IVHS TECHNOLOGIES: PROMISING PALLIATIVES OR POPULAR POPPYCOCK?

This article assesses the potential benefits of intelligent vehicle/highway systems (IVHS) technologies. These technologies include improvements in traffic management, driver information, and vehicle control techniques made possible by recent advances in microprocessing and telecommunications. They are of interest because they offer promise as means to (1) reduce urban traffic congestion, (2) improve highway safety, and (3) increase highway transportation productivity. It is concluded that certain IVHS technologies, especially advanced traffic management systems, have demonstrated utility to help alleviate urban traffic congestion. Advanced driver information systems are far less well-developed approaches to dealing with traffic congestion. They require further field testing and refinement. To the extent that traffic congestion is eased by the use of IVHS technologies, congestion-related traffic accidents will also be reduced, thereby improving highway safety. Whether much larger improvements in highway safety can be made from the adoption of various crash avoidance technologies is unclear, as much laboratory and field testing remains to be done on these technologies. Highway transportation productivity is being improved through the adoption of IVHS technologies. Acceptance of automatic vehicle identification, location, and communications technologies is spreading rapidly among several types of commercial vehicle operators, because these public- and private-sector fleets can either save or make more money using them.