Improved Convenience andReduced Environmental Impact
Using Intelligent Transportation
SystemsHISAJI TAKEUCHI*1

TOMOHIRO MURATA*1

Intelligent transport systems (ITS) improve convenience in motorized societies and reduce the environmental effects ofautomobiles by connecting them closely to the transportation infrastructure they use. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has
been developing and delivering two unique ITS applications for many years: the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system and theElectronic Toll Collection (ETC) system. Together they eliminate traffic jams at tollbooths, control traffic volumes, improve fuelefficiency, and offer many other benefits. ITS will help create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable society by balancing
and controlling traffic flow with enhanced On-Board Equipment and the shared use of Infrastructure by individual drivers andpublic transportation networks.

1. The Role of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

2. Independent Systems

Traffic jams cause congestion in cities worldwide, and inrecent years have had major influences not only on people'slives, but also on the environment. As a social problem,
their magnitude is alarming, and concerted efforts havebeen made to reduce them. One such effort is the intelligent
transport systems (ITS), a system integrating vehicles with
the infrastructure to provide solutions that are not possible
with just the vehicles or infrastructure alone. ITS improves
convenience and preserves the environment at the same time.
Each city requires its own type of ITS, which depends onthe existing traffic conditions, measures, and policies. To
meet this widely varying demand for ITS, MHI and others
are expanding their technical approaches to broad rangeof solutions. This paper describes the efforts by MHI indeveloping the three systems shown in Fig. 1.

One method already used to solve traffic problems isElectronic Toll Collection (ETC) system, which eliminates
traffic jams at tollbooths, and another is the Electronic
Road Pricing (ERP) system, which controls the volume oftraffic moving into city centers. These systems consist ofroadside equipment installed at each entry of roads, or at tolllanes for the management and control of passing vehicles.
Methods of identifying vehicles in these systems include
radio communication with On-Board Equipment and imageprocessing for car license plates.
(1) ETC system in JapanThe ETC system in Japan uses Dedicated Short Range
Communication (DSRC), a radio communication systemwith 5.8-GHz band. Since the start of the ETC service
in 2001, nearly 20 million On-Board Equipment havebeen installed. According to a report by the Ministry ofLand Infrastructure Transport and Tourism, this service
is estimated to save about ¥350 billion and reduce CO 2
emissions by as much as 140,000 tons every year. In
addition, with the various charging policies which enable
to discount toll in midnight and so on, traffic volume areso averaged as to improve utilization efficiency of thewhole road network. This in turn reduces the impact on
the environment.
(2) ERP system designed for Singapore
The ERP system using 2.4 GHz radio communicationdelivered to Singapore by MHI in 1998, which included
both roadside radio equipment and On-Board Equipment,
has dramatically reduced traffic jams. Starting this year
2008, a new generation of On-Board Equipment will also
be delivered (Fig. 2). With this system, the ISO14443
contactless card already widely used in Singapore as atransport card will also be usable together with present
dedicated contact-type card. Ultimately, this will allow a

Independentsystem

Enhancedsystem

Purpose

Reductionof congestion /control of traffic volume

Information/control

Coverage

Restricted area

Area-variable

SystemInfrastructure
as the core of the system

Enhancement of thein-vehicle system

Integration

Road traffic alone

Integration with other modesof transportation
Integratedsystem
Technical orientation

Fig. 1 ITS expansion

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Technical Review Vol. 45 No. 1 (Mar. 2008)*1 Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works

80

Equipment is designed to be operated on batteries andrequires no special installation. The system meets therequirements for ISO14443 transport cards, the world’s
most prevalent cashless payment measure with this typeof system. Furthermore, the roadside equipment such asantennas and enforcement cameras are included in thecomplete system to facilitate its introduction in variousconfigurations.
For motorcycles

3. Enhanced Systems

For passenger cars

Individual vehicles that use road infrastructure can beused to collect information on road infrastructure conditions.
By sharing information among individual vehicles, it will
be possible to rationalize and spread the use of the roadinfrastructure even further. Future ITS will need to evolve
beyond their original functions as independent systems toease traffic at toll lanes or in city centers. In future systems,
enhanced On-Board Equipment that integrates vehicles
closely to the infrastructure will facilitate the f lexible
implementation of traffic policies and measures tailored tothe specific traffic conditions, while providing safe driving
assistance and managing the traffic volume by providing
traffic guidance. This will improve the efficiency of the road
network use and facilitate the adoption of environmentallyfriendly measures.
(1) Next-generation road service
In Japan, work is now under way on the practicalapplication of the next-generation road service. MHI isalso developing ITS On-Board Equipment that will meetthe requirements for this service. The next-generation
road service is based on DSRC communication using theE TC system to provide information such as warnings
about upcoming obstacles, or extensive information on
the traffic ahead. Because information on travel history
can be stored in ITS On-Board Equipment and collectedby roadside systems, it will also be possible to improve theaccuracy and diversity of the information provided. The
implementation of these services is expected to smooth
and average the flow of traffic to achieve a better level ofsafety and reduce the environmental impact.

