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The Biggest Transportation Breakthroughs of 2014 - CityLab

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The Biggest Transportation Breakthroughs of 2014 - CityLab

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Google

From driverless cars to safety initiatives, it was quite a year for advancements in mobility.

When considering how to summarize the Year in Transportation that was 2014, it's tempting just to compile a list of Uber-related incidents or scandals or lawsuits or absurdities and call it a day. But as much as the human and hive minds are drawn toward negative news, there were some truly uplifting mobility breakthroughs this year far more deserving of a digital curtain call. Though you probably haven't heard the last of them: much of what happened in transportation in 2014 will change the way we'll travel around cities for many years to come.

The Self-Driving Car Conquers Cities. As CityLab first reported, back in April, Google's self-driving car has graduated from the relative simplicity of freeways (speed up, slow down, shift lanes) to the dynamic hazards of urban roadways. The company upped the ante a month later by releasing early (and adorable) design prototypes for an autonomous car that it hopes to produce and test on California streets. It's only a matter of time before these transformative cars -or ones inspired by them-will reach streets near you.

High-Speed Rail Comes to America. History may well look back at 2014 as the year that American high-speed rail passed a tipping point. California's Los Angeles-San Francisco line finally found some stable funding, announced a winning bid, and set a groundbreaking date. But with that project tough for others to copy, what with the many billions in public money, perhaps more intriguing were the non-trivial advances made by private high-speed rail projects: the Dallas-Houston service shopped around for terminals, and the Miami-Orlando line began actual construction.

Michael D. Spencer / Superpedestrian

As Does the Electric Bicycle. The Cambridge-based mobility company Superpedestrian began to mass produce and accept pre-orders for its innovative Copenhagen Wheel this year. The wheel transforms an existing bicycle into an electric-powered bicycle-and could transform American cycling practices in the process. In his CityLab piece about the wheel, Nate Berg reported that experts believe the United States will be one of the world's top e-bike markets within the next 20 years.

And Driverless Transit, Too. The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation took some key steps toward completing the first fully automated, wide-scale urban transit system in the United States this year- soliciting bids for nine stations, and unveiling designs for one at the airport. A number of cities around the world use driverless transit systems, with London announcing this year that it planned to join this group. In addition to safety advantages the service benefits are just as great, with more trains capable of running closer together.

Europe Strikes Back Against Traffic. Several major European cities issued dramatic restrictions to drivers this year. Madrid will ban cars in the city center for non-residents; Paris will do the same and reserve some roads exclusively for cleaner hybrid and electric cars; London will enhance its low-emission zone into an ultra-low-emission zone. These policies help address two of the huge invisible social costs of driving-congestion and pollution-and will hopefully inspire other major global cities to follow suit.

With California Joining the Fight. In July, CityLab broke news that California planned to replace a car-friendly engineering metric known as "level of service" with a transit-friendly alternative that focuses on vehicle miles traveled. That's a lot of jargon, but the upshot is simple: road projects should get tougher to complete in California cities, moving forward, and bus and bike and train projects should get noticeably easier. A case in point is San Francisco's Van Ness BRT project, which likely would have saved years of work and millions of dollars under the new system.

California High-Speed Rail Authority

New York Declares Its "Vision Zero." Borrowing a page from Sweden's phenomenal road safety record, New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio announced its own Vision Zero-a bold plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths and injuries. Several Vision Zero elements have been implemented to date, the most notable being a speed limit reduction to 25 miles an hour. Street safety in New York still has a long way to go, but the conversation is moving in the right direction, and other metros have taken notice; San Francisco has a similar initiative in the works.

The Rise of On-Demand Transit. This summer, reports emerged that the City of Helsinki, Finland, is entertaining the idea of establishing a point-to-point, on-demand transport system that would render car-ownership unnecessary. Just how serious the city is remains to be seen, but general interest in on-demand transit is clearly on the rise, with related bus services such as Bridj entering beta tests in the United States. On-demand transit may never replace high-capacity fixed-route buses and trains, but it can expand mobility options, encourage multi-modal behavior, and reduce single-occupancy driving in cities.

