DAILY® NEWS50C http://www.mostrMwyork.com N E W Y O R K ' S H O M E T O W N N E W S P A P E R Monday, November 3, 1997

PAT CARROU. DAILY NEWS

Toll lane records usedin crime cases; divorcecourt could be next

b-ZPass slows thosetrafficking in wrongBy AUCE MCQUILLAN and JAMES RUTENBERGDaily News StafT Wnters

Fleeing bank robbers, mobsters on the run and phi-landering husbands engaged in interborough trystsshould think twice if they plan to use E-ZPass to maketheir escapes.

Law enforcement authori-ties are aggressively using theelectronic toll system in crimi-nal investigations, expectingrecords to put them in the ex-press lane to the bad guys.

Transportation officialssaid so far they have provided

E-ZPass records to cops andprosecutors tracking themovement of suspects in 35criminal cases — a numberthat is likely to grow astro-nomically.

"It will become anotheritem to be checked off in a rou-

tine investigation," said aNew York Police Departmentinvestigator who spoke oncondition of anonymity. "Youmust do it It will be an omis-sion not to do i t"

Civil libertarians predictthat others — divorce lawyers,for example — are likely to be-gin seeking access to the sameE-ZPass information.

"When he says. 'I was atwork, Honey,1 now she cancheck the E-ZPass and provehe was at the Hot Bed Motel in

E-ZPASS RECORD shows tag, date, time and location of bridge or tunnel used, making it possible forauthorities to track the movements_of all vehicles equipped with the electronic toij system's sensors.

Long Island," said divorce at-torney Raoul Felder.

New York Civil LibertiesUnion attorney Norman Sie-gel said he feared the informa-tion could be used in politicalcampaigns or to smear publicpersonalities.

"Once you have the capacityto track the whereabouts ofcitizens," he said, "it opens ahuge door for violations of pri-vacy."

The sought-after informa-tion is gathered each time acar with an E-ZPuss sensor inits front windshield goesthrough a toll. Tolls nn> iiulu-matically deducted from ;ipre-paid account — and a rec-ord is made of exactly wherethat car has been and when.

Of course, it doesn't tellwho's driving. But law en-forcement types said it'sworth checking.

And in at least one big case,it came in handy: When policewere trying to track downmissing millionaire NelsonGross, who was abducted bytwo t e e n s o u t s i d e hisEdgewater, N.J. restaurantSept 17.

E-ZPass records showed hiscar had crossed over theGeorge Washington Bridgetwice that day and his bodywas found in Manhattan dayslater by the Hudson Rivernear the span.

" I t ' s s ignificant ," saidEdgewater Detective AlexHanna, who worked on theGross case. "It can put a per-son in a place at a certaintime; that would be importantto any investigation."

The NYPD investigator saidthat access "to a suspect'smovements often will revealcoverups or lies in their sto-ries. And in terms of a homi-cide victim's movements, itwill provide answers to ques-tions only the perpetratorwould know."

When the T r ibo roughBridge and Tunnel Authoritylaunched E-ZPass, it brushedoff questions about confiden-tiality with assurances thatrecords would be tightly keptAt first, the TBTA demandedail requests for information beaccompanied by a court-or-dered subpoena.

But during a Brooklyn homi-cide investigation last sum-mer, the NYPD fought the CTBTA's policy in court andwon. A judge ruled the recordscould be obtained without thecourt order.

Since then, the TBTA hasmodified its policy and tellsits customers that their rec-ords will be kept from law en-forcement authorities exceptin cases involving "seriouscrime."

Michael Vaccari, generalcounsel for the MetropolitanTransportation Authority, ad- 'mitted that the agency doesnot have a standard defining"serious crime."

"There would bo a judgmentcall as to whether or not the

4 9 DAILY NEWS • Monday, November 3, 1997

P A S S FROM PAGE THREE

matter is serious," he said. He said since the Brook-lyn case was a homicide, "it was pretty clear."

Using this case-by-case approach, the MTA hasturned down 15 requests for E-ZPass records fromlaw enforcement officials.

The agency does refuse all requests involving civillitigation — lawsuits, divorces and custody suits. Sofar, TBTA officials said, they've only received one re-quest.

And, while civil libertarians said the summercourt decision could open the records to people oth-er than law enforcement, Vaccari said that won'thappen. "There is no public interest for us, essen-tially a government agency, to get involved in a di-vorce proceeding," he said.

To make sure, he said, the agency wants legislationthat would make it impossible for civil litigants to gettheir hands on E-ZPass info.

Others worry that no matter what the law says, theinformation will get out

"If information is i nside a room and the room costs50 bucks to get a key, someone will try and do it," sea-soned private invpstieator.loo Mullen said.

