FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION'S ADVANCED TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

The FHWA ATMS Research and Development program consists of five major categories of research activities: Surveillance & Detection, Control, Support Systems, Traffic Management Strategies, and Other Studies. The studies planned under each of these categories are the building blocks of the capabilities that advanced traffic management centers (TMCs) must have to address growing transportation needs. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is fostering the development of ATMS by promoting the development of guidelines and standards, facilitating public/private ventures, reducing or removing institutional barriers, and providing the necessary technology to ensure the inter-operability and safety of a national Intelligent Vehicle-Highway System (IVHS). FHWA's approach to deployment of IVHS is to phase in advanced technologies in the near-and-far-term to effectively manage the movement of traffic and goods. The near-term goal is for first generation state-of-the-art traffic management facilities to evolve by 1997. The purpose of this paper is to expand on the individual program activities of the five major research categories required to meet this goal.