Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
Home transit/bike Grocery Shopping Smart/City/Zip…whatever Car Home
In the future, every roadway user will be a decision maker, with the power of deciding where, how
and when to make every single trip in a cost-efficient way.
In an effort to identify potential new and emerging strategies, an extensive review was conducted.
Sources for this review are listed in the Reference section of this chapter. The most promising
strategies that could positively influence travel-time reliability are described in the following
sections:
• Automation/infrastructure
• Information technology/data sharing
• Integration/cooperation
Automation/Infrastructure
Imagine automated cars capable of pick up elderly and disabled people in residential areas and
taking them to nearby supermarkets, doctor’s appointments, and wherever else they might like to
go. This will be possible due to the improved communication capabilities between vehicles and
roadway. In the next decade, we will see a new type of infrastructure intervention. Mesh networks
are transforming the automotive industry, morphing cars into sophisticated network nodes that will
offer highly-customizable services and be virtually self-regulating. Automated cars will also solve
the localness problem, since the cars come to you. In a way it also solves the lateness problem,
because there is no need to reserve a specific car for a specific window, any unused fleet car can be
dispatched. (17)
Not far away from this concept, the revolutionary in-wheel traction and steering system of the
CityCar from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a stackable, all-electric, twopassenger
vehicle could radically alter personal urban transportation. Basically, CityCars work as
shopping carts, stacking on at each other. It is intended to have an efficient shared used. Another
innovation is that it spins on its own axis, avoiding u-turns and conflicting turning movements. In
the same fashion, the development of rechargeable motorcycles and bicycles equipped with
communication devices capable to provide all sorts of information to riders will complement the
automated car view.
A shift on the automobile market from commodity business to technology innovation service
business will also be seen as an impact of technological innovations. Collaborative computing and
telecommunications services will be delivering voice and data more efficiently through fiber optic
and mesh/wireless networks. The idea of the vehicle as a mobile information center will be
widespread with the addition of increasing electronic intermediation of vehicle control. (19)
Table 6.12 presents additional innovative technologies related to automation/infrastructure and
their possible impact on travel-time reliability.
OPERATIONS STRATEGIES AND TREATMENTS TO IMPROVE TRAVEL-TIME RELIABILITY Page 92