INTELLIGENT TRANSPDRTATIDN SOCIETY OF AMERICA'SEIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING AND EXPOSITION

PRELIMINARY PRDGRAM

INTELLIGENT TRANSPDRTATIDN SDCIETYDF AMERICA'S EIGHTH ANNUAL

MEETING AND EXPDSITIDN

INTELLIGENTTRANSPDRTATIDN SYSTEMS:

TECHNDLDGY FDR TODAYMAY 4-7, 1 99S

CDBD HALL, DETRDIT, MICHIGAN

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SESSIDN DESCRIPTIONS

expanding our knowledge base, and exam-ining various model validation approachesas ITS systems are deployed. • ••. •

ModeratorAugust Burgett, Chief, Light VehicleDynamics & Simulation, NationalHighway Traffic SafetyAdministration, Washington, DC,

Panelists> Thomas Dingus, Director, Center for

Transportation Research, VirginiaTech, Blacksburg, Virginia

>• Valerie Gawron, Principal Engineer,Calspan SRL Corporation, Buffalo, NewYork

>- Eugene Farber, Manager, WHS Safety& Regulatory Issues, Ford MotorCompany, Dearborn, Michigan

>• Louis Tijerina, Research Scientist,Transportation Research Center Inc.,East Liberty, Ohio

>- Raja Sengupta, Assistant ResearchEngineer, University of California,Berkeley, Richmond, California

7 Societal Issues: What theIntelligent Vehicle Initiativehas to Learn from theExperiences of theAutomated Highway SystemThis session will address the SocietalIssues studied prior to, during, and fol-lowing the Automated Highway System(AHS) Demonstration (August 7-10, inSan Diego, CA). Panelists will analyze theimplications associated with society as awhole resulting from the implementationof AHS. Lessons learned from the AHSDemonstration will be adapted to the newIntelligent Vehicle Initiative (M).Topics of discussion will include: Is thereadequate coverage pf Social Issues in thenew program? Should new research beperformed to reflect the evolutionarydevelopment of M as a validation of AHSresearch?Moderator

Michael Martin, President, MartinEnterprises & Associates, Inc., Reston,Virginia

Panelists>• Steven Shladover, Path Deputy

Director, University of California -Berkeley, Richmond, California

>- Alan Lubliner, Assistant VicePresident, PB Farradyne, New York,New York

>• Daniel Berler, U.S. Department ofTransportation, Washington, DC

8 Intermodal ITSApplications - Current &FutureModal ITS freight movement applications areemerging. Two studies will be presented onITS for ports and rail systems. The impactof megaships will be presented, includingpotential ITS applications. Airports arebeginning to employ ITS for both travelersand freight. Panel members will present theresults of their activities and discuss how tomeet the future ITS challenges.

ModeratorJohn West, Program Manager, CAL-TRANS, Sacramento, California

Panelists>- John G. Kaliski, Senior Associate,

Cambridge Systematics, Inc.,Cambridge, Massachusetts

>• Robert Larsen, Manager,Transportation Systems, Raytheon E-Systems, Falls Church, Virginia

>• Ores Zellweger, Embry-Riddle,Aeronautical University

>• Alan Myers, VZM-Transystems, Reston,Virginia

1:30 - 3:00

9 Standards & ProtocolsModerator

Allan Kirson, Senior Member Tech.Staff & Director Technology ITS,Motorola, Inc., Northbrook, Illinois

Paper Presentations>• U.S. Department of Transportation ITS

Standards Program *Michael Schagrin, Program Manager,U.S. Department of Transportation,Washington, DC, Susan Scott, Memberof Technical Staff, JPL, Washington, DC

>• An Adventure in Purchasing NTCIPCompliant VMS: Virginia Departmentof Transportation's Lessons Learned*Joerg Rosenbohm, SeniorTransportation Engineer, ViggenCorporation, Sterling, Virginia, CraigFranklin, Senior TransportationEngineer, Viggen Corporation,Sterling, Virginia, Robb Alexander,Dave Fogg and Mike Winn,Transportation Engineers, VirginiaDepartment of Transportation,Richmond, Virginia

>• Emerging Interoperability withNational TransportationCommunication for ITS Protocols(NTCIP) *Raman K. Patel, Vice President, PBFarradyne Inc., New York, New York,Edward J. Seymour, ResearchEngineer, Texas TransportationInstitute, Dallas, Texas

>• Ready, Set, Standardize: Building theIEEE Data Dictionary and Message SetTemplate Standards'"Valerie Shuman, Manager, StrategicDevelopment, NavigationTechnologies, Rosemont, Illinois

1 0 What You Should knowabout Paratransit andDemand Responsive Transit> SMART Operational Field Test

Evaluation Employee Survey Report*Zakia Shaikh, Research Associate,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,Michigan, Steven Underwood,Assistant Research Scientist, andRichard Wallace, Evaluation ProjectManager, University of Michigan, AnnArbor, Michigan

>• Effects of Automated Scheduling AndDispatch Technology on ParatransitSchedule Adherence in SouthernMichigan *Richard Wallace, Evaluation ProjectManager, University of Michigan, AnnArbor, Michigan, Yu-Hsin Tsai,Graduate Student Research Assistant,and Steven Underwood, AssistantResearch Scientist, Universtiy ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

>• Supporting Demand Responsive TransitOperations*Brian Smith, Senior ResearchScientist, Virginia TransportationResearch Council, Charlottesville,Virginia, Priya K. Durvasula, GraduateResearch Assistant

10fiqnprq in rtrnrpoHinnc

SESSIDN DESCRIPTIONS

transportation smart card programs in theU.S. and abroad, as well as representa-tives from the financial community whoare seeking to develop partnerships withtransportation agencies for multi-use cardprograms. Panel members will address:the technological challenges for multi-usesmart cards, evolving new partnershipsand key issues in implementing large-scale smart card programs in all modes oftransportation.

ModeratorMichael Dinning, Chief, Safety &Security Systems Division, U.S.Department of Transportation/VolpeNational Transportation SystemsCenter, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Panelists to be determined.

