From: lucas@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Brian Lucas)
Newsgroups: sci.environment,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Cost of public vs. private transportation
Date: 22 Jul 92 23:41:10 GMT
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

In article <1992Jul22.145750.26421@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>
>[...] Toll roads and toll bridges at present require one to
>pass through toll gates, and that would only be practical on roads
>without very many interchanges (freeways usually have lots of them). A
>more suitable system would be to have some computer monitors that work
>out the travels of every vehicle on the roads, but there are serious
>implementation problems. There could be some system that logs the
>location of the vehicle by listening to position-information
>broadcasts from transmitters in the neighborhoods of the roads; or
>else there would be some sort of interrogation system near the roads
>that would broadcast some message and then receive info from all the
>vehicles. But any such system will need a LOT of installation, and it
>would have to be made reliable and tamper-proof.

Just thought I'd let you know that there are people working on the problem.

There is a lot of effort going on these days in transportation engineering
towards making systems like the one you describe work.  The field is called
"Intelligent Vehicle-Highways Systems" (IVHS), and it includes such things
as in-car navigation systems, automated toll collection, and so on.

There are many demonstration projects currently running in all parts of the
world.  This technology will be applied to trucks before private automobiles,
because it is more beneficial for both the truckers and the highway 
authorities, and trucks are easier to regulate. 

One of the premier projects in this area is called HELP or Crescent.  HELP
means "Heavy Vehicle Electronic License Plate", describing the technology,
Crescent means the project which runs along the west coast of the U.S. from
British Columbia to Texas, involving 14 states and 1 Canadian province.
The idea of the project is that trucks can be equipped with transponders 
that are interrogated by roadside equipment.  The truck's operating license
and registered weight can be determined, and the vehicle can be weighed 
without stopping by what is known appropriately enough as weigh-in-motion
(WIM, pronounced 'wim') equipment (typically a piezoelectric axle sensor
with induction loops).  The eventual application is that trucks can be 
identified and appropriate tolls charged based on weight, license restrictions,
place of origin, and even cargo, without having to stop at weigh stations.

(I have handled such "electronic license plates", and the manufacturer's rep
who was showing it to us - at the University of Manitoba - laughed when he
said the components of the thing really take up less space than a deck
of cards, but they make 'em a foot long because truckers like big things and
would laugh at placing a tiny little box in their truck.)

Implementation of this technology for private autos is hampered by the 
potential invasion of privacy when a car can be positively identified
wherever it goes on the highway system.  You avoid toll booths, instead 
perhaps getting a bill in the mail every month, but you can see the
problem in tracking peoples' movements.

The acronyms used for various demonstration projects are really amazing.
My favorite IVHS project (for its name, I don't know anything about it) 
is PROMETHEUS.  That's "Programme for European Traffic with Highest 
Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety".  

Other projects to watch for, if you're interested (scan your journals index
for these...) (This list was compiled by a co-worker putting together a 
part of a report on traffic monitoring systems; I'm not sure how much 
detail exists on any of them)

SCANDI (Surveillance, Control, and Driver Information Systems), Michigan DOT
SMART Corridor (FHWA, California DOT, Los Angeles County Transp Comm, Los
	Angeles DOT, LAPSD)
Pathfinder (FHWA, Calif DOT, Gemeral Motors)
TravTrek (AAA, General Motors, FHWA, City of Orlando, Florida DOT)
PATH (Program on Advanced Technology for the Highway) (Calif DOT, FHWA,
	Nat'l Hwy Traff Safety Admin, U of Calif)
Guidestar (Minnesota DOT, U of Minn)
WAVM (Wide Area Vehicle Monitoring) / Road KIT (Ontario Min of Trans)
Dallas North Tollway AVI (Amtech)
DRIVE (Dedicated Road Infrastructure for Vehicle Safety in Europe)
LISB (Leit and Information Systems Berlin)
Autoguide
Trafficmaster
DEMETER (Digital Electronic Mapping of European Territory)
ROADACOM (En Route Applied Data Communications)
EUROPOLIS
ADVISE (Melbourne, Australia)
BARTAG (Australia)
AMTICS (Advanced Mobile Traffic Information and Communication System) (Japan)
RACS (Road Automobile Communication Systems) (Tokyo, Japan)
VICS (Vehicle Communication Information Systems) (Japan)
PVS (Personal Vehicle Systems) (Japan)
Japan Digital Road Map Association
-- 
Brian Lucas                     "...Correlate, tabulate, process and screen,
<lucas@ccu.umanitoba.ca>         Program, printout, regress to the mean..."
Grad student, U of Manitoba      -- Stan Rogers, the White Collar Holler