Honorable Mentions. The push for pay-per-mile driving fees has moved from Oregon to California. Bike-share has shown itself a true part of the transit network (though it's still struggling to reach poor people). Singapore's free early bird transit initiative was such a great success it got an extension. Smartphones are doubling as fare cards in more and more cities. Real-time transit information is coming to a mobile app in your pocket and a digital screen in your lobby. And last as well as least-get ready for the dashboard selfie.

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The Biggest Transportation Breakthroughs of 2014

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From driverless cars to safety initiatives, it was quite a year for advancements in mobility. When considering how to summarize the Year in Transportation that was 2014, it's tempting just to compile a list of Uber-related incidents or scandals or lawsuits or absurdities and call it a day.

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America on the Move | Transportation technology

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America on the Move | Transportation technology

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America on the Move explores the role of transportation in American history. Visit communities wrestling with the changes that new transportation networks brought. See cities change, suburbs expand, and farms and factories become part of regional, national, and international economies. Meet people as they travel for work and pleasure, and as they move to new homes.

Come along on a journey through America's past.

Americans Adopt the Auto

While the other sections of the exhibit investigate a certain period in a certain era, Americans Adopt the Auto examines how Americans across the country began to use the automobile from its inception in the late 19th century until the current 1990s. From the first drivers across muddy roads to solar-powered vehicles going down the highway, explore the way America adopted the automobile.

Learning Resources

America on the Move has a variety of learning resources availble for people visiting the museum, school groups interested in activities when visiting, of supplements for in-classroom learning.

About

This website is based on an exhibition that opened at the National Museum of American History in November 2003. Objects pictured here may differ from those currently on view at the museum.

America on the Move replaces exhibits of road and rail transportation and civil engineering installed when the National Museum of American History opened as the Museum of History and Technology in 1964. These early exhibits were, for the most part, displays of artifacts chosen for their technological interest. Their labels described technological change. They were mostly devoid of human stories.

We wanted our new exhibits to be just as popular. But we wanted to engage a wider audience, an audience that has come to expect more from museums than objects in cases. And our new exhibit had to reflect the Museum's new mission: American history. We would not do an exhibit about cars and trains, or even a transportation history exhibit. It would be an exhibit about transportation in American history.

Our exhibit would be about people and events. Who rode on the vehicles? What did they carry? Where did they go? How did they change the country? And why those things happened the way they did, and why it mattered, and still matters. We decided to examine four areas in which transportation shaped American history: communities, commerce, landscapes, and lives. And we focused on big themes of American history: urbanization and industrialization, immigration and migration, race relations, work and business.

Exhibits are complex enterprises. They combine many elements, serve many purposes, meet many needs. They can't be all things to all people, but they should allow most visitors to enjoy, engage, and learn. We hope America on the Move does that.

Enjoy the show!

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America on the Move explores the role of transportation in American history. Visit communities wrestling with the changes that new transportation networks brought. See cities change, suburbs expand, and farms and factories become part of regional, national, and international economies. Meet people as they travel for work and pleasure, and as they move to new homes.

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Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling - Journalist's Resource Journalist's Resource

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Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling - Journalist's Resource Journalist's Resource

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In May 2013 the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration released estimates of U.S. traffic fatalities for 2012, and the results were troubling: 34,080 people died in motor-vehicles crashes that year, an increase of 5.3% over 2011's total and a reversal of the long-term downward trends. The meaning of the one-year shift is unclear and there is a great deal of nuance within all the numbers, but the litany of deaths remains sobering - an average of more than 93 every day.

The lowest year in recent history was 2011, when 32,367 people died on U.S. roads and highways. As horrifying as that number is, it actually constitutes progress: In 1994, 40,716 died on the roads - 26% more, and nearly 112 deaths per day. Beyond the absolute numbers, progress has been made in overall mortality rates: 1.1 per 100 million vehicle miles travelled in 2011 (it rose to 1.16 in 2012). Much of this is due to advances in vehicle safety - air bags, anti-lock brakes and increased crashworthiness. But technology can have its drawbacks as well: Since 1980 the average horsepower of U.S. cars more than doubled, and speed limits have risen significantly, greatly increasing the potential for damage, loss of life and injuries. Motorcycling is also on the rise, and fatality rates have increased in lockstep with its popularity and inherent riskiness.