2 7 The ATIS DeploymentsThere are 15 significant ATIS deployedthroughtout the U.S. This conferencesession will consist of one representativefrom each of those sites to discuss andanswer questions related to their particu-lar ATIS. Topics to included: ATISBusiness Plans, what are the goals andexpectations (public and private goals)and; institutional and political concerns,constraints and opportunities.

ModeratorGeorge Schoene, Team Coordinator,Federal Highway Administration,Washington, DC

Panelists>• Marion Waters, State Traffic & Safety

Engineer, Georgia Department ofTransportation, Atlanta, Georgia

>• Gary/Chicago/Milwaukee Corridorrepresentative

>• Leon Walden, TransportationEngineer, II, Kentucky TransportationCabinet, Frankfort, Kentucky

>• Kunwar Rajendra, Engineer ofTransportation Systems, MichiganDepartment of Transportation,Lansing, Michigan (invited)

>• Gloria Stoppenhagen, Acting Manager,Metropolitan Transit Authority,Houston, Texas

>• James Wright, Assistant DivisionEngineer - ITS, Minnesota Departmentof Transportation, Roseville,Minnesota

>• Dan Powell, Chief Administrator,Arizona Department ofTransportation, Phoenix, Arizona

> Melanie Crotty, Travinfo ProjectDirector, Metropolitan TransportationCommission, Oakland, California

V Leslie Jacobson, Traffic ServicesManager, Washington Department ofTransportation, Seattle, Washington

>• Pam Marston, TransportationManagement Engineer, FederalHighway Administration, Baltimore,Maryland

>• Jackie Erlanger, Manager, Finance andPolicy, TRANSCOM, Jersey City, NewJersey (invited)

ITS Media Coverage: Howto Publicize Your ITSProgramReporters and editors from both the printand electronic media discuss what makesan ITS activity newsworthy, how best toapproach the news media, and whatworks and doesn't work in attractingmedia attention to ITS projects andprograms.

ModeratorChalmers "Hap" Carr, ProgramManager, AlliedSignal TechnicalServices Corp., Charlotte, NorthCarolina

Panelists> Hank Schaller, Oakland Press (invited)

>- Jeff Gerritt, Detroit Free Press

>• Ed Garsten, CNN -

> Murray Feldman, WJBK-TV (invited)

> Bob Giles, WXYZ-TV

> John Delle Monache, WYUR-AM

>• Dave Phillips, Detroit News (invited)

2 9 Strategies to Plan forand Develop IntegratedTransportation ManagementSystemsModerator

Lawson (Joe) Stapleton, AssistantState Traffic Operations Engineer,Georgia Department ofTransportation, Atlanta, Georgia

Paper PresentationsV San Diego's Prototype Intermodal

Transportation Management Center: ASouthern California Priority CorridorSHOWCASE Project*Bruce W. Churchill, Senior ProjectManager, National EngineeringTechnology Corp., La Mirada,California

>• Implementation of the Next-GenerationSmart Traffic Center: A State-of the-ArtTMS for Virginia Department ofTransportation in Northern Virginia *Barry Grasso, Principal SoftwareEngineer, Lockheed Martin SMSS,Seabrook, Maryland, Jimmy Chu,Manager TMS, Virginia Department ofTransportation, Arlington, Virginia

>• Integrated Corridor TrafficManagement (ICTM) Project:Minnesota DOTs Lessons Learned*Linda Taylor, ICTM Project Manager,Minnesota Department ofTransportation, Roseville, Minnesota,Lyle Berg, Traffic Engineer, City ofBloomington, Bloomington,Minnesota, and Selvin Greene, ICTMOperations Engineer, MinnesotaDepartment of Transportation,Roseville, Minnesota

>- Achieving Interoperability inAnaheim*John Thai, Prinicipal Traffic Engineer,City of Anaheim, Anaheim, California

30 User and SocietalAcceptance of AVCSSModerator

Steven E. Shladover, Deputy Director,University of California, Berkeley,PATH Program, Richmond, California

Paper Presentations^ User Acceptance of Certain Automotive

Safety Devices *Michael A. Kemp, Vice President andMark R. Kiefer, Senior Associate,Charles River Associates Inc., Boston,Massachusetts and Jane E. Lappin, ITSProgram Manager, U.S. Department ofTransportation, EG&G at the VolpeNational Transportation SystemsCenter, Cambridge, Massachusetts

>• Greater Yellowstone Rural ITS PriorityCorridor AHS Case Study*Russell Gomke, Associate ResearchEngineer, Western TransportationInstitute, Bozeman, Montana, SteveAlbert, Director, WesternTransportation Institute, Bozeman.Montana

>• A Revealed Preference Study ofAutomated Vehicle and HighwaySystems*Youngbin Yim, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, Richmond,California, Ronald Koo, HarvardUniverstiy, Cambridge, Massachusetts

14Published papers in proceedings

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

3 1 Privacy and ITS: AnUpdatePanelists will provide an update of severalactivities related to privacy occurringwithin the ITS community, particularly asapplied to specific ITS user services.Privacy activities related to the followingwill be covered: commercial vehicle oper-ations, dedicated short-range communica-tions, an international privacy standardand ITS America's Fair Information andPrivacy Principles.

