INTEGRATING INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS (ITS) PROJECT RESULTS INTO ENGINEERING CURRICULA

A number of factors have recently produced a need for new capabilities in the transportation profession. Increasing travel demands in urban and suburban areas have strained the capacity of existing roadways, while changing land-use patterns have challenged traditional public transportation systems. As traffic congestion has increased, the alleviation of congestion by building new roads has become impractical, due to considerations of cost and crowding in urban areas. Furthermore, energy consumption, noise, and air quality continue to be important factors. Meanwhile, new technologies in real-time communication and computing have made it possible to gather and analyze unprecedented quantities of information to better understand and deal with these factors. These factors combine to hinder the physical expansion of our transportation systems, while giving us the opportunity to utilize existing networks more efficiently. Using Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) technology, we can disseminate route guidance information to travelers in the network so they can favor currently underused routes or modes of travel. Efforts are also underway to design and implement Advanced Public Transportation systems (APTS) to improve overall mobility, accessibility, mode choice, and intermodal transfer. An essential complement to ATIS and APTS is Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), which focuses on real-time control of variable elements of the transportation system itself. For ATMS and ATIS applications to succeed, we must also study the interaction between the traveler and the transportation system. In a three year project initiated in February 1996 under the NSF Combined Research and Curriculum Development (CRCD) program, the authors are building on the prior and ongoing research of team members in these advanced technology areas, which are generally placed under the rubric of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) research. They are integrating knowledge, concepts, and results from their past and ongoing ITS research into existing and new courses in the University's College of Engineering, primarily in the Transportation Program of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in order to prepare students at the undergraduate degree level to help plan, design, operate, and evaluate ITS systems, while also teaching students at the graduate level to participate in system development and ITS research.