INTELLIGENT VEHICLE-HIGHWAY SYSTEMS: SOONER AND LATER

Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) represent a method for introducing information and control technology to make motor vehicle transportation safer and more efficient. The IVHS concept has growing advocacy from the transportation community, and while arguments can be made based on public need, private interests are also met. Any concerted IVHS program in the US will require Congressional action to authorize the collaboration and to appropriate the substantial resources needed to develop and build the associated public infrastructure. Despite the wide-spread support for the IVHS concept, skeptics include the automotive and electronics industries, who question the establishment of a public infrastructure, and the highway agencies, who question the ability of IVHS technologies to resolve highway problems. Factors which impact the development of IVHS include the establishment of IVHS as a major goal of highway programs, the formation of a national collaboration mechanism, and the mounting of successful field demonstrations.