ModeratorCraig Roberts, Director, Policy andPartnerships, ITS America,Washington, DC

Panelists>- Carol Coleman, Principal, Cambridge

Systematics, Boston, Massachusetts

>• Peter Houser, Engineering Manager,ITS, Signal Processing Systems, SanDiego, California

Additional panelists to be determined.

32 Future Possibilities forITS/CVO (1)The purpose of this interactive forum isto explore the issues, barriers andprospects for ITS/CVO national deploy-ment today and for the next millennium.The various strategies and stakeholderperspectives—U.S. Department ofTransportation, states, carriers, and ven-dors—for championing and deployingITS/CVO will be presented and debatedvia a facilitated dialogue, the goal ofwhich is to suggest and provide a basisfor future CVO Committee activities andto formulate a strategic direction fordeployment programs for ITS/CVO. Theforum will continue in session #40.

ModeratorDick Landis, President, HELP, Inc.,Phoenix, Arizona

Panelists>- George Reagle, Associate

Administrator, Office of MotorCarriers, Federal HighwayAdministration, Washington, DC(invited)

>• Ed Logsdon, Commissioner, KentuckyTransportation Cabinet, Frankfort,Kentucky (invited)

> Ray Chamberlain, Vice President, DMVRegulation, American TruckingAssociations, Inc., Alexandria,Virginia (invited)

>• Norman Mineta, Senior Vice President& Managing Director, Lockheed MartinIMS, Washington, DC (invited)

10:00 - 11:30am

33 U.S. Department ofTransportation's MetropolitanArea Integration PolicyThis session will describe the elements ofU.S. Department of Transportation'sapproach in assisting metropolitan areasin deploying integrated ITS to meet U.S.Department of Transportation's goal of 75equipped areas by 2005. Top officials willdetail the following key program ele-ments: incentives, training, architectureconformance, standards, and technicalguidance.

ModeratorChristine Johnson, Director, ITS JointProgram Office, U.S. Department ofTransportation, Washington, DC

Panelists to be determined.

34 Evaluation of SMART'SITS Field Operational TestThe Suburban Mobility Authority forRegional Transportation (SMART) hasinstalled an automatic scheduling anddispatch (ASD) system in southeasternMichigan for the expressed purposes ofincreasing the efficiency of their para-transit system and improving paratransitmobility in the region. This panel willpresent the results of several studiescompleted as part of the University ofMichigan's evaluation of SMART'S imple-mentation of ITS. These studies explorethree categories of evaluation outcomes:(1) objective measures of system perfor-mance, (2) employee reactions to the ITSimplementation, and (3) public reactionsto the system. Of the three, the objec-tive measures reveal the most consistent,positive evidence of beneficial results.Results from the other two categories,however, reveal significant level ofemployee dissatisfaction with the systemand a large gap in public knowledge ofSMART'S ITS program.

ModeratorSteven Underwood, Assistant ResearchScientist, University of Michigan, AnnArbor, Michigan

Panelists>• Thomas Reed, Assistant Research

Scientist, University of Michigan, AnnArbor, Michigan

>•" Richard Wallace, Evaluation ProjectManager, University of Michigan, AnnArbor, Michigan

>• Jonathan Levine, Assistant Professor,Urban Planning, University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

>• Zakia Shaikh, Research Associate,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,Michigan

3 5 Developing ATISBusiness ModelsIn order to deliver Advanced TravelerInformation Systems more effectively, inmany cases public agencies need to workeffectively and efficiently with the pri-vate sector. ATIS Business Plans aredepicted as a means of understanding,clarifying and structuring such relation-ships among public and private firms.This session will look at the need forbusiness plans and their constituentelements.

ModeratorRick Schuman, Director, SystemApplications, ITS America,Washington, DC

Paper Presentation>• Towards an ATIS Business Plan

Framework*Mark Hallenbeck, Director, Universityof Washington - TRAC, Seattle,Washington

Panelists>• Larry Sweeney, Vice President &

General Manager, Etak, Menlo Park,California (invited)

>• Jerry Pittenger, Vice President &Deputy General Manager, Battelle,Columbus, Ohio (invited)

>• Joel Markowitz, Manager, AdvancedSystems, San Francisco MetropolitanTransportation Com., Oakland,California

>• James L. Wright, Assistant, DivisionEngineer, Minnesota Department ofTransportation, Roseville, Minnesota

36 Public Relations for MDICities: Lessons LearnedThose responsible for public informa-tion/outreach in the four ModelDeployment Initiative projects —TRANSCOM in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area, AZ Techin Phoenix, TransGuide in San Antonio,and Smart Trek in Seattle — discuss whathas worked and not worked in the effortsto explain the benefits and operations oftheir projects to the news media and thecommunity at large. A question andanswer period following the briefings willbring the experience and insights ofthese panelists to bear on your ownefforts in public relations and ITSawareness.

15

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1997

Six highway-segments eyedas toll roadsByMarkArner, STAFF WRITER

A six-mile stretch of freeway linking Rancho Peflas-quitos with Carmel Valley is one of six highway seg-ments being eyed by county transportation planners aspossible toll roads.

The proposed $72 million extension of state Route56 is one of the most feasible freeways for collectingtolls, according to a study conducted by the San DiegoAssociation of Governments.

SANDAG is looking for ways to raise more moneyfor major transportation projects.

The county currently has no toll roads, but a seg-ment of state Route 125 is proposed to be the first,from about a miie south of state Route 54 to Interstate905. Construction would be paid for by private enter-prise.

