ITS Primary Objectives

Typical surface transportation problems are interrelated 
and include:

  • Traffic congestion, due to both recurring and non-recurring causes (see next page).
  • Air pollution, particularly mobile emissions (e.g. carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxides, particulate materials, and ozone).
  • Safety, including in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle (at transportation facilities).

Congestion is a daily occurrence on many portions of freeway networks in urban areas. Recurrent congestion refers to the type of congestion routinely expected at predictable locations during specific periods of time in which demand exceeds capacity.

In contrast, non-recurrent congestion results from random or less predictable events such as:

  • Traffic accidents and incidents

     
  • Special situations (sporting events, weekend travel, maintenance and construction activities)

     
  • Other factors of an environmental nature such as wet pavement, or sunrise and sunset aligned with driver's visibility.

ITS is not a panacea for all surface transportation problems. The primary objective of ITS is to mitigate those problems engendered by non-recurring incidents, which account for approximately 65% of peak period congestion. In other words, the primary motivation in using ITS technology is to optimize system performance by leveraging the effective capacity of the system.

 

Experience has shown that each second of duration of traffic incident results in the equivalent of 4 second traffic recovery time. This underscores the urgency in minimizing the clearing time of traffic incidents through the use of such ITS technologies as traffic surveillance involving closed circuit television (CCTV), machine vision equipment, and sensors (including subsurface induction loop, acoustic, and radio frequency [RF] devices).

For instance, the use of electronic toll collection (ETC) can help increase throughput in excess of 200 percent by processing vehicles at a much faster rate than human attendants can. In this case, the use of ITS technology (ETC) optimizes system performance through a more efficient utilization of the effective capacity of the system.

Through the application of state-of-the-art and emerging technologies, ITS programs aim to fulfill the following objectives:

  • Provide solutions to current multi modal transportation problems

     
  • Anticipate future transportation demands through an internodal strategy

     
  • Yield a more efficient use of the transportation infrastructure and energy resources

     
  • Provide significant improvements in safety, productivity, accessibility, and mobility


ITS technology has proven effective in mitigating surface transportation problems engendered by non-recurring incidents. However, its use is by no means restricted to traffic incident management. Other areas benefiting from ITS technology include, among others:

  • Transit management 
    (adherence to bus scheduling, for instance)

     
  • Freeway system management

     
  • Surface street management (signal timing optimization)

     
  • Commercial Vehicle Operations

 

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