A 2013 study in Research in Transportation Economics, "Comparing the Fatality Risks in United States Transportation Across Modes and Over Time," looks at the historical trends to paint a fuller picture of where this all stands. The researcher, Ian Savage of Northwestern University, prefaces his findings with an important caveat on measures of "safety":

The focus on fatalities is primarily motivated by a greater confidence that this measure of safety is reported more consistently and accurately across modes and time. In general, cross-sectional and time-series comparisons in fatalities are also indicative of differences in non-fatal injuries, illnesses, and property damage. Albeit that the correlation is not perfect. In particular, fatalities are a poor measure of some of the environmental risks associated with the transportation of oil products and hazardous materials. In addition many of the advances in safety in recent decades have focused on "crashworthiness" whereby design changes have been made to increase the survivability of crashes and mitigate the severity of injuries. Consequently it is possible that a reduction in fatalities may be partly compensated for by an increase in the number of injuries.

Savage's analysis involved two datasets: The first involved the relative risk of different travel modes - cars, buses, planes, trains, and more - from 2000 to 2009; the second was a time-series analysis for each mode from 1975 to 2010. The findings of the study include:

Between 2000 and 2009, on average 43,239 people in the United States died each year in transportation-related incidents. Based on the average number of U.S. residents over that period, the annual risk of dying in a transportation-related accident is 1 in 6,800.

Transportation-related fatalities constituted just under 2% of the 2.43 million deaths per year from all causes in the United States, or 1 in 56. Transportation was the biggest source of all "unintentional injury deaths" (38%) - those not caused by old age, disease, suicide or homicide.

Whatever the vehicle, highways are by far the most common place of transportation fatalities in the United States: 94%. If deaths that take place at rail-highway grade crossings are included, the total is even higher, at just over 95%.

Despite significant fatality rates for highway travel, overall transportation is becoming less dangerous: "The rate in 2010 is just one-third of that in 1975 (1.11 versus 3.35 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles). The 1980s and early 1990s were the era of the greatest rate of improvement."

Cars, trucks and SUVs

Nearly three-quarters of people who died in highway crashes (74%) were occupants of automobiles and light trucks. More than half (55%) occurred in single-vehicle incidents without a prior collision, including roll-overs; vehicles striking fixed objects, animals or debris; or catching fire.

The proportion of fatal single-vehicle crashes is much higher for light trucks (66%) than it is for automobiles (47%). Light trucks - including minivans, pickups and SUVs - often have a relatively higher center of gravity and thus a greater propensity to roll over.

Drivers or passengers in cars or light trucks faced a fatality risk of 7.3 per billion passenger-miles: "A person who was in a motor vehicle for 30 miles every day for a year faced a fatality risk of about 1 in 12,500. Relative to mainline trains, buses and commercial aviation the risk was 17, 67, and 112 times greater, respectively."

Because private individuals operate the vast majority of motor vehicles, their risk is highly dependent on personal behavior: "Unlike the commercial modes where passengers are victimized randomly, the risk to individual highway users varies considerably depending on age, alcohol consumption and the type of road used." (See highway risk factors below.)

"One might argue that transportation equipment, and in particular the motor vehicle, must be the most dangerous machines that we interact with on a daily basis," the researcher states. "The annual toll in motor vehicle crashes exceeds the deaths resulting from the next most dangerous mechanical device, firearms, by about 40%."

Motorcycles

Nearly 10% of all highway fatalities - one in ten - were motorcyclists: "When a motorcycle is involved in a collision with another vehicle, the motorcyclist invariably receives more serious injuries. The ratio of fatalities in two-vehicle collisions was 70 motorcyclist fatalities for each fatal injury sustained by the occupant of the other vehicle."

Over the period studied, motorcycles became increasingly popular, with use rising as much as 75%. As a consequence, fatalities have increased proportionally. This trend has been exacerbated by the "general rollback in the number of states requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets." (Earlier research has indicated that when a state repeals or weakens a helmet-use law, motorcyclist fatalities typically rise nearly 40%.)

