided,
them. Message content and format
standards in this area will lock future for the service life
communications into the lowest com- of the vehicle,
mon denominator of the time at which
the standard was created, making without any
years of future technological progress subscription fees”
inaccessible.
For the foreseeable future, this
argues strongly for the creation of a utility, most sensibly
a single utility, overseen by vehicle manufacturers that
can act as the intermediary for the data messages
traveling to and from all vehicles. Such a utility would be
a central, land-based server-router whose job is to
understand all the message variations and to put them
into a form that their intended recipients can use.
Traveler Information Systems are moving!
SpeedInfo is an immediate and tested solution
for improving real-time traffic data.
SpeedInfo technology provides an immediate,
easy to install and low cost solution to improve
the accuracy, reliability and coverage of traffic
flow for any metro highway, arterial or rural
roadway.
Using existing wireless infrastructure and
simple Doppler radar to measure average
traffic speed, SpeedInfo solutions can fill
coverage gaps at the rate of 40 miles per day,
and provide data measured every minute, 24x7.
Enabling agencies to improve financial
efficiency for traveler information systems, and
improve data quality and reliability to
commercial levels, literally in a matter of days.
Telematics
Conclusions
Current telematics approaches have not provided a suc-
cessful value proposition for the mass market for many
vehicle manufacturers. The lessons learned from these
efforts strongly suggest that the right focus for telemat-
ics is solely on safety and other services that are inextri-
cably linked to the vehicle and which benefit both
vehicle manufacturers and their customers.
Such an orientation opens the possibility of a techni-
cal solution based on data-only mes-
saging supported by a land-side
communications utility. This technical
approach in turn enables a new and
workable subscription-less business
model in which vehicle owners/driv-
ers pay a modest one-time charge for
connectivity and ACN, and per-use
fees for other, one-off services.
A primary benefit of this approach
is that safety services, like ACN,
remain available for the service life of
the vehicle, and not only as long as subscription fees are
paid. TH
Yuka Gomi is President, Rick Weiland Senior Vice
President and Chief Strategy Officer and
Valerie Shuman is Director, Corporate Strategy
at Ygomi LLC, based in Oak Brook, Illinois
SpeedInfo
100 Park Center Plaza, Suite 590
San Jose, CA 95113
USA
Phone: +1-408-446-7660 xt 102
Direct: +1-408-333-9960
Fax: +1-408-289-9171
email: carmiger@speedinfo.com
website: www.speedinfo.com
Brazil’s efforts are being closely followed by countries with big fuel bills.
India and China have sent a parade of top officials to see Brazil’s programme
Cane and able
After spending three decades and billions of dollars
developing it, has Brazil engineered the most viable
alternative to oil yet? JAMES JOSEPH wonders if ethanol
can ever break oil’s stranglehold
Alternative Fuel
“It should not take another 30 years.” So sums
up an alternative fuels expert at the news that
the world has belatedly discovered that Brazil,
after 30 years of technological breakthroughs
and at enormous cost, has converted a world-
plentiful, renewable resource, sugar cane, into
a practical engine fuel, freeing itself from
dependency on imported oil.
Currently, some 40 per cent of Brazilian vehicles,
including diesel engines and even some commercial
aircraft, run on sugar cane ethanol, a clear, clean-
burning, rum-derived alcohol.
More than 80 per cent of new vehicles sold in Brazil are,
at no extra cost, certified “flex-fuellable”, or able to burn
gasoline (which in Brazil, must contain 25 per cent etha-
nol) or 100 per cent ethanol, both available in side-by-
side pumps throughout the country. For Brazil - as for the
world, predict many experts - sugar cane ethanol is
“freedom fuel,” the first biofuel capable of breaking oil’s
stranglehold.
Understandably, those who procure vehicles for street
and highway operations are increasingly specifying the
flex-fuellable, whose minimal factory tinkering gener-
ally involves only fuel system-upgrading against etha-
nol’s somewhat more corrosive nature and water content.
While some vehicle makers charge a small premium
(roughly, US$100-300) for the flex-fuelled, General
Motors gives Brazilian buyers a choice - flex-fuelled or
standard - at no extra cost. Ford and GM are expected to
build a total 680,000 flex-fuel vehicles this year.
What, then, are the realities and promise of ethanol,
from any of a number of possible sources, compared to
other projected alternatives such as hydrogen, and
against the predicted ever-decreasing availability at
ever-increasing cost of petroleum-derived fuels. Ques-
tions like these will affect the very existence of world
highways and their vehicles in a surprisingly close-at-
hand “future.”
Oil’s obituary?
One doomsday scenario predicts that oil reserves will
peak within the next two decades and that when the
world’s new big users China and India come online, we
will run out of readily obtainable (and affordable) oil
within a scant five decades.
A landmark, five-year study of world crude oil and nat-
ural gas reserves by the United States Geological Survey
(USGS), released in April 2000, sets a 2 per cent annual
demand growth through 2020, peaking between 2037-
2047 at an annual demand volume of 53.2 billion barrels.
From then - but only some 40 years ahead - the fall-off of
available and/or affordable oil is dramatic to 2100-2125
when, predicts the USGS study, the world will run out of
usable oil unless equally dramatic new sources or tech-
nologies are developed. The USGS’s true “doomsday”
period is 2050-2070, when production will be only 20 bil-
lion barrels a year, about one-third of predicted peak
world demand. It is during these shortage years when
some predict oil will cost US$100 or more a barrel.
Already the world’s once-believed all-but inexhaustible
oil reserves are plainly running out.
18 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
The world’s two largest fields - Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar
and Mexico’s Cantarell - are on the decline. Cantarell
production is predicted to plummet by 10 per cent or
more a year, a decline not likely to be bolstered by newly
discovered Noxal, a deep water but unproven field not
expected to become productive for at least a decade.
Alternatives and their parameters
Readers are doubtless well aware of oil’s projected alter-
natives: hydrogen, biomass, ethanol, methanol, plug-in
electricity, liquid coal, organic wastes and various com-
pressed or liquefied natural gases.
None precisely meets the strict criteria for an alterna-
tive to petroleum: an operationally priced and pump-
available vehicular fuel able to perform efficiently in
today’s gasoline and/or diesel engines, delivering sub-
stantial mileage with minimum/acceptable contamina-
tion of the atmosphere or contribution to global warming.
And, ideally, these would come from a renewable, natu-
ral source.
Almost all of these alternatives are currently under test
or development or in actual limited use - as CNG is fuel-
ling many city buses and even store-bought vegetable
oil is capable of fuelling some reinvigorated small vehic-
ular diesel engines.
While it may be patently unfair to dismiss any or all of
the projected hydrocarbon alternatives in a few sen-
tences, when it comes to the above criteria, a sentence or
two will usually do, barring unforeseen major techno-
logical breakthroughs.
Hydrogen
Generally derived from depleting hydrocarbons - from
natural gas, coal and petroleum. Not a promising alter-
native until massive and cheap nuclear power manages
through electrolysis of water (H2O) to produce prodi-
gious amounts of low-cost hydrogen. Despite obvious
negatives, General Motors is all but staking its future on
the development at a cost of billions of hydrogen-fueled
vehicles. In 2005 President Bush promised to invest
US$1.7 billion over the next five years on development of
hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles.
Methanol
Widely used as a race car fuel. Today mostly made from
natural gas, but also from plentiful coal. Considered only
a “niche” alternative, due in part to considerable green-
house gases released in the coal-to-methanol conver-
sion and its dangerous toxicity. Even a small amount
accidentally swallowed can cause blindness, nerve dam-
age or even death.
Plug-in electricity
Powering battery-engined vehicles, plug-in power
depends on a new world family of vehicles, the availabil-
ity of plug-in places and the fact that some electricity is
derived from hydrocarbons.
Biomass
Virtually any usually cellulose naturally grown “crops”
are convertible to ethanol or a similar fuel. In April 2005,
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 Alternative Fuel

the Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge same hectare produces nearly 6,000 liters of ethanol
National Laboratory, issued a 60 page report, funded by and ethanol yield is annually growing by about 3.5 per
the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture, pre- cent.
dicting that by mid-century the US could annually pro-
duce more than 1 billion tons of biomass - from sources The appliance of science
ranging from forest products, switchgrass and crop resi- The Wall Street Journal was suitably impressed by Bra-
due to animal manure - enough to supply 30 per cent or zil’s eforts: “While other countries were busy mapping
more of the U.S.’s annual petroleum needs. the human genome, Brazilian scientists were decoding
However, the report makes scant mention of conver- the DNA of sugar cane.” Currently, some 5.5 million hec-
sion-to-fuel costs nor, oddly, of sugar cane, grown in the tares grow sugar cane, 85 per cent of it (as a near-like
U.S., and Brazil’s ethanol staple, as one possible biomass percentage of ethanol) produced in the country’s center-
source. Asked “why not?” by Thinking Highways, one of south region, dominated by the state of Sao Paulo.
the report’s authors replied, “Well, we were funded by By contrast, more than 50 times more land (300 million
the Departments of Energy and Agriculture, and ulti- hectares) is devoted to livestock pasture. These con-
mately by the US Congress, which wanted the study to trasts, and lessening need for pasturage through tech-
cover readily available US biomass stocks,sugar cane nology advances, explain why Brazilian experts say that
not being one of them.” an additional 100 million hectares of former pasture
lands could be planted to cane without deforestation or
Biodiesel soil degradation.
A promising diesel fuel from a variety of alternates, as By 2014, Brazil expects to double its current cane-
soyabeans, animal fat and cooking oil but tallow in some based ethanol production to 31 billion liters.
biodiesels hardens in cold climates. Unlike many alternate fuel processes elsewhere, Bra-
zil’s ethanol is produced at no electrical cost. Rather, the
You’ve seen the rest… cellulosic stalks of sugar cane, called bagasse, are burnt
Ethanol is clearly the leading alternative to oil. And to produce not only all the conversion power Brazil’s
here’s why. Ethanol is produced worldwide from a vari-
ety of lesser-than-sugar-content agri-products, as sugar
beets, cassavas, rapeseeds, wheat and similar others.
But the cost of conversion to usable fuel is often high.
The US, on a corn-to-ethanol binge, will by 2012 nearly
double its annual ethanol production, mostly from corn,
to 28.39 billion litres (7.5 billion gallons).
The cost of conversion, even for the highly (54 cents a
gallon) US-subsidized process requires more energy
than corn ethanol’s energy output: by some estimates,
34,610 Btus to produce a corn-liter of ethanol with an
energy output of only 20,340 Btus. Some now claim that
the sale of fermented corn would even the conversion
costs.
Despite some of ethanol-from-sugar-cane drawbacks
(the fuel produces a quarter to one third less power than
gasoline so more must be burnt for equal mileage; in
colder climes, starting engines fueled with 100 per cent
ethanol is difficult so in those regions 85 per cent etha-
nol and 15 per cent gasoline is the preferred mix) Brazil
has, during its 30-year road to ethanol, solved many
problems which might ordinarily cast doubt on sugar
cane’s challenge to hydrocarbons.
Certainly ethanol’s ace is its ability to fuel existing
vehicular engines, unlike the vast engineering chal-
lenges that lie ahead, among them fuel cells and electric
motors, to enable use of many of the other alternatives.
Still, Brazil’s most formidable trump card is technol-
ogy. At its unique, sugar grower-funded science centre,
Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira in the heart of the
sugar country, scientists decoded the DNA of sugar
cane, leading to varieties more resistant to drought and
pests, and vastly increasing yield.
In 1975, at the launch of its sugar cane ethanol cam-
paign, it managed to squeeze 2,000 liters, or about 520 Brazil’s most formidable trump card is technology. This is a
gallons, of ethanol from a hectare (2.5 acres). Today, the sugar cane fermentor

Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 67

Alternative Fuel
some 330 cane-to-ethanol mills require, but a surplus
sold to local utilities. A medium-size mill, processing 1m
tons of sugar cane a year, sells about 15 per cent of its
bagasse-produced power, reaping a bonus US$1m. New
electrical technology should significantly up the elec-
tric surplus output.
Recently, Brazil announced plans for 92 new cane mills
at a cost of US$10 billion.
Fuelling the debate
Statistically, sugar cane ethanol is a “green fuel” produc-
ing 57 per cent less carbon monoxide, 74 per cent fewer
hydrocarbons and 13 per cent less nitrogen oxides than
fossil fuels. It is also a price-competitive fuel, as must be
any serious petroleum alternative.
By World Bank estimates, Brazil can produce a gallon
of ethanol for about US$1 (about 27 cents a liter), but only
80 cents a gallon for Brazil’s most technologically
advanced and most efficient producers, against an inter-
national gasoline gallon price of about US$1.50. Produc-
tion costs for ethanol produced from corn, as in the U.S.,
are at least 30 per cent higher than Brazilian cane-etha-
nol, reports the U.S. Department of
Energy. One reason: an extra produc-
tion step is required. Corn’s starch “Recently, Brazil
must first be turned to sugar before it announced plans
can be distilled into alcohol.
But developing technologies can for 92 new sugar
turn marginal ethanol sources into cane mills at a cost
potentially big-time players. For
example, in 2004 Iogen Corporation, of US$10 billion”
a Canadian enzyme manufacturer
with its partner The Royal Dutch/Shell Group, became
the world’s first to turn the cellulose in straw into etha-
nol.
The trick was to use genetically engineered enzymes
to change straw’s cellulose to fermentable glucose.
Iogen’s demonstration plant can produce up to 3m liters
of cellulose ethanol per year and hopes to have ‘shovel in
the ground’ for a commercial scale facility by summer
2007.
By 2008, with a larger, more advanced facility, Iogen
hopes annually to produce 200,000 tons of straw-derived
ethanol at a cost of about US$1.30 a gallon. Even so, esca-
lating oil prices can quickly alter the equation. In June
2006 when the price of a barrel of oil averaged US$65, it
cost US$2.20 to produce a gallon of gasoline - about
US$1.56 for the oil, 64 cents for refining costs.
At the same time, Brazil was selling a barrel of cane-
ethanol for US$25, less than half the cost of crude oil. But
even figures such as those can be elusive, as Brazil dis-
covered during its fledgling attempt to break its imported
oil dependency.
Oiling the mechanism
As international prices dramatically rose during the
1973 Middle East war, oil accounted for half of Brazil’s
total imports, up from 10 per cent. The country slid into
recession, as 40 per cent of its foreign exchange income
was spent on imported oil. Brazil’s then military govern-
ment acted, decreeing a state-run sugar cane to ethanol
68 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
program, massive research, subsidies to growers and
processors guaranteed prices for ethanol, tax breaks to
companies producing flex-fuel vehicles and decreed a
starting level of 10 per cent ethanol mix with gasoline.
Perhaps most importantly (erasing a distribution prob-
lem envisaged by many other countries), it ordered Bra-
zil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras to make ethanol
available at its far-flung filling stations. Today, some
29,000 service stations, including those of major oil com-
panies, serve ethanol along with gasoline.
Between 1979 and the mid-1990s Brazil spent an esti-
mated US$16 billion on loans to sugar companies and on
price supports. In 1986, as drivers grew fond of lower
cost, high-performing ethanol, the bottom fell out of the
market. Just as Brazil’s new government drastically cut
back on price supports, international oil prices plunged.
Brazil’s romance with ethanol withered at a time before
its advanced research was able to match oil’s lower pric-
ing. Today, Brazil’s ethanol industry is deregulated and
unsubsidized. Despite the setback, researchers contin-
ued their goal toward high-producing cane (they stud-
ied some 140 often new varieties),cost-cutting production
and devices fitting existing engines to
ethanol fueling. Brazil and future pro-
ducers of ethanol can probably rightly
proclaim that whatever petroleum’s
pricing, they can produce and sell eth-
anol for significantly less. Declares an
ethanol mill owner: “We can produce
ethanol for far less than oil, whatever
oil’s price.”
Bio basics - land ahoy?
Currently, some 100 nations produce sugar cane con-
trasted to 46 petroleum producers. Even so, the sizable
question is whether these sugar cane growing regions -
especially Central and South America, Australia and
South-East Asia and much of Africa - can grow enough
(or any other renewable biofuel) or have land enough to
replace petroleum, and especially before oil’s predicted
peaking and gradual decline.
“Without Brazil’s knowledge lead,” concedes one
insider, “it is doubtful whether world-renewable biofuel,
especially from sugar cane, could take on oil and out-
produce it, barrel for barrel. And at significantly lower
cost. Can that happen within 30 years?” he asks. “I think
the world - and highway people - can count on it.” TH
www.h3bmedia.com

