New york city will face increased traffic congestion unless improvements in traffic management are made. Implementable, feasible, and cost-effective solutions must focus on managing congestion, whether triggered by normal demand-capacity imbalance, temporary network constrictions that result from traffic incidents, or road work. Advances in computer applications in traffic management and the availability of inexpensive, sophisticated components make the use of high-tech traffic management systems a realistic option. In europe and japan, research and development on intelligent vehicle-highway systems has been conducted and is enthusiastically supported by cooperative government-industry programs. New york city has not kept up with trends in alleviating congestion. The new york city department of transportation believes that high-tech traffic management systems can be used to optimally allocate the existing capacity to meet growing traffic needs. A conceptual master plan was developed to lay out possible applications of computer technologies to meet traffic management needs toward the end of this century and into the twenty-first century in new york city. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1299, Hov facilities and transportation systems management 1991 .
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