 Millions of Americans face traffic congestion. Public opinion polls have identified congestion as a top concern in many areas. Congestion means frustration, lost time, lost productivity, and lost revenues. In America's 25 largest cities alone, delays caused by traffic congestion result in economic losses of $42 billion annually. Congestion also degrades the environment and wastes costly fuel. Today's congestion is a result of dramatic increases in travel on our nation's highway system. In the past 20 years, travel demand has almost doubled to over 2 trillion vehicle miles per year. By 2020, demand is expected to double again to nearly 4 trillion vehicle miles. Highway safety is also a major concern. In 1987, accidents claimed more than 47,000 lives and caused 3.5 million injuries. Safety will become an even greater challenge in the future as travel increases and our driver population matures. To continue to flourish as a nation, we must seek new ways to improve mobility, productivity, and safety on our roads. The President's National Transportation Policy defines four strategies to address future transportation needs. Build new capacity, manage travel demand, increase operational efficiency, and advance new technologies. A balanced application of all strategies is needed to meet our transportation demands. The fourth strategy offers many potential solutions. Advancing new technologies to create safer, more efficient highways and vehicles and more informed travelers is known as Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, or IVHS. IVHS is not a single static technology, but rather a group of evolving communication, computer, and control technologies. IVHS includes five interactive elements. Advanced Traffic Management Systems, ATMS. Advanced Traveler Information Systems, ATIS. Advanced Public Transportation Systems, APTS. Commercial Vehicle Operations, CVO. And Advanced Vehicle Control Systems, AVCS. Advanced Traffic Management Systems will monitor, control, and manage area-wide operations. It will serve as the communications link between the roadway, vehicle, and traveler. Current Traffic Management Systems concentrate on either freeway networks or arterial signal systems. Advanced Systems will provide broader coverage, integrating and coordinating freeway, arterial, and transit management systems. ATMS will gather real-time data through surveillance and detection technologies that allow active management of the transportation network. This information will identify congestion and control and manage traffic by optimizing system components, such as traffic signal timing and ramp meter rates. Real-time traffic information will also be provided to travelers, so they may make informed decisions about which route or mode of travel to choose. Prompt detection and verification of traffic incidents and effective coordination among responsible agencies will reduce incident response times. This in turn will reduce delay and the potential for secondary accidents. Traffic Management Systems are currently operating or being installed in many cities in the United States. One advanced system is the Smart Corridor Project located along the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles. This project features traffic and incident management strategies, such as ramp metering, changeable message signs, and centrally controlled traffic signals. Other advanced traffic management systems include the Inform Project on Long Island, New York, Fame in Seattle, and GuideStar in Minnesota. The second element of IVHS, Advanced Traveler Information Systems, will provide travelers with trip and traffic information and with safety and warning messages. Travelers will be able to receive pre-trip travel information using computer terminals, kiosks, or teletext while at home, work, or shopping. Once on the road, the motorist will be able to receive real-time traffic and safety information. Changeable message signs will provide motorists with traffic information and with safety and warning messages related to environmental conditions. Local traffic and safety conditions may also be provided to the motorist by radio broadcasts, highway advisory radio, or new radio broadcast technologies such as Radio Data System or RDS. On-board systems will provide navigation information and deliver real-time traffic and safety information from the Advanced Traffic Management Center or from roadside transmitters. This information will be presented to the driver in audio, text, or graphic form using a visual display unit, or possibly a head-up display. Major operational tests to develop advanced traveler information systems include Pathfinder, TravTech, and Advance. Pathfinder provides up-to-the-minute traffic congestion information to 25 vehicles operating along the smart corridor in Los Angeles. TravTech will provide traffic congestion information, optimal route guidance, and motorist services to 100 test vehicles in the Orlando, Florida area. Advance will also provide drivers with dynamic routing instructions, as many as 5,000 vehicles in the Chicago area will serve as probes, supplying real-time traffic information to the Traffic Management Center. The third element of IVHS, Advanced Public Transportation Systems, will use advanced technologies to make public transportation more attractive. Market development strategies will provide multimodal transportation options via telephone, radio, television, and personal computers. Customer interface will provide travelers using public transportation with real-time information on routes, service schedules, and fares. Vehicle operations and communications will use automatic vehicle location and communication technologies to monitor, control, and better manage public transportation systems. HOV preference and verification will encourage travelers to shift to high-occupancy vehicles by providing preferential access to bypass lanes at metered ramps or special parking at rideshare formation points. Smart commuter projects in California, Houston, and Bellevue, Washington will focus on market development efforts. Oregon and Chicago efforts will evaluate vehicle operations and communications technologies. The fourth IVHS element, Commercial Vehicle Operations, will enhance the efficiency of the motor carrier industry and regulatory agencies. Faster, more efficient practices are essential to maintain competitive services and prices in both the domestic and international marketplace. Several technologies are available or are being developed to achieve higher productivity and improve safety. Computer-aided dispatch, often combined with automatic vehicle location, transmits and receives scheduling and routing messages between a dispatcher and driver, saving valuable time each day, and reducing fuel use and emissions. Automatic vehicle identification uniquely identifies vehicles as they pass specific points on the roadway. This is useful for toll collection, traffic management, enforcement, and many other purposes. Way in motion combined with automatic vehicle classification uses sensors to weigh moving commercial vehicles, thereby significantly reducing delay to motor carriers. The Heavy Vehicle Electronic License Plate Program, or HELP, is a long-term program to develop and use automatic vehicle identification, automatic vehicle classification, way in motion, onboard computers, and beacon technologies. Crescent, the demonstration phase of HELP, will use a centralized system approach to electronically verify operating credentials and monitor vehicle weights. Advantage I-75 will use a decentralized management approach. Initial efforts will employ automatic vehicle identification to allow mainline pre-clearance of commercial vehicles. Future efforts will continue to address the standards, institutional and technology issues that will provide for the improved safety and free movement of properly documented carriers. The final element of IVHS, Advanced Vehicle Control Systems, will help drivers perform various vehicle functions. Early systems will warn the driver of the presence of obstacles or other vehicles in driver blind spots, and will enhance night time and poor weather visibility. Later stages of AVCS will include limited vehicle control to assist the driver. Long-term systems will include fully automatic steering and headway control within dedicated lanes. Research on advanced vehicle control systems includes California's PATH program and several private sector activities. Europe and Japan also have focused well-funded programs to develop, test, and implement IVHS technologies. These programs encourage cooperative research and development between industries and governments. The success of these programs depends on cooperative partnerships between the public and private sectors. In the United States, the need for public-private partnerships was first recognized with the establishment of Mobility 2000, an informal coalition of government, industry, and university leaders. From the foundation laid by Mobility 2000, a national organization known as the Intelligent Vehicle Highway Society of America has been established. IVHS America will coordinate future IVHS activities. Intelligent vehicle highway systems cannot solve all of our congestion and safety challenges. However, the potential benefits are impressive. Mobility 2000 estimates that savings of $75 billion are possible by the year 2010 as a result of decreased congestion. IVHS also has the potential to save 11,000 lives and avoid 440,000 injuries annually. IVHS can also improve air quality, increase personal mobility, assist older drivers, enhance fleet management and productivity, and provide numerous other benefits to our nation. When these technologies are implemented, making travel plans will be much easier. IVHS will allow travelers to make informed decisions both before the trip and along the way. To fulfill its potential, IVHS must reach urban and rural America. Time and resources must be invested now. The benefits of IVHS will enhance the lives of every American.