Motorcycles had a fatality rate of 212 per billion passenger miles, by far the highest of all modes: "A motorcyclist who traveled 15 miles every day for a year, had an astonishing 1 in 860 chance of dying - 29 times the risk for automobiles and light trucks."

Highway risk factors

Urban roads are far safer than those in rural areas: "Based on data from 2009, highways in rural areas have a fatality risk that is 2.7 times greater than that in urban areas. In general the lower average speeds, greater provision of lighting, greater deployment of traffic control devices and fewer curves in urban areas more than compensate for factors such as the greater number of intersections and the presence of pedestrians."

Gender and youth play are significant factors in fatality risk: Males are three times more likely to die in a road accident than females, while people between the ages of 18 and 29 are at a 50% to 90% greater risk.

Seat-belt use is a significant factor: Half of vehicle occupants who die in automobiles and light truck incidents (49%) were not wearing seat belts or using child safety seats.

Alcohol played a role in approximately a third of all highway fatalities, with at least one of the involved parties having a blood-alcohol level above 0.8 grams per deciliter.

Related research has shown that drivers using cell phones show greater impairment than drunk drivers, and hands-free systems offered no improvement over handheld devices. Cell-phone conversations have a more profound effect on driver performance than other forms of in-car distraction, including talking to passengers and listening to the radio.

Trains

Mainline railroads claimed an average of 876 lives a year, the majority of which occur during collisions with highway users and pedestrians. The largest number of deaths, 490, involve people and vehicles not at grade crossings, and a significant portion of those deaths, approximately 85 to 110, were possibly suicides.

The balance of rail-related deaths involve motorists at grade crossings (281), pedestrians at grade crossings (68) employees and contractors working on the tracks (26). Per year on average, only seven passengers traveling on mainline trains die.

The overall fatality rate for long-haul train service is 0.43 per billion passenger miles. Excluding pedestrians and others not on trains - 64% of total fatalities assigned to railroads - the fatality rate is approximately 0.15 per billion passenger miles.

Buses

Vehicles with a capacity of 10 passengers or more represented just 0.1% of the total fatalities. On average, there were approximately 40 fatalities per year, with drivers and other bus-company employees representing 25% of lives lost.

Scheduled and charter service accounted for 44% of total bus fatalities. The balance of deaths occurred with school buses (23%), urban transit (11%) and a variety of private shuttles, church buses and other services (22%).

The fatality rate per billion passenger-miles for buses is relatively low, 0.11. However, this is still 65% greater than that for aviation, and doesn't include victims of crime. (Also, see statistics on "curbside" bus services.)

Airlines

The majority of aviation fatalities that occur each year (85%) involved private aircraft (known as "general aviation"). On average, 549 people die each year in activities such as recreational flying (41% of flight hours), business travel (24%), and instruction (17%).

Excluding acts of suicide and terrorism, commercial aviation was the safest mode of travel in the United States, with 0.07 fatalities per billion passenger miles: "A person who took a 500-mile flight every single day for a year, would have a fatality risk of 1 in 85,000." (One variable to note: Takeoffs and landings are where the risk is, not in the number of miles flown, so risk-per-flight calculations are higher.)

Walking, bicycling

Between 2000 and 2009, on average 6,067 pedestrians and bicyclists died on U.S. highways and in collisions with other modes of transport. Of these, 4,930 died when hit by cars and trucks operated by private users, 545 deaths resulted from collisions with commercial carriers, and 592 from commercial users not on highways.

In all, fatalities of pedestrians and bicyclists make up nearly 15% of annual average highway fatalities. More than 90% of pedestrian fatalities occurred when the victims were hit by automobiles and light trucks.

A related study on risk factors for on-road cycling commuters indicated that prior to car-bicycle accidents, 89% of cyclists were traveled in a safe and legal manner. In addition, vehicle drivers were at fault in 87% of the events.

