Innovating Transportation without a Crystal Ball

This article describes two mobility projects involving Caltrans’ (the California Department of Transportation) Division of Research and Innovation and its private and academic partners. The first, called Mobile Millennium, involves the California Center for Innovative Transportation at the University of California, Berkeley, the US DOT, and the private cell phone company, Nokia. The project takes advantage of progress in “smart” cell phone and GPS technology to allow 10,000 drivers equipped with Nokia cell phones to both transmit traffic data and receive traveler information on their cell phones as they travel throughout northern California. The second project, called the Networked Traveler, also uses cell phones to alert drivers to stalled traffic ahead. It hopes to reduce a percentage of car crashes on freeways when distracted drivers fail to react in time to avoid a line of cars in front of them.