Transportation Infostructures is the first volume stemming from the Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies, Inc.'s, information-based infrastructure project. This work was conducted under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The project, which is international in scope, represents a cooperative effort whose goal is to assess the value of information technology in societal infrastructures and, where appropriate, to bring about the policy conditions needed to facilitate its development and application in order to improve the quality of life for the broadest possible segment of the genera] public. Just as the commercial application of information technology has vastly impacted and improved business, the use of technology could dramatically enhance critical areas of public, noncommercial life, such as the two examined thus far in this project, road transportation and health care. The various books and briefings resulting from the project, together with the working papers prepared as part of the study, evaluate policies in the United States, Europe, and Japan to determine which ones stimulate and which ones inhibit the development of particular information-based infrastructures. The project is exploring the links between the private sector and public policy in the development of information-based infrastructure systems technology and assessing the interplay of government and business in maximizing the benefits of technological change. In addition, it is examining how technology and markets catalyse each other-how technology facilitates markets and how markets stimulate technological advancement and societal change. This book focuses on road and vehicular infrastructures and the roles that intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology can play in solving the major current and anticipated future societal problems of traffic congestion and delay as well as travel safety. Special attention is given to environmental and economic concerns related to these problems.
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