A related 2013 study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, "Safety in Numbers: Are Major Cities the Safest Places in the United States?" examined the overall injury risk in urban areas compared with suburban and rural areas. Among the conclusions: Rural counties demonstrated significantly higher death rates than urban counties - 1.22 times greater for the most rural compared with the most urban. The majority of the difference was in unintentional incidents such as accidents, but some increase in suicide risk was also seen in rural areas. Overall, the study finds, "U.S. urban counties were safer than their rural counterparts, and injury death risk increased steadily as counties became more rural."

Also of interest is a 2013 report by the World Health Organization. "Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013: Supporting a Decade of Action." The study was based on country-level data and included information on newer risk factors such as cell phone use while driving. Among the findings, the report states that more than 1.24 million people die every year as a result of road traffic injuries, making it the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-29. Based on anticipated trends, by 2030 road accidents are projected to be the fifth leading cause of death globally.
Keywords: cars, trains, Amtrak, Northeast Corridor, planes, airlines, pedestrians, bicycling, safety, distracted driving, alcohol, multitasking, driving

Last updated: October 5, 2014

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Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling - Journalist's Resource

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In May 2013 the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration released estimates of U.S. traffic fatalities for 2012, and the results were troubling: 34,080 people died in motor-vehicles crashes that year, an increase of 5.3% over 2011's total and a reversal of the long-term downward trends.

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American History: The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes (VOA Special English 2010-01-10)

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American History: The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes (VOA Special English 2010-01-10)

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American History: The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes (VOA Special English 2010-01-10)

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Listen and Read Along - Text with Audio - For ESL Students - For Learning English

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How Transportation Technologies Will Change Everything

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How Transportation Technologies Will Change Everything

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The transportation systems around which the modern world has been built are on the verge of a significant transformation. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are making driving and traffic management better and safer for everyone.

Transportation typifies the FutureStructure framework. ( FutureStructure is a sister publication of Governmet Technology.) Soft infrastructure - the realm of concepts, policies and legislation - is rapidly evolving to accommodate the demand for global investment in hard transportation infrastructure. Technology is bridging the two as vehicles and the infrastructure on which they operate become increasingly connected.

Traffic and population growth create demand for more transportation infrastructure, but many jurisdictions don't have sufficient money or space to build more roads and rail.

Despite cities lacking funds population growth will continue - the World Health Organization expects 7 out of 10 people on the planet will live in cities by mid-century. Coupled with climate change concerns, cities leaders must start rethinking the very nature of existing transportation systems.

New transportation technologies are emerging to meet these challenges, including connected and autonomous vehicles, alternative fuels, keyless fleet management and traffic analytics, as well as local zoning and planning policies that support transit-oriented development. New technology for on-road communications will dramatically change how vehicles operate and provide information and capabilities for better, real-time traffic management - if the necessary network infrastructure is in place.

ITS is poised to transform transportation into a connected, dynamic component of the city-as-a-system. Perhaps more importantly, the greater ease in moving about will have a positive impact on quality of life and commerce for residents, visitors and local businesses.

The Promise of ITS

"Cities are struggling with transportation today and will struggle even more in the future," said Bill Ford, Jr., executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, while addressing the ITS World Congress in Detroit in September 2014. "We need to redefine what mobility is for the coming century."

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, ITS improves transportation safety and mobility by integrating advanced, wireless communications technologies into transportation infrastructure and vehicles. The purpose of ITS is to process and share information that can prevent vehicle collisions, keep traffic moving and reduce environmental impacts.

Coordinating traffic signals, giving signal priority to transit lanes, electronic information signs and variable speed limit signs are all part of the burgeoning ITS industry. Also part of ITS is the ability to automatically distribute real-time traffic data to websites, social media feeds, mobile apps, and local TV and radio stations.

"Instead of a bunch of independent systems on the local, national or even global level, ITS creates a transportation network that works like the Internet, where everything is connected, but also open for standards-based communication, which reduces costs and creates value for everyone involved in managing traffic," said David Pickeral, who leads the Industry Smarter Solutions Team for Transportation at IBM.

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles

Perhaps the most anticipated element of ITS is the connected vehicle. The imminent arrival of connected vehicles is one reason for new visions of transportation within a metro area.