Developing technologies can turn marginal ethanol
sources into potentially big-time players
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY by James Joseph
The world’s press has been quick to jump on the ethanol-powered bandwagon. Here’s a selection of quotes from around the globe.
Proof, if proof were needed, that ethanol is now considered the most viable alternative to oil, and not just in Brazil
Dow Jones
“Brazil’s No. 1 sugar and ethanol equipment manufacturer, Dedini
SA Industrias de Base, has launched a new process, jointly
developed with Germany’s Siemens AG, for the more efficient
distillation of hydrous ethanol. Dedini, (among) the first to offer
Brazilian sugar and ethanol integrated mills, has also formed a joint
venture with the German automation company Proleit AG (to
produce the systems).”
Al-Jazeera Network
“Thirteen of Africa’s poorest nations have joined forces to
become global suppliers of biofuels, produced from organic
material or plant oils. In a meeting in Senegal, they formed the
African Non-Petroleum Producers Association (PANPP). Africa
produces a range of crops that could be used to make biofuel,
including sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava. All
can be used to make ethanol. Also peanut oil can run diesel
engines.
Hawaii/TV station KGMB
“Three of the state’s largest landowners - who together own
roughly 10 per cent of the state’s land - have formed a new
company to produce ethanol from various sources,including
sugar cane and pineapple. David Cole, who heads Maui Land and
Pineapple, says the group will study the feasibility of building an
ethanol-processing plant in Hawaii.”
www.h3bmedia.com
Alternative Fuel
Jamaica Observer Reporter (Jamaica is among the world’s
100 or so sugar cane producing nations)
“(This country’s) sugar expert is currently in Brazil discussing the
prospects of setting up a second ethanol plant in Jamaica.”
African News Dimension
“Nigeria has established an ethanol programme - expected to
augment the nation’s inadequate crude oil refining capacity, The
programme is targeted to produce 100m litres of ethanol
annually, requiring at least 80,000 metric tonnes of sugar cane.”
Los Angeles Times
“In Colombia, ethanol’s future is now. Since November, motorists
in three large cities - Cali, Bogota and Popayan - have been
required by law to fill their tanks with at least 10 per cent ethanol.
Over time the list of cities and the share of ethanol will increase
as the country seeks to reduce its dependence on oil.”
On Line Opinion/The Brisbane Institute
“Not all countries can produce ethanol from sugar cane as
cheaply as Brazil. But many are close - including Australia, India
and many tropical countries in Africa. For the latter, a little dose of
technological assistance from the developed world would create
an ‘ethanol zone’ covering Brazil and Central America, India and
South-East Asia and Africa, that is every bit as productive of liquid
fuel as the Middle East is productive of oil today.”
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 69
T-Focus
Using new technology and a different approach to ITS, data
management for road networks moves to where it belongs:
in the Information Technology age, as CHARLIE ARMIGER
explains
In urban areas and on surrounding roadways there
are three facts of life: there will be traffic, there will
be incidents and, as a result, there will be
congestion.
Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area is no
exception. In fact, it is fast becoming the rule. Traffic
congestion on Bay Area freeways increased in 2005 for
the first time since 2000, according to the latest conges-
tion-monitoring data released by the region’s Metropol-
itan Transportation Commission and Caltrans District 4.
Backing up this data is Texas Transportation Institute’s
2005 Urban Mobility Study that ranked the San Francisco
Bay Area congestion as the worst in the USA after Los
Angeles.
Bijan Sartipi, Caltrans District 4 director and MTC
commissioner, pointed out that in light of this reversal in
congestion relief “we need to manage our regional sys-
tem with more efficiency through intelligent transporta-
tion system (ITS) strategies.”
These ITS improvements include ramp metering,
changeable message signs with accurate travel times,
FasTrak carpooling and transit interconnectivity, as well
as mechanisms such as the 511 traveler information
system that helps the public make informed travel
decisions.
Sensors working overtime
Heeding Sartipi’s advice SpeedInfo, an enterprising
young company, has deployed more than 300 traffic sen-
sors in the region and by doing so, has helped the Bay
Area take a giant step to abate its congestion issue. The
San Jose-based company is delivering dependable traf-
fic flow data by partnering with Caltrans and the San
Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission to
augment its existing inductive loop and other data gath-
ering equipment.
This hybrid, real-time traffic solution is made possible
by the company’s patented, and low cost portable radar
70 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
device that now covers over 1000 miles of limited access
highways and arterials in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The deployment provides near-blanket coverage of
existing gaps in loop detector data as well as providing
for some overlap in large congestion areas.
SpeedInfo CEO Doug Finlay spearheaded the con-
cept of an easy-to-deploy, reliable, low-cost solution for
speed detection and takes pride in a relationship that
brought the public and private sectors together to solve
a pressing problem.
“This is an example of how public agencies can work
more effectively with private industry to assess existing
technology and budgets and fund a new hybrid traffic
flow sensor and data model,” he says.
Mix and match
The Bay Area is certainly a start, but SpeedInfo sees a
bigger picture. While the company admits that it’s an
emerging concept, this hybrid sensor network would
consist of a mix of loop detectors, VOC side-mounted
radars and average-speed radar detectors. Each device
would be deployed where its individual functionality
provided the best solution for the overall data collection
requirement. A hybrid model could redirect existing
budget expenditures to technologies that require no
disruption to the road surface or to traffic flow.
Finlay claims this revolutionary concept is changing
the way transportation agencies view data collection
models without stretching their budgets. “The hybrid
model and new technology will allow for greater road
coverage which, in turn, will empower the traveler infor-
mation systems with more comprehensive coverage
and high-quality speed data,” he explains.
The hybrid model may be a new way of thinking about
real-time traffic flow. It at least breaks the chains of exist-
ing technology solutions and expands the focus of traf-
fic engineering. SppedInfo provides an example of the
portability of its traffic speed devices that would enable
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 Homeland Security