"We should eliminate the word 'freeway' from ourvocabulary and start considering completing someprojects with toll roads," said Art Madrid, a member ofSANDAG and the mayor of La Mesa.

County Supervisor Pam Slater said the 19-memberboard needs to "be creative in terms of funding oppor-tunities" to raise money for sorely needed freewayimprovements.

The six freeway segments under consideration tobecome toll roads cover 32 miles and if built would costan estimated $788 million. Two of the projects arealready under construction.

"I believe that the public will be supportive of partic-ular (freeway) projects that have a reasonable toll,"said Slater, who also is a SANDAG member.

She made the comments during a SANDAG meetinglast week in Borrego Springs that focused on theprojected $9 billion funding gap in the board's recentlyadopted $24.8 billion plan through 2020.

Existing taxes and fees are expected to cover $15.8

See TOLL ROADS on Page B-8

Future toll roads?Six segments of proposed freeways or highways are being considered bySANDAG as possible toll roads. All would be four to six lanes.They are:

Jj State Scute 769.1 miles, $94 million,from the easternborder of Oceansideto Interstate 15.

JL] State Route 565.9 miles ,$72 millionfrom Carmel ValleyRoad to BlackMountain Road.

JlJ State Route 52

2.5 miles; $162 million,from Route 125 tostate Route 67.

4 I State~ U Route 125(Fanita segment)3.5 miles, $50 million,from Fletcher Parkwayto state Route 52.

5 ( State- i l Route 125(Sweetwater segment)•1.4 miles. $190 million,from state Route 54 tostate Route 94.

JLl Interstate 9056.6 miles, $220 million,from Interstate 805 tothe Mexican border.

zk. s t a t e

' N Route 125Already being plannedis a privately fundedtoll road: stateRoute 125, from stateRoute 54 south toInterstate 905; 11 miles,at a cost of $360 million.

SOURCE: SANDAG

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JIM BURNETT/ Union-Tribune-

B-8 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5,1997

Toll roadsCounty planners eyesix highway segments

Continued from B-l

billion worth of freeway, road andpublic transit improvements by2020, but SANDAG has decidedthat more improvements areneeded countywide to keep trafficflowing smoothly.

It has decided in the months andyears ahead to grapple with wheth-er to seek higher taxes or fees or tosomehow stimulate the economy toproduce more taxes to help bridgethe gap.

Lee Hultgren, SANDAG's direc-tor of transportation, said Route 56was considered to be one of thebest bets for a toll road in a studyconducted last year that analyzedroughly a half-dozen freewayscountywide for such fees.

"State Route 56 is pretty feasi-ble," Hultgren said, "becausethere's a lot of demand — up to

40,000 trips per day — and it's notthat expensive."

Hultgren said the segment ofRoute 56 would probably requiretolls of 50 cents to 75 cents pertrip, assuming that it opened be-tween 2000 and 2005.

Barbara Warden, another SAN-DAG member who represents Ran-cho Pefiasquitos on the San DiegoCity Council, said after the discus-sion that she is open to charging atoll to help fund the extension.

"I grew up in Philadelphia, so I'mused to toll roads," Warden said."All the turnpikes required us tothrow those quarters in those littlekiosks."

Warden, however, said the con-cept of toll roads drew a chilly re-ception in 1994 from many statelegislators.

"It was not well-received by themajority of the legislators that Ispoke with. They felt it was thepeople's right to have freeways(without tolls)."

Warden is spearheading a plan toconnect Route 56 with four lanes ofexpressway-style roads for $41 mil-lion, funds already earmarked for

the project. SANDAG is studyingwhether it could be upgraded to asix-lane freeway for $31 millionmore.

Financing for the initial express-way has been obtained from the cityof San Diego, the county and ahalf-cent countywide sales tax.However, more is needed to coverthe proposed freeway upgrade.

Other routes being consideredfor toll roads:

• State Route 52, from Route125 to state Route 67.

• State Route 125 (Sweetwatersegment), from state Route 54 tostate Route 94.

• State Route 125 (Fanita seg-ment), from Fletcher Parkway tostate Route 52.

• State Route 76, from the east-ern border of Oceanside at JeffriesRanch Road to Interstate 15. Theproject would expand the highwayfrom two to four lanes.

• Interstate 905, from Interstate805 to the Mexican border.

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Web on Wheels:Toward Internet-Enabled CarsAn open system that conforms to standard Internet protocols forcommunication to and from automobiles could greatly enhance driving.Existing Internet resources can be leveraged to integrate a car into theInternet. Service providers will subsequently produce innovative servicesfor drivers and passengers that will improve safety and security as well asprovide infotainment.

AkhtarJameelMatthiasStuempfleDaniel JiangAxel FuchsDaimler-BenzResearch andTechnology,North America

The services provided to customersthrough the Internet can be extended tothe automobile. Early versions ofInternet-enabled cars might hit the roadin five years or less. Portions of the tech-

nology could be available to customers in as little astwo years as an after-sales solution. Indeed, such inte-gration could become essential, given the constantaccess to information our just-in-time world seems torequire. Integration could also be two-way: Your carmight also provide information to the Internet for thepurposes of remote diagnostics, among other things.Unlike the portable method of accessing the Internetwith a laptop computer, an Internet-integrated vehi-cle is truly mobile. Mobility serves as both a challengeand a distinguishing factor in the design of our com-munication and service architecture.