Connected technology focuses on wireless communication: vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), collectively referred to as V2X. Intended primarily to improve safety, V2V technology allows cars to continually communicate to the vehicles around them so each are aware of the others' speed, heading and direction. Connected vehicles also help in recognizing and alerting drivers to dangerous situations. By adding communication points in hazardous road areas and intersections, V2I technology extends crash-reduction capabilities by allowing automatic control of signal timing, speed management, and operation of transit and commercial vehicles.

"The connected vehicle technologies are ready," said Suzanne Murtha, senior program manager for intelligent transportation initiatives at Atkins Global. "Now it's a matter of governments capturing and sharing data about real-time, on-the-street traffic conditions so drivers can make better choices."

A different but related technology is that of autonomous vehicles, perhaps the most famous example of which is the Google self-driving car. Autonomous cars use a combination of LIDAR (similar to sonar but with laser light), GPS, optical cameras and big-time processing power to analyze millions of possible roadway scenarios and then take the appropriate action. The ultimate goal for autonomous vehicle technology is to make the vehicle so intelligent that no driver input is needed. However, truly autonomous vehicles, wherein the driver can give up complete control to the car, remain on the distant horizon. According to Ford, it is incremental technological advancement that will one day lead to driverless cars.

"By the time we get to full autonomy, the last step won't seem like such a big deal," he said. "Even as we put in a lot of these features the driver still has to be vigilant and in control."

Malcolm Dougherty, director of the California Department of Transportation, agreed. At the ITS World Congress he said that while he believed "the development of autonomous vehicle technology is going to accelerate ... for the time being the motorist will always be responsible for the vehicle."

If you buy a new car today, you're getting a preview of how driving will change as we move into the era of autonomous, connected vehicles. Features that help you park the car in a tight spot, automatically adjust cruise control speeds and sound an alert when the car drifts out of its lane are examples of technology now offered by automakers. Several states have already passed laws that allow autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads.

In September, California approved three permits for Volkswagen, Mercedes and Google to start autonomous vehicle testing under Senate Bill 1298, which requires the state to adopt formal autonomous vehicle testing rules by 2015.

"When SB 1298 was working its way through, everyone thought that the technology was quite a number of years away - and we were all very surprised as we met with the car manufacturers and industry, about how far along the technology really is," California Department of Motor Vehicles CIO Bernard Soriano told FutureStructure's sister publication . "Getting a chance to see the technology up close and being able to experience it is mind-boggling. It's exciting to be working on this because we're on the cusp of societal change. I'm not one to use hyperbole, but this one is a game-changer. It will change the way we function as a society, for the better."

California State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who introduced SB 1298 two years ago, shared in the excitement, saying in a statement that "this technology takes a bold step forward. Driverless vehicles will revolutionize transportation, reduce traffic accidents and save lives. Establishing safety standards for these vehicles is an essential step in that process."

Terry D. Bennett, senior industry program manager, civil engineering and planning at Autodesk, said while the autonomous vehicle concept is compelling, focusing on V2I and V2V makes more practical sense in cities.

"I think [autonomous cars] more than anything create a lot of space for people to think differently," he said. "But with Detroit and other cities looking at dedicated roads for vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, you're starting to see the point that having infrastructure that's intelligent, has sensors and can communicate, is a much better long term approach than trying to automate a single car."

Indeed, the U. S. Department of Transportation estimates that V2V technology may eliminate or reduce the impact of up to 80 percent of crashes involving unimpaired drivers. In a Governing Institute survey, 62 percent of local officials agreed that autonomous and connected vehicles will mean fewer crashes. Fifty-one percent also foresee improved mobility and reduced congestion as more intelligent vehicles take to the road.

Electric Vehicles

Oregon is gaining both environmental and economic development benefits from its infrastructure and program investments to support electric vehicles (EVs). The most visible of these investments is the West Coast Electric Highway, which includes charging stations along Interstate 5 in Oregon, Washington and eventually California. Based on positive public response, Oregon is installing EV charging stations along other key highways and encouraging private businesses to install stations as well.

Travel Oregon, the state's tourism office, runs a targeted EV tourism program, "Oregon Electric Byways," with suggested itineraries and a partnership with Enterprise Rent-a-Car for EV rental.