Exception
proves the
rule
www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 13
T-Focus
construction zone monitoring where destruction of
existing loop detectors could create a blind spot for traf-
fic management centers.
This new paradigm can lead traffic engineers to make
more informed decisions about signal timing patterns
and flow management with improved data. In turn, that
data may be accessed in virtual real time through exist-
ing or timely sensor deployments that will provide more
time for evaluating design alternatives. The added time
can result in millions of dollars in project cost savings,
reduced future costs and more robust and efficient
designs.
“Our business goal was to develop a statewide deploy-
ment utilizing the lowest cost method to collect and dis-
tribute real-time traffic flow data for emerging consumer
markets,” Finlay says. “As our solution progressed, it
became clear that the market for accurate, timely and
reliable real-time traffic flow data was still in its early
days, but speed data availability is providing new
approaches for traffic engineering.”
Supply and high demand
As traffic information moves into the car or mobile
phones, delayed and/or incorrect information derived
from old sensor technologies is insufficient to supply
comprehensive coverage, and inadequate to meet the
high degree of data quality demanded by the commer-
cial markets, and public traveler information systems.
Currently, private traffic aggregators have relied on the
state Department of Transportation to provide public
traffic flow data originally derived for internal use only.
Some have tried incorporating additional data from
GPS-equipped trucking fleets and other private sen-
sors to provide more data for predicting flow and
72 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
This hybrid sensor network
would consist of a mix of
loop detectors, VOC
side-mounted radars and
average-speed radar
detectors
improving accuracy.
SpeedInfo is one of the companies that are leading a
charge to change the way we think in terms of traffic
data collection and engineering. One of the lessons
learned is the knowledge that new technologies can
help metropolitan areas, regions and MOTs/DOTs by
providing accurate, real-time data, while containing
costs. With disruptive prices and new speed sensor
technology, new techniques are available to open up the
possibilities for public agencies to select a business
model with private industry and a combination of tech-
nologies that maximize public benefits – and more
directly ties costs to benefits.
Adopting a hybrid data model can divert the market
pressure requirements of a commercial business to pri-
vate industry and leave one less concern for a public
entity. The immediate benefit is focusing government
funds to improve mobility and traffic operations. The
ultimate outcome is an efficient and effective deploy-
ment of resources that maximize the benefits to the pub-
lic by improving efficiency and information. With the
potential for improved financial efficiency and improved
data quality, the hybrid model will become more than
an exception. It will become the rule. TH
Charlie Armiger is Vice President of SpeedInfo, a
leading innovator of real-time traffic data networks. Its
network systems are designed to augment exiting public
traffic sensor infrastructure to improve accuracy, and
provide a geographical region or metropolitan area with
more comprehensive traffic speed coverage.
Founded in 2002, SpeedInfo is headquartered in
San Jose, California. The author can be contacted via
email at carmiger@speedinfo.com or by calling
+1 408 333 9960.
www.h3bmedia.com
When good
enough isn’t
good enough
JOHN KASIK on how the HOT Shot is set to revolutionise
HOV and HOT Lanes
The intent of road user charges, taxes or tolls, is to
allocate these funds in ways that ultimately benefit
the road user. However, these funds are often
diverted to public transportation initiatives although
mass transportation utilization is progressively
decreasing.
State and local highways suffer because funds are not
always available or allocated to improve road condi-
tions, throughput capacity, and the expansion of our
highway systems. As we watch our national highway
infrastructure deteriorate in many areas, traffic conges-
tion continues to increase with the expected rise in pop-
ulation.
In the early 1990s, High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)
lanes were implemented on a wide scale across the
United States.The intent of this concept was noble. Divert
daily commuters who carpool to dedicated lanes for a
faster trip. Unfortunately, the concept did not catch on
and enforcement was difficult and costly. Beating the
system became the norm and personal independence
and comfort took precedence over the car pool
approach. If the concept had caught on in full-force,
those dedicated HOV lanes might eventually have
become just as congested as the non-HOV lanes.
A particularly HOT topic
Federal and State transportation authorities and private
sector concessionaires are now embracing the concept
of High Occupancy Tolling (HOT) lanes, where single-
occupant vehicle users are charged a variable toll to uti-
lize dedicated and less congested lanes based on time
of day and distance traveled. For single occupant vehi-
cles, users pay a premium to use the faster lane. For
multi-occupant vehicles, users pay a reduced toll or no
toll, depending on the road program.
Vehicle occupancy enforcement of HOT lanes by
means of advanced technologies is currently the hot
74 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways
topic in the industry. Dallas-based EFKON USA has
developed a fail-safe solution known as HOT Shot™
(patent-pending) that will make HOT lanes easily
enforceable and truly interoperable with various types
of system infrastructure. The technology provides pre-
cise individual identification and vehicle occupant
count through the use of a transponder and registered
contactless Smart Card. The technology also serves as a
platform for the advancement of robust technologies
that will define the roadway networks of the future.
Tolling agencies and transportation authorities need
a fool-proof means of identifying and recording the
number of occupants inside vehicles traveling on HOT
lanes so they can charge tolls accordingly. The HOT Shot
transponder identifies and records the number of occu-
pants in the vehicle with flawless accuracy.
The heat is on
HOT Shot differs from other technologies being intro-
duced for High Occupancy Tolling in that it does not uti-
lize photos or video images of the occupants, which are
subject to a image quality, time of day, weather condi-
tions, false positives, and unidentifiable objects in vehi-
cles that are presumed to be passengers. HOT Shot does
not rely on thermal detection to determine vehicle occu-
pancy which may not always be reliable because driv-
ers often travel with pets or other heat generating items
that cannot be used as evidence in violation processing
enforcement.
HOT Shot also addresses recent speculation that link-
ing occupancy count to airbag seat pressure sensors is
not an accurate means of determining occupancy
because drivers often have packages and other heavy
objects on seats in their vehicle. Moreover, not all vehi-
cles have pressure sensors that trigger the functionality
of airbags, which disqualifies this approach as a univer-
sal method of HOT enforcement. HOT Shot virtually
www.h3bmedia.com

