DeviceGuru

A recently published whitepaper explains how existing and emerging technologies can squeeze more capacity from over-burdened highways, help commuters avoid traffic delays, and expand and improve transportation options, while saving money and creating jobs. The paper makes seven specific recommendations for federal transportation policy.

“Smart Mobility for a 21st Century America” shows why improving efficiency through technology is critical as our population grows and ages, budgets tighten, and consumer preferences shift, according to its authors. The 39-page whitepaper, sponsored four organizations dedicated to advancing the nation’s transportation infrastructure, was published in October, 2010.

The paper is organized in four sections:

• Innovative Technologies and Strategies
• A Vision for Next-Generation Infrastructure
• Recommendations for Federal Transportation Policy
• Smart Mobility Case Studies

The case studies section profiles 12 “smart transportation solutions that are already modernizing outdated networks and fueling innovation throughout the country, through both the public and private sector,” according to the paper’s authors.

The paper’s Executive Summary and Introduction appear below, followed by the list of seven policy recommendations and a link for downloading the full 39-page paper in PDF format.

Executive Summary

Improving transportation efficiency through operational innovation is critical as our population grows and ages, budgets tighten and consumer preferences shift. Now, as Congress prepares to review and reauthorize the nation’s transportation program, an array of innovations that were either overlooked or did not exist at the time of previous authorizations can be incentivized.

Case studies here and abroad show how savvy investments can help the U.S. save money while reclaiming world leadership in developing a transportation network for the 21st century. Smart technologies are available to improve travel efficiency, provide accurate real-time information, make pricing and payments more convenient, and customize travel to meet individual needs.

But these innovations require systematic deployment throughout the transportation system and across the country in order to be most effective. As Congress moves forward with a comprehensive transportation bill, this report shows how establishing national targets for reducing congestion and emissions through programmatic changes and funding incentives can accelerate the development and implementation of innovative, new information systems and technology solutions.”

Introduction

“Astounding advances in technology — from smart phones, to smart networks, to high speed broadband — are transforming lives in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. Digital communication allows movement around the virtual world in an instant.

But current technology has yet to reach its potential to move us around the physical world. Rather than unleashing powerful capabilities to improve the transportation system as a whole, technology is applied today primarily to make individual vehicles more “high tech.”

This paper will explore strategies for using existing and emerging technologies to minimize congestion, reduce emissions, cut spending, create jobs and improve efficiency, all while expanding convenience, safety and mobility.

Just as the Internet, smart phones and social media changed they way we acquire news, listen to music or connect with friends and family, these same innovations have implications for how we move around. While high-tech gadgets can be a problem when they distract motorists from driving, they open up a whole new world for people using other modes. From the comfort of a bus or train, for example, one can surf the net, text friends or send email to the office, all while traveling from point A to point B. But what if we could manage traffic to help drivers avoid congestion before they get stuck in it? What if you always knew when the next bus was going to arrive, the closest parking space or which train car had a seat available for you?

We are at a point where advancements in physical and digital infrastructure can work hand in hand, positioning us to develop intelligent and forward-thinking solutions for our transportation systems as a whole.

Yet we have only just begun to unleash these technological capabilities on the U.S. economy. A great deal more is possible. Innovation leaders such as Japan, Sweden, South Korea and increasingly China are leaping ahead of the United States with technologically advanced transportation networks that reduce emissions and cut travel times. However, the U.S. can catch up and reclaim our role as an innovation leader if we make the kind of national commitment we have made in the past to build cutting edge infrastructure, from rural electrification to the Interstate Highway system.

As Congress prepares to review and reauthorize the nation’s transportation program, this paper makes the case for emphasizing technology and innovation to solve our nation’s most critical transportation problems.

The U.S. transportation system is the engine of our economic competitiveness, providing access to schools and jobs, delivering just-in-time products, maintaining security, encouraging healthy active lifestyles, allowing first responders to tackle emergencies, promoting tourism, facilitating business, and ensuring smoothly operating thoroughfares so people can get where they need to go.

As our population grows and ages, budgets shrink, and consumer preferences shift, we need a new vision for a faster and smarter 21st century America to make better use of our resources. The innovations presented here show how to get the most for our investment as we adapt to new circumstances and opportunities.

The whitepaper makes the following recommendations for federal transportation policy:

1. Establish national transportation targets for reducing congestion and emissions while increasing economic growth and accessibility.
2. Provide incentives for states and regions to adopt information technology solutions and integrate them throughout the transportation network.
3. Ensure federal funding and programs support a broad range of connected transportation options and services and help create livable, walkable communities.
4. Establish a demonstration grant program for metropolitan and rural regions to provide model deployment sites for large-scale advanced ITS and related next-generation infrastructure solutions.
5. Create a framework to help state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, the private sector, and local governments cooperate to develop and deploy the most advanced unified technology.
6. Accelerate the development and implementation of innovative, new information systems, and technology solutions.
7. Provide dedicated funding for states and regions to improve system operations. This funding would encourage technology adoption and integration plans, like electronic toll collections, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, telework programs, and other intelligent transportation systems.

The complete, 39-page whitepaper is available for free download in PDF format, here (PDF file). The report was co-sponsored by Transportation for America, ITS America, the Association for Commuter Transportation, and the University of Michigan’s SMART Initiative.