"It's hard to separate the infrastructure from economic development because the infrastructure starts the conversation about EVs, especially outside of major cities," said Ashley Horvat, Oregon's chief electric vehicle officer and the first person in the public sector to hold this role. "By placing charging stations around the state, we went into communities that had never seen EVs, which really increased adoption and created a positive perception for Oregon within the EV industry."

In September, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1275, which sets a goal for the state to put 1 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2023. The bill also authorizes the state to provide financial incentives for consumers to purchase such vehicles, part of the governor's effort to make electric cars affordable for lower-income workers.

"I'm excited that California is charging ahead with plans to have electric vehicles in every zip code across the state," the bill's author, California State Sen. Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement. "We're going to lead the way in the fight against climate change by putting a million EVs on the roads, which means making them affordable to all drivers, not just the wealthy."

Driving Data

Intelligent infrastructure generates data that helps civic leadership make better decisions. For local transportation managers, connected vehicles and connected infrastructure will be tools for traffic data collection and analytics.

Better traffic flow is achievable in part with better systems for collecting and analyzing real-time traffic data. In this arena, transportation managers can learn from the technologies and practices deployed by private companies, especially those with large fleets.

For instance, some keen-eyed observers know that the familiar brown UPS trucks rarely make a left turn. The reason is that for decades UPS has worked to optimize routes. The UPS On-Road Integrated Optimization Navigation (ORION) software, which provides analytics for routing the company's delivery trucks, is the latest in route optimization. The system combines daily data on package delivery commitments and historical route tracking to identify the optimal path (out of hundreds of thousands of possibilities) for each UPS driver to follow that day. UPS expects the ORION system to significantly reduce fuel consumption and miles driven in its trucks. Public transportation departments will benefit from using similar analytics tools said Tom Madrecki, strategic communications manager at UPS.

"It's really about diving into the data and, based on where people need to go, determining how to make the transportation system the best it can be, then investing in the needed technology to realize those improvements," Madrecki said.

ITS and the Path to Smart Cities

No matter how promising the new technology, local transportation officials are caught in a classic funding bind - it's impossible to reduce costs without making investments, but funding for infrastructure investments is scarce or nonexistent. In a recent Governing Institute survey, 78 percent of respondents indicated lack of funding was the key barrier to developing ITS, well ahead of the 45 percent who cited an aging infrastructure as the key barrier.

"We need to create a framework for private entrepreneurship to lead the way," argued Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad during a panel at the ITS World Congress. "Legislation at the state and federal level needs to be loosened up."

In many cases, public-private partnerships will have a larger role in financing new transportation projects. "Many state and local governments don't have the staff and other resources to implement projects on this large scale," said Nicholas Fluehr, a managing director at Wells Fargo. "Although municipal bond financing is still a viable option, partnering with the private sector can be a good option from both a cost and efficiency standpoint."

As traffic volumes continue to grow in the coming decades, the public sector will need to consider every possible opportunity to better manage all transportation systems and infrastructure.

"For state and local governments, the question is which investments will allow them to more effectively and efficiently utilize the existing transportation infrastructure," said Murtha. "You can spend billions on new roads and light rail or you can make a much smaller investment in the communications technology that will allow more vehicles to operate intelligently on current streets and highways."

One of the recurring themes of the ITS World Congress was that we're on the cusp of an extraordinary revolution in transportation, one that may save government billions of dollars by facilitating far better utilization of existing transportation infrastructure.

"Investing in last century's infrastructure is cheaper in the short run but more costly in the long run," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell C. McAdam in a keynote address at the ITS World Congress.

That's why the smart cities of the future will be those that embrace and integrate intelligent transportation systems. While driverless cars may be a long way off, vehicle connectivity is not.

"A smart, connected infrastructure will improve the quality of all our lives," McAdam said. "Job No.1 in achieving this potential is bringing connectivity to every car."
This story was originally published by FutureStructure.

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How Transportation Technologies Will Change Everything

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The transportation systems around which the modern world has been built are on the verge of a significant transformation. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are making driving and traffic management better and safer for everyone. Transportation typifies the FutureStructure framework. ( FutureStructure is a sister publication of Governmet Technology.)