eliminates reliance on the honor system to determine
vehicle occupancy.
The HOT Shot solution is a small in-vehicle on-board
unit and a contactless Smart Card that verifies the iden-
tity of each occupant through pre-registered biometric
identification information. The Smart Card stores per-
sonal identification information, including a fingerprint.
Two wireless technologies, coupled in the HOT Shot, are
used to transmit the necessary information to the road-
side equipment. These technologies are adapted to
typical wireless communications already in place at
existing toll facilities and infrastructure. Infrared (IR)
communication has the necessary bandwidth to accom-
modate the amount of information that is transmitted to
roadside infrastructure.
Interoperability...
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is also incorpo-
rated into the device so that it is easily integrated with
transponder-based toll systems throughout North
America. Multiple protocols will soon be available such
that the HOT Shot can be integrated into virtually any
existing facility, and programmed to meet the require-
ments of future electronic toll systems. The system
approach demonstrates EFKON’s philosophy of optimiz-
ing open architecture and national interoperability.
Upon registering the Smart Card, an individual sup-
plies a fingerprint scan and personal information
according to the business rules of the specific toll
agency or road authority. Personal information and the
fingerprint scan are stored on the card and used as a
fool-proof means of identifying the individual. Should
the driver choose to utilize an HOT lane, the driver, or
with multiple passengers, removes the HOT Shot from
the windshield-mounted clip and touches his Contact-
less Smart Card to the face of the unit. The Smart Card
transfers user information and fingerprint scan to the
flash memory in the transponder.
The LCD screen prompts the user to provide a finger-
print by swiping a finger on a small scanner that reads a
multiple-point map of the fingerprint. The fingerprint
scan stored on the flash memory is then compared to the
real-time scan of the driver’s finger, and the biometric
identification is validated. The LCD screen communi-
www.h3bmedia.com
T-Focus
cates the validity of the user’s identity and if valid, HOT
Shot stores the appropriate information. The individu-
al’s account identifier is stored in flash memory which
links to a credit card, bank, pre-paid or post-paid
account. In addition to the account identifier, HOT Shot
initiates a vehicle occupancy count.
Any existing back-end accounting structure can be
accommodated and integrated with EFKON’s payment
software to meet individual authority requirements. The
system does not require a full software replacement.
EFKON can adapt to any payment scheme and will pro-
vide a full back-end payment solution if desired by the
toll agency.
After the driver registers with HOT Shot, the trans-
ponder is handed to other passengers, who also regis-
ter. Upon validation, the flash memory stores the
associated account identifier of the passenger and
increases the occupant count by one unit. In this sce-
nario, HOT Shot™ has stored, on its internal memory, the
total occupant count in the vehicle along with all account
identifiers. When the vehicle enters an HOV lane, the
transponder communicates with roadside equipment.
Using IR wireless communication technology, the
number of occupants is transmitted along with their
account identifiers and the appropriate toll is charged
to the user’s account.
Toll agencies are free to build any fee structure they
desire. Depending on the frequency and location of the
roadside equipment, distance tolling and congestion
charging can be applied to the tolling scheme. The
transponder is identified upon entering and exiting
HOT lanes. How accounts are charged between entry
and exit is a matter dependent only on the desire of the
toll authority.
...and integration
The device will be integrated with 915 MHz technology
so that it is interoperable with existing toll facilities in
North America. Users will not be required to have two
transponders in their vehicles to utilize electronic toll
and managed lanes transactions in neighboring toll
facilities. This further supports EFKON’s open architec-
ture philosophy and allows true interoperability
between electronic payment applications and toll col-
lection agencies.
To avoid misuse, HOT Shot stores all information for a
preset time that depends on local legislation and the
complexity of the road system. In intricate road net-
works, where there are multiple HOT managed lane sec-
tions in one city at large distances apart, HOT Shot will
require users to insert their information in transit,
because the commute will outlast the preset timer.
EFKON USA is conducting focus groups to more fully
understand potential user obstacles or inconveniences.
The goal is to develop a solution that is ideally suited for
all: the road user, transportation authorities, and con-
cessionaires. TH
John Kasik is president and CEO of EFKON USA and be
contacted via email at info@efkonusa.com. For more
information visit www.efkonusa.com
Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 75
T-Focus
A handy device
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is actively changing
the ITS market, as MICHAEL MODJESKA explains
With the advent of low-power,
long-range wireless technology,
a new active RFID-based solution
is now ready to change fee
collection practices for a variety
of vehicle-related services, while
improving service quality and
logistics for municipalities and
infrastructure operators.
If you think this sounds like yet
another techno-era promise, read
on. From what we saw at the recent
ITS World Congress in London, and
what municipalities and transit
authorities have been saying about
their real present and future needs,
there’s clearly something new going
on here. This is obvious when you
see products like Yadilys, a new-
generation wireless device from
Mayalys that makes it easy for
76 Vol No 1 Thinking Highways
people to use and pay for a variety
of everyday vehicle-related
charges, ranging from traditional
toll-taking and parking, to new
solutions like tollbooth-free
highway fees, vehicle-sharing,
carpooling, environmentally
conscientious “green point”
programs and more.
A little background
Yadilys is designed for people who
pay fees and for people (and
organizations) who collect fees, as
well as national authorities who
want to promote environmentally
friendly behavior. On the surface, it
is basically a wireless e-payment
device that is connected directly to
local services via a low-cost
wireless infrastructure. The unit’s
two-way communication ability
means that drivers can issue
payment simply by pressing a
button, and that they can receive
local information such as current
rates, payment confirmation, and
even brief messages.
Obvious applications include
payment for bridge and highway
tolls, on-street parking, parking lots
and garages, and congestion
charges. More importantly, it opens
the door to an entirely new set of
services emerging in urban
environments, including seamless
charging for road usage by zone,
vehicle sharing, and other types of
per-usage payment systems.
As traffic conditions worsen in
major cities around the world and as
increasing vehicle loads continue to
www.h3bmedia.com
 T-Focus