Fig. 2 Next-generation type in-vehicle equipment for the ERP designedfor Singapore

traveler to use a single transport card to pay for different
types of transportation services including public transport
like buses and trains, as well as road toll. This further
improves convenience for the travelers.
(3) Integrated Urban Road Pricing system
Environmental problems get critical with economic
development in Asian cities with their traffic-jammeds t r e e t s . I n m a ny c a s e s , t he i n f r a s t r uc t u r e , c i v i ladministration, and other related systems in many Asian
countries make it difficult to introduce uniform national
level of traffic control systems as has been successfully
ach ieved i n Japa n a nd Si ngapore. To add ress t h ischallenge, MHI has developed Integrated Urban Road
Pricing (IURP), an ERP system for worldwide use thatprovides low- cost diverse operational solutions withextensive scalability.
On a system level, MHI has developed both DSRC andGlobal Positioning System (GPS) approaches to IURP.
T he DSRC method achieves high reliabilit y in roadto-vehicle communications using DSRC that complies
the A R IB S T D -T 75 standard used in Japanese E T C
systems. Flexible security measures are implemented
in software to meet the specific security requirements
for each customer. To increase availability, the On-Board

Battery box
Main body

Card

Card holder

Fig. 3 DSRC in-vehicle equipment for the IURP system (prototype)Fig. 4 DSRC portion of the ITS in-vehicle equipment (prototype)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Technical Review Vol. 45 No. 1 (Mar. 2008)81

(2) GPS-type ERP system
To control traffic volumes more flexibly and accurately
under diverse and variable conditions, it will eventually
be necessary to trace the status of every vehicle on theroad. MHI is now developing a next-generation systemwith this capability using GPS.
GPS -based ERP systems now in operation compare
the location of every vehicle with a central geographicaldat a base to measure the dist a nce dr iven a nd themoney to be charged. This method requires a robust
communication infrastructure and a central systemcapable of processing enormous quantities of data.
T he system now being developed by MHI uses ahigh-performance GPS receiver combined with deadreckoning navigation in the in-vehicle unit. The system
will process travel-distance measurement and billingzone detection in the in-vehicle units without dependingon the central system. This reduces the load on thecentral system and the communication infrastructure,and will enable the application of many types of traffic
measures and policies. In one proposed policy that
may be possible usi ng t his system, t he deg ree ofenvironmental impact will be incorporated in the roadpricing. Last year, MHI evaluated a prototype in-vehicle
unit under various driving conditions, including streets
lined with high-rise buildings, a difficult operational
environment for GPS. Even under this sort of condition,
MHI was able to achieve a distance-based charging
accuracy error of 2% or less. MHI is now accelerating thedevelopment of this type of system to the point in which it
can be fielded.

GPS satellite

Virtualcharging
zoneCentralsystem

Wide-area
communication
network

GPS-installed
in-vehicle equipment

Enforcement
camera system

Fig. 5 Next-generation ERP systemsystems, with just a single in-vehicle device or transportcard. With a further integration of various systems, traffic
measures, and policies, I T S will go a long way toward
improving convenience and reducing the environmental
burden of a motorized society.

5. Conclusions
As society continues to motorize even further, ITS willassume a larger role in improving convenience and reducing
env ironmental ef fects, and MHI will be increasing its
I T S development and working toward the creation of asustainable and environmentally friendly society.

4. Integrated Systems
A future vision for ITS is the stricter management andcontrol of traffic flow in collaboration with other systems
for t ra f f ic sig na l cont rol a nd t ra nspor t at ion dema ndmanagement. It should also be effective for sharing traffic
facilities such as parking lots and public transportation

Hisaji Takeuchi

Tomohiro Murata

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Technical Review Vol. 45 No. 1 (Mar. 2008)82