It uses such measures as removing accidents and broken-down vehicles from roadways, controlling traffic signals, and providing information enroute to travelers about roads and services. Travel demand management aims to reduce travel by single-occupancy vehicles. It provides pretrip information about traffic conditions and the availability of transit services and ridesharing opportunities. Public transportation operations provide enroute information to transit users, enable transit officials to keep track of the locations of their vehicles and monitor ridership demands, and enhance the safety of transit operations. Commercial vehicle operation facilitates interstate trucking by substituting electronic clearance for paperwork, weighing trucks at highway speeds instead of requiring them to stop at weigh stations, monitoring operations to enhance safety and improve efficiency, and providing for immediate notification of authorities in cases of accidents.
Emergency management enables quick notification of authorities and prompt response in emergencies.
Advanced vehicle control and safety systems would employ such devices as collision avoidance warnings, automatic braking controls, and automated highway systems on which vehicles could move without being actively operated by a driver. Scale back the ITS program and focus on areas where federal intervention would facilitate interstate commerce. Electronic clearance of commercial vehicle operators and electronic payment of tolls would be most likely to meet this criterion. Retain the ITS program in its current form, but improve the process of setting priorities and selecting projects. Funding is divided among several hundred projects, including some that appear to duplicate others and some that have not been designed to produce clear-cut results.