pollute the air and try people’s technology and very low-cost smart repeaters installed
patience, many municipalities and wireless access points, making it throughout the city, toll plaza, or at
transportation agencies are finding possible to not only detect vehicles other strategic zones where fee
that fees and “green-services” (such at a greater distance, but also to collection and monitoring are
as vehicle-sharing and carpooling) limit the need for expensive required.
are an effective way to moderate the gantries and lane restrictions. This End-user and infrastructure
problem. The only piece of the jigsaw same concept is used to implement devices use the Wavenis protocol,
missing is the right infrastructure to zone-charge systems in congestion which is specifically adapted for
bring the solution to the public and areas. The true breakthrough with wireless machine-to-machine com-
measure the results. Yadilys is that it is a single-source munications in which relatively low
Today Yadilys is the only system that payment solution that covers all of amounts of data are transmitted. In
is flexible and scaleable enough to today’s vehicle-related charges in fee collection applications, for
handle the entire range of electronic one unit. example, transmission is limited to
fee collection scenarios that we are just a few kilobits of data, when
likely to encounter. The operator’s perspective compared to video or Wi-Fi, which
Compared with other existing and use up to many megabits/second.
Keeping it simple proposed systems,Yadilys offers Because of this, battery-operated
The idea is simple. Users get a single, operators many advantages, not Yadilys devices consume miniscule
lightweight wireless device that they the least of which is extremely low- amounts of power and offer longer
can use to pay for and/or access cost infrastructure. The Yadilys connection range.
selected services. The most backbone is based on a series of Wireless network access points,
appropriate technology for this turns
out to be a specially adapted RFID
solution that offers long battery life
and long-range connections.
The device’s account can be pre-
paid or post-paid, or it can be setup as
a credit or debit card reader. Because
it is so small it fits easily on a car’s sun-
visor or in your purse or pocket, and it
is fully secure against unauthorized
use. A simple interface guides you
through transactions intuitively.
When you park your car, for
example, all you have to do is press a
button to start payment, and another
button when you are done. No more
fishing for small change to feed the
parking meter with. No more playing
roulette with parking enforcement as
now you are accurately paying for the
exact time you are parked.

