navigate: home: magazine: fall 1999: article

Technology enhances transportation safety and mobility By Deborah A. Benedetti
Dr. Konstadinos G. Goulias, director of the Penn State Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and associate professor of civil engineering, was conference director for the 1998 Rural Advanced Technology and Transportation Systems international conference. During the conference, he also presented his research on “A Rural ITS Model for Small Communities with Special Attractions: The Centre County/Penn State Demand-based Approach.” Dr. David Wormley, dean of the Penn State College of Engineering, welcomes participants to a transportation conference on Enhancing Safety and Mobility in Rural America. The college was a primary sponsor of this international event. The Hon. Bradley Mallory, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, describes the state’s use of intelligent transportation systems to improve mobility and safety on rural roads. A car equipped with computerized safety systems that can help a driver avoid potential road hazards was a featured attraction for some 400 transportation officials from the United States and other countries. Dr. Stuart Heydt, president and chief of executive officer of the Penn State Geisinger Health System, stresses the link between transportation and accessibility of health care in rural Pennsylvania during the Rural Advanced Technology and Transportation Systems conference. John Bagby, professor of business law at Penn State, outlines legal issues affecting rural intelligent transportation systems.	Smart traffic signals that keep traffic flowing during rush hour, devices that collect data on road conditions and relay it to road maintenance crews and motorists and mayday systems for cars that send an automatic call for emergency service even if the driver is unconscious are just a few examples of how information and communications technologies are being used to improve safety and convenience for drivers. Known collectively as intelligent transportation systems (ITS), these applications were at the center of discussions during the 1998 international conference on Rural Advanced Technology and Transportation Systems. “This is the first time this conference has been held at Penn State,” Dr. Konstadinos G. Goulias, conference director, said. He is director of Penn State’s Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and associate professor of civil engineering. “This is also the largest gathering for this conference, with nearly 400 people attending from throughout the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and other countries.” Dr. David Wormley, dean of the Penn State College of Engineering, welcomed participants to the conference whose theme was “Enhancing Safety and Mobility in Rural America.” Conference topics dealt with ways intelligent transportation systems can be used to address rural mobility needs and safety issues, provide information on weather and tourist sights for travelers and speed emergency personnel to accident scenes in rural areas. “This is a particularly appropriate conference for Penn State to host,” Wormley said. “Our land-grant mission is to provide research results to both rural and urban residents. This conference offers an opportunity to share important new information about rural development and transportation issues.” The Hon. Bradley Mallory, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, noted that intelligent transportation systems are a vital tool in helping the state manage its network of some 118,000 miles of state and local roads, of which about 85,000 miles, or 72 percent, are rural. Because of the state’s geographic location, severe winter snow storms can cripple rural areas, Mallory said. After the Blizzard of 1996, Pennsylvania began installing a rural ITS application called Roadway Weather Information System at 51 sites. These mini weather stations along roads are integrated into a computer network that is providing real-time data on road conditions, traffic flow, precipitation, wind speed and direction, pavement and air temperature and the concentration of de-icing chemical on the road. “The data gained from these sites are allowing us to make better programming decisions that not only help us better manage traffic, but also save money,” Mallory said. Another speaker emphasized the link between transportation and health care. Dr. Stuart Heydt, president and chief executive officer of the Penn State Geisinger Health System, said, “The impact of mobility and accessibility are increasingly intertwined.” He is concerned with issues of access to health care information and services, routine medical care and critical care, as well as emergency response time for vehicle crashes and farm accidents in rural areas. Response times for emergency care are longer for each step in the process in rural areas, compared with urban areas. Time is critical, he said, because the health status of accident victims deteriorates rapidly within the first hour after an accident. This “golden hour” is the window in which medical response is needed to save a life. “Pennsylvania has the nation’s largest rural population (according to the 1990 U.S. Census),” Heydt said. “There are 3.7 million rural residents. Penn State Geisinger Health System serves people in more than 40 predominately rural counties. Health care is very much a stakeholder in the transportation arena.” The conference was sponsored by ITS America, the Federal Highway Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in collaboration with Penn State, including the College of Engineering, the Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Applied Research Lab and Penn State Geisinger Health System, as well as the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center. A local organizing committee worked with Continuing Educationd’s Conferences and Institutes staff to plan the conference, which was held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Transportation liability issues During a session on Rural Mobility Issues, John Bagby, professor of business law at Penn State, talked about “Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Factors in Rural Intelligent Transportation System Development.” His talk was based on research he conducted with Dr. Gary Gittings, research associate with the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, which was funded by the ITS-Idea Program. “The potential for liability changes behavior. Liability is a deterrent,” said Bagby, who has 20 years of experience with legal issues involving transportation. When an accident occurs and legal action is involved, courts increasingly allocate responsibility based on 100 percent, with each responsible party being assigned a percentage of responsibility, he explained. In a traffic accident, responsible parties can include the driver or drivers, the manufacturer of the various intelligent transportation systems involved and the infrastructure owner or operator (such as a state department of transportation). Many states are considering and/or implementing tort and product liability reforms. More than half of the states already have liability damage caps. In the meantime, Bagby’s prescription for reducing risk factors and potential liability for intelligent transportation systems involves the systems safety engineering approach, including: extensive laboratory and human factors testing, setting of standards and design certification, system testing and system certification, and continuous field testing. An outreach program of the College of Engineering