With the advancement of the Global PositioningSystem (GPS) and other position-tracking technolo-gies, location awareness emerges as a distinctive char-acteristic of combining mobile computing andautomobiles. This knowledge will be used to buildcommunication and service architectures. For exam-ple, a service could provide information about thenearest gas station or restaurant.

A safe and easy-to-use human interface for driversand passengers must be designed to bring Internet-based services to moving vehicles. For example, an e-mail service must not require that drivers take theireyes off the road. We employ various alternatives, suchas speech-based technologies, to address safety con-cerns.

SCENARIOSOur overall goal is to provide "telematik" (telecom-

munications and computer science) services to driversand passengers. What types of services are interesting

to our customers and how we serve them are open ques-tions. The Internet appears to be the most appropriateinfrastructure through which to conduct car-basedservices.

Services range from the obvious to the innovative,and include the following:

• Integration of personal data to the car using per-sonal devices such as smart cards and handheldpersonal computers.

• Interactive audio and video games for passengers.• Personalized services on demand, for example,

personalized commuting information.• Location-based information on demand, for

example, the nearest Chinese restaurant.• Seamless access to office or home computers.• Roadside assistance and remote diagnostics.

These services can be grouped as generic and loca-tion based. Generic services, for example, real-timestock quotes, are not directly car-related but are ofinterest to drivers and passengers. In general, theinfrastructure for such services can be supported inthe same way as a desktop environment.

Location-based services directly relate to the car-dri-ving experience. Because the car moves, its locationchanges and thus brings new demands for services:Where is the nearest gas station? Location-based ser-vices are possible because a car's position can beknown at all times with current GPS technology.

An Internet car is similar to any other node on theInternet. Although highly mobile, an Internet car canuse the standard transmission-control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) to communicate with othernodes on the Internet. The Internet car can be a clientand a server, and in essence becomes an open platformfor services to be delivered over the Internet.

0018-9162/98/S10.00 © 1998 IEEE January 1998

Figure 1. The Internet-on-wheels concept carintegrates a mobilevehicle with servicesavailable on the Inter-net.

Customer assistance centeror other service providers

URL: VIN.mercedes-benz.carGPS

Personal devices• Smart card• H PC/PDA• Smart phone

Infraredtransceiver

Vehicle functions• Onboard diagnosis• Comfort functions

CAN Bus

Audio

EntertainmentInternet clientsInternet servers Navigation Storage device

CHALLENGESThe design of Internet access for automobiles

involves three major issues: mobile wireless commu-nications, system architecture, and user interfacedesign.

Mobile wireless communicationsNetworking requires a variety of wireless tech-

nologies.In a local area, infrared (IR) and radio frequency

(RF) technologies generally provide high-speed wire-less access of several megabits per second at relativelysmall or no cost.

At the metropolitan level, technologies such asMetricom's Ricochet network are capable of accessspeeds of tens of kilobits per second with a flatmonthly fee.

For a wide area, cellular digital packet data(CDPD) and emerging standards, such as the GeneralPacket Radio System (GPRS), achieve speeds of about10 kilobits per second at a higher cost. Furthermore,a plethora of new satellite-based systems are pro-posed. When realized, these satellite systems willdeliver globally from a few kilobits per second up toone megabit per second at a premium. Of course,when all else fails, the wireless modem over theAdvanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) cellular sys-tem is still available.

These technologies provide the basic infrastructurefor maintaining access to and from a vehicle. The mainchallenge lies in selecting the appropriate technology

according to such factors as cost, performance, andavailability.

System architectureIn connecting cars to the Internet, a system archi-

tecture must provide a flexible distribution of com-puting power and communication between theautomobile and the infrastructure. Basically, a carcould be treated as either a thin or thick client. Carswith only input/output devices and a modem to requestand receive information are thin clients; cars with state-of-the-art computing power and onboard storagemedia to receive raw data and to process it are thickclients. The key factor influencing this overall archi-tectural choice is the cost of wireless communication.

The form of the final architecture will be determinedby technologies and business models. In any case, theintegrity, security, reliability, and speed of communi-cation must be maintained. The software architectureshould also allow for the development of new servicesand benefits that adapt easily to new and evolvingInternet technologies.

User interfaceIntroducing multimedia information in a moving

vehicle creates a potential hazard. A human interfaceboth safe and convenient while mobile at vehicularspeeds significantly challenges the utility of services tobe delivered over the Internet to drivers. The require-ments for a safe human interface also have a drasticimpact on the design of services for vehicles.

Computer

SYSTEM DESIGNThe initial intent of the project was to design a sys-

tem to meet the challenges of wireless communicationand the issues relating to a user interface in a car. Atthe same time, the growth of the Internet and the Webbrought to the fore a new way of network comput-ing. The design that emerged from these factors led tothe concept of total integration of vehicle functions,personal data, position awareness, seamless access,and Internet-based services. Figure 1 shows this con-cept, which we call Internet-on-wheels.

Our system design has three major components: thecommunication layer, the service infrastructure, andthe user interface. The reliability, security, perfor-mance, and scalability of the system are also essentialaspects of our design but are beyond the scope of ourdiscussion here.

