SMART ROADS : TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE IS NO LONGER JUST CONCRETE AND ASPHALT

This article focuses on how Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology is helping to provide greater levels of safety and efficiency to highway users. It describes efforts by the Utah Department of Transportation in using information technology to monitor traffic incidents and speeds on freeways via the Commuter Link program. In Georgia, the Navigator website provides real-time travel speeds and travel times along freeways in metropolitan Atlanta. The Commercial Vehicle Information System and Networks (CVISN) program is providing states with a method for increasing effective communications between vehicles and roadside checkpoint, and government agencies and commercial vehicle operations (CVO). The three core capabilities of the CVISN include: 1) the electronic exchange of safety information; 2) fixed or mobile safety screening sites; and, 3) electronic credentialing. The article also mentions the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) which is bringing advanced technologies to trucks.