Easing Traffic Congestion And Improving Vehicle Safety

Hearing held by the Subcommittee on Technology. Witnesses: Kenneth Wykle, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, Dept. of Transportation; Robert Merryman, Acting Director, Montgomery County Dept. of Public Works & Transportation; Dr. William J. Harris, (testifying on behalf of Joseph Giglio & the Intelligent Transportation Society of America), Member of the Board of Directors, Intelligent Transportation Society of America; Joseph M. Giglio, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Intelligent Transportation Society of America; & Representatives Constance A. Morella, James A. Barcia, & Roscoe Bartlett.

"The Los Angeles region has the most severe traffic congestion in the United States. Excessive traffic congestion detracts from quality of life, is economically wasteful and environmentally damaging, and exacerbates social justice concerns. Residents and policymakers agree that something must be done." "This volume recommends strategies for reducing congestion L.A. County that could be implemented and produce significant improvements within five years. The authors recommend a set of strategies that offer the greatest prospects for reducing congestion and improving transportation options in Los Angeles while considering complementary strategies for building consensus around effective, albeit potentially controversial, congestion-reduction measures. Though the specific recommendations proffered in the book are tailored to the L.A. region, leaders in other cities who are interested in strategies to reduce congestion should also find the study to be of value."--BOOK JACKET.

In recognition of the importance of road safety as a major health issue, the World Health Organization has declared 2011-2021 the Decade of Safety Action. Several countries in Europe, North America, and Asia have been successful in reducing fatalities and injuries due to road traffic crashes. However, many low-income countries continue to experience high rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transport Planning and Traffic Safety: Making Cities, Roads, and Vehicles Safer offers a source book for road safety training courses as well as an introductory textbook for graduate-level courses on road safety taught in engineering institutes. It brings together the international experiences and lessons learned from countries which have been successful in reducing traffic crashes and their applicability in low-income countries. The content is based on lectures delivered during an international course on transportation planning and traffic safety, sponsored annually by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The book is interdisciplinary and aimed at professionals—traffic and road engineers, vehicle designers, law enforcers, and transport planners. The authors examine trends in performance of OECD countries and highlight the public health and systems approach of traffic safety with the vulnerable road user in focus. Topics include land use (transportation planning, mobility, and safety), safety education and legislation, accident analysis, road safety research, human tolerance to injury, vehicle design, safety in construction zones, safety in urban areas, traffic calming, public transportation, safety laws and policies, and pre-hospital care of the injured.

"Traffic congestion is the primary concern in dense cities; while the increased number of automobiles is becoming uncontrollable in some cities, it is more challenging to manage or change how people use cars. To contribute to solving traffic congestion in cities, this project examines the study of transferring vehicles to be competent in a way that can help the government entities analyze the received vehicles’ data and for better decisions on reducing traffic congestion as well as the real-time monitoring of traffic wherever it is located using the Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication methodology. This study proposes a hardware “system” that can be attached to any vehicle to collect real-time data from vehicles and communicate with the Road and Transportation Authority. The hardware system, however, is connected to the cars through a wireless On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) connection in favor of collecting all the necessary information from the vehicle, such as the car speed and Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) data. On the other hand, a GPS sensor is used to inquire about the vehicle’s location, a GSM module to make sure the device is always connected to the internet for data transmission, a LiDAR sensor for distance and safety measurement, and a camera module accessed only by the driver for object detection such as cars, pedestrians, traffic signs, damaged roads, and road hazards. Moreover, system updates and maintenance can be done remotely to reduce the number of visits to the traffic department since all devices are to be connected to a single platform. As a result, it was possible to create a prototype for a single vehicle, including the sensors mentioned above, returning valuable data that include vehicle speed and exact location, which will help future researchers develop an application platform to monitor and track traffic congestion in real time."--Abstract.

Congestion continues to grow in America¿s urban areas. This report presents details on the 2004 trends, findings and what can be done to address the growing transportation problems. Trend data from 1982 to 2002 for 85 urban areas provides both a local view and a national perspective on the growth and extent of traffic congestion. The 2004 Report provides clear evidence that the time for improvements has arrived. Communicating the congestion levels and the need for improvements is a goal of this report. The decisions about which, and how much, improvement to fund will be made at the local level according to a variety of goals, but there are some broad conclusions that can be drawn from this database. Tables.