Communication layerThe communication layer must be both open and

convenient:

• Openness. In today's networking world, TCP/IPis the de facto standard for communication. Mostapplications use TCP/IP for communication, andmany resources and services available on net-works are accessible through TCP/IP, includingthe Web. It therefore must be used in any opennetworking solution. TCP/IP enables the use ofmany of today's existing applications, providesaccess to numerous resources, and encouragesnew service development. Furthermore, it doesnot make sense to require the current servers onthe Internet to change their software or hardware.

• Convenience. Many wireless data communicationtechnologies exist and more are coming. We needto support these technologies without additionalburden. First, we need to work with the avail-ability of a technology in a particular geographi-cal region. Second, customers should not have tochange the technology they currently use. Forexample, a user might be a Global Standard forMobile Communications (GSM) subscriber, inwhich case the GSM handset should plug into theuser's car to enable communication through theGSM network. To provide connectivity anywhereand to account for the coverage of different tech-nologies, one wireless network should be able tohand off to another. We cannot expect a customerto have the technical understanding to managethe handoff, nor can we expect a driver to havethe time or attention to deal with such details.Furthermore, a constant identity needs to bemaintained. Therefore, the necessary handoffamong various wireless networks must be seam-less and transparent.

Virtual home

Homeagent

ISP

Wireless

Figure 2. A typical Mobile IP communication network has a virtual home address.

TCP

IP

Internet

IP

"CP connection

Wired network Wireless

TCP

IP

connectionSender Home

agent

connectionBase Mobile

station host

Figure 3. The basic Mobile IP architecture seamlessly hands oft among intertaces.

We omit performance as a basic requirement of thecommunication layer. Although we want as much net-working performance as possible, our ability to pro-vide this in the communication layer is limited byavailable technologies and wireless service providers.So we try to provide an architecture that supports asmany existing or emerging wireless technologies aspossible, but we cannot dictate the performance ofthose wireless channels directly. Therefore, the appli-cation design should adapt to the communicationlayer's capabilities rather than the other way around.Of course, we will try to improve the networking per-formance as much as possible in our capacity.

Basic communication architecture. With augmentedhandoff support, the Mobile IP's capability of main-taining the same identity over various network accesspoints provides a natural solution.1-2 Mobile IP supports

January 1998 /

Services for anInternet car are

bidirectional. In themore common

services, the caracts as a client and

the serviceinfrastructure

. supports suchservices.

a seamless handoff among multiple wirelessinterfaces in a manner that is transparent to thehigher layers.

Figures 2 and 3 show the workings of the pro-posed Mobile IP. As Figure 2 shows, the vehiclehas a virtual home IP address. Any serviceprovider or corresponding host would alwayssee the vehicle at that IP address, which is con-nected to the Internet at large via a home agent.

The vehicle connects through a particularwireless network and an Internet serviceprovider (ISP) and uses an IP address issued bythe ISP. The vehicle registers its current addresswith a stationary host known as its home agent.In communicating with a service provider, theincoming IP traffic from the service providerwould be intercepted by the home agent and

forwarded to the current address of the vehicle.Likewise, all traffic to the service provider would besent to the home agent before being forwarded to theservice provider.

In the event of a handoff from one wireless networkor ISP to another, the actual IP address of the vehiclechanges. Such a change would be reported to the homeagent, and all subsequent IP traffic would be routed tothe vehicle at the new address. None of these activitiesis visible from the applications that use the commu-nication layer.

Communication performance. Two issues affect per-formance in this environment: TCP performance overwireless links and the handoff from one wireless net-work provider to another.

TCP3 was designed to work for the wire-line-basedInternet, which rarely creates errors in the transmissionof IP packets. In such an environment, TCP assumesthat failure to receive a packet results from congestion.In the event of a packet loss, TCP slows and sends fewerpackets to lessen the congestion. Such an algorithmworks well in the wire-line network, but not so well overthe wireless link. However, when a TCP connectionincludes a wireless link, packet loss is far more likely tobe caused by errors in a wireless channel. Consequently,TCP data should be sent faster, not slower.

The networking research community has done muchto improve performance over lossy wireless links. Ingeneral, the proposed solutions fall into three groups:

• An end-to-end connection is intended to improveTCP performance relative to that of wireless com-munication.

• A split TCP connection divides a TCP connec-tion into two end-to-end parts.

• The reliable link layer has some knowledge of theTCP.4

The end-to-end and link-layer solutions work com-

paratively well. However, any end-to-end solutionrequires changes at the TCP layers of both the senderand the receiver. All servers on the Internet that ourcustomers might contact cannot be expected toupgrade their TCP software, leaving the link-layersolution as the most feasible measure for improvingTCP performance.

One link-layer solution employs a snooping agent."A snooping-agent observes and caches the TCP pack-ets going out to the mobile host on the wireless link.When the agent senses that some packets are lost (bymonitoring the acknowledgment packets coming backfrom the mobile host), it retransmits the cached TCPpackets. In this way, the snooping agent effectivelyprevents the effect of packet loss on the wireless linkfrom being propagated to the TCP sender and trig-gering a TCP slowdown.

The snooping-agent method works well in a wire-less local area network (LAN), in which the snoopingagent sits in the wireless base station. For wireless widearea networks (WANs), the snooping agent must beplaced a little further away from the wireless link. Thelogical location would be that of the home agentthrough which all traffic goes. Our research will focuson the snooping agent's impact on performance rela-tive to its distance from the vehicle.