Plaza-free
Another practical example is free-
flow highway tolling – without using
toll plazas. RFID readers placed along
the highway detect passing vehicles
and debit the driver’s account for
their actual road usage.
While wireless tolling has already
been proven to have a huge and
immediately positive effect on traffic
flow, the required infrastructure is
generally extremely expensive, with
range limitations due to chosen
technology often forcing vehicles to
pass only through certain lanes in
overloaded toll plazas.
Yadilys overcomes this by using the
long-range, wireless Wavenis RFID
T-Focus
A Yadilys pole-mounted repeater
whether they are installed along the
highway, in parking garages, or on
city streets, provide reliable two-way
connections with line-of-sight range
up to hundreds of meters. The benefit
to drivers is possible because of
intelligent new systems. For the first
time, they actually have the tools at
their disposal to obtain difficult
measurements in real-world
situations.
For example, in on-street parking
installations, one of the most
noteworthy features made possible
by the Yadilys RFID system is that,
with the regular transmission of data
by each parked vehicle, remote
operators can monitor statistics and
usage patterns that would otherwise
be impossible. When you press the
button to start paying for parking, a
network repeater captures the signal
and forwards the information in real-
time on to a remote payment
transaction server.
Yadilys keeps the server updated
on how long you are parked by
regularly sending identifying
information over the wireless
network.
The rest of your day
At the risk of sounding futuristic, with
Yadilys the rest of your day will go
something like this. When you take
the highway to another city, you get
charged for your exact use of the
78 Vol No 1 Thinking Highways
road. The city you are going to
implements a congestion charge,
and you seamlessly pay the fee
precisely for the areas you use.
After parking your car, you use
Yadilys to reserve and rent a
bicycle that the local transit
authority or parking garage has
put at your disposal, paying of
course only for the real time you
use it.
If your city is one of those that has
opened its car-sharing (short-term
car rental) service, you can use
Yadilys to locate and reserve an
available car, then open the door
and drive away using the unit’s
electronic RFID key, scoring
“green points” along the way for
using a pollution-efficient system.
The reality is that all of these
examples are being implemented
around the world today, and it’s just
a matter of time before we can
enjoy their long-term benefits.
Conclusion
The most obvious markets for
Yadilys today are those that are the
most prevalent in people’s daily
lives. This includes
omnipresent on-
and off-street
parking fees,
bridge tolls and
congestion
charges. Some of
the most interesting applications
are for innovative vehicle-sharing
and green-point scoring
applications.
With a low-cost wireless
infrastructure that is easy to
manage, operators have no trouble
deploying solutions that reap
immediate benefits in terms of
improved efficiency and more
accurate remote monitoring.
Not only that, but they can
leverage the wireless infra-
structure deployed for one type of
service to support another type of
service later on. A municipality can
deploy an e-payment solution for
on-street parking today, and then
add a congestion charge or car-
sharing service with only a limited
marginal investment.
Additional services simply
piggyback on the Yadilys
infrastructure deployed for the first
service. This is actually helping
authorities and operators think not
only about how to modernize their
current collection mechanisms, but
how to offer innovative new
services in the near future with a
single compatible system. TH
Mayalys is seeking partners to
fully address the North American
market. For more information visit
www.mayalys.com or contact
michel.gilmour@mayalys.com
Yadilys uses the
longe-range,
wireless Wavenis
RFID protocol
www.h3bmedia.com
 T-Focus

Get more.
With Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation you get more than
promises, you get real technology solutions for today’s toll collection
challenges. You get more than experience, you also get experts you can trust.
And importantly, you get more than a provider. You get a partner to help you deliver
successful results.
ETC delivers a full range of products and services for the toll industry, from an
integrated end-to-end solutions suite that can be customized for either
new or existing operations, to maintenance and operations support. ETC’s
solutions are supported by a team that includes some of the most talented and
experienced in the industry.

Call or visit our Web site today to learn how to get more from your systems
integrator.

1200 Executive Drive, East, Suite 100 • Richardson, Texas USA 75081 • 214.615.2302
www.etcc.com

www.h3bmedia.com Thinking Highways Vol 1 No 1 79

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Advertisers Index
Applanix ...............................................02
ASIM .....................................................15
Diamond Traffic Systems ..................79
EFKON USA .......................................13
EIS ......................................... back cover
ETC Corporation ..............................79
GEWI ...................................................57
Image Sensing Systems ......................07
International Fiber Systems .............73
InVision Studios ..................................37
Iteris......................................................09
IVsource.net........................................80
Jupiter Systems ...................................52
OSI ............................ inside front cover
PIPS Technology ..................................77
Samaritania ..........................................51
SpeedInfo .............................................63
Thinking Highways Online ...............05
Transportation Innovations .............80
Transurban ..........................................37
TRMI .....................................................57
Volkswagen North America .............38
Wavetronix ..............inside back cover
World ITS Directory.........................21

For more information on advertisers in this issue of

Thinking Highways
go online at www.h3bmedia.com

80 Vol 1 No 1 Thinking Highways www.h3bmedia.com

 Roads Scholar

Highways are getting smarter. They look the same,
black asphalt and white lines but look a little closer.
Small weigh and speed detectors right in the asphalt,
overhead cameras and sensors to
record every move. Other more obvious
additions are there too, like message
signs that change for every vehicle!
With IRD technology, our roads can monitor, record and
communicate thousands of pieces of data every second
over wired and wireless networks. Data that you can use
to make roads stronger, faster, and safer.
Talk to the smart people at IRD,
they’ve been leading the way in ITS
for over 25 years.

ir dinc.com
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