The issues concerning handoffs and their effect oncommunication performance are twofold. First, hand-offs exist among cells in a wireless network infra-structure. Although transparent to the mobile host,the handoffs impact on the communication layer per-formance is unclear. Second, the handoff from onewireless network provider to another has a muchlarger effect. During the change of an actual IPaddress, the registering of the change to the homeagent, and finally the rerouting of traffic to reflect thechange, some IP packets might be lost.

The impact of such a handoff could be lessened byholding onto the existing wireless connection andsimultaneously routing the same packets to the newaddress as well as the existing one. With the new con-nection fully operational, the previous connectioncloses. The vehicle has the advantage of knowingwhere it is and where it is going to be and at whattime.

Combining such information with the knowledge ofwhere the coverage of a wireless network begins andends, a new connection can be preestablished beforethe current connection runs out of coverage. Such infor-mation might be cached by the vehicle through theexperience of driving in a familiar region, for example,a daily commute from home to work, or it could beprovided by service providers that measure and collectthe coverage of various wireless data networks.

In-car network. Most of the automotive industrysupports some types of bus architectures for control

Computer

Service registerand locator

Query andresponse of services

Service informationregistration and update

Service transactions

Serviceprovider

Serviceproxy

Figure 4- The servicearchitecture designcontains these high-level components.

and data transmission. A bus system with bandwidthlarge enough to support multiple video and audiochannels is needed to support the Internet-based mul-timedia information in the car. The Universal SerialBus (USB), the IEEE 1394 standard Firewire, or theIntelligent Transportation System Data Bus (IDB-I andIDB-II) could be considered for such a task.

Multiple inputs and outputs—such as screens, con-trol units, and audio channels—must be available foruse by all occupants in a car without any interferencewith each other. This flexibility is relatively easilyachieved for screens and control units, but it is harderto separate audio sources without using headphones.

Merging the in-car network with Internet commu-nication services will provide an integrated internaland external environment for the occupants. A mul-timedia infrastructure in a vehicular environment chal-lenges the design. The storage media is an essentialcomponent of an Internet information-based multi-media environment in a car. At a basic level, the mediamight be just a cache or simply a readable media suchas the minidisc or digital video disc, but the ultimatesolution will be a hard-disk-like unit for storing largeamounts of data that can be dynamically changed.

Docking of personal devices has wide acceptancein the personal computing arena. People will likely usedevices such as smart phones, smart cards, and per-sonal digital assistants (PDAs) to integrate with thecar's multimedia system. These devices might also bea means through which to exchange personal infor-mation between the occupants and the car for seatadjustment, climate, and computer interface.

Service infrastructureServices for an Internet car are bidirectional. In the

more common services, the car acts as a client and theservice infrastructure supports such services.

Service infrastructure functions. The service infra-

structure has four main functions: It must search forservice providers, manage the user profile, deliver theservice, and use the service. Here we will not discussissues like billing and so on.

A location-indexed database is necessary if the caroccupants are to easily search geographical location-based services. The database must contain things likeservice providers, Web pages, and other information,indexed by the relevant geographical area. The vehi-cle's location determines the scope of the search.

A service profile specifies what and how serviceswill be delivered to the customers in an Internet car.The service infrastructure provides storage and man-agement of a customer's service profile.

After selecting a service provider, the communica-tion layer offers data transport functions. However, theability of the devices in the car to use the service con-tent must be determined. For example, large images ofa Web page cannot be displayed on a tiny PDA screen.Service delivery also needs to adapt to wireless linkcapabilities. A service proxy works well in such a situ-ation.6 By doing data transformation at the well-con-nected side of the Internet, the data load can be reducedand something easy to present can be created. By sym-metry, a car-side proxy for the vehicle must act as aserver in certain applications like remote diagnostics.7

The need to support ad hoc service types and serviceproviders means that we need to support automateddownloading, installation, and update of client soft-ware for future, unknown services.

Service architecture design. Figure 4 diagrams thehigh-level components in the service architecture." Theservice register and locator is essentially the location-indexed database. This database accepts and respondsto queries from the vehicle for services and serviceproviders. Once a customer finds a service provider,services can be requested and transactions begun. Suchservice transactions might go through a proxy.

January 1998

Figure 5. The frontmultimedia zone ofthe Internet car isaccessible to both thedriver and the naviga-tor.

Figure 6. The rearpassengers haveaccess to multimediaunits that containscreens, channelselectors for games, acomputer, navigationtools, infrared trans-ceivers, and audiooutlets.

Placement of the user profile and determination of thecomponent responsible for the profile managementmust be determined. This is essentially the issue ofhow to distribute the intelligence in the system.

User interface designThere is no precedent for the user interface of a Web

car. Obviously, there are safety issues involved in theplacement of screens, hand control units, hands-freephones, and buttons.

User interfaces can range from a simple one-touchoperation to a fully interactive audio and video expe-rience. Clearly, the driver, navigator, and passengershave differing circumstances when the vehicle is parkedor in motion. A taxonomy of the driver, navigator, andpassengers with different human interface needs is agood starting point to understand the basic differencesin the design of interfaces for these positions.9

Drivers might find a primarily speech-driven inter-face most suitable, whereas passengers and navigatorscan use a richer and more interactive interface. Weexpect that a conversational, dialogue-based speechsystem will be used in the future.

Large speech-recognition systems, especially thosethat support natural-language processing, are expen-

sive and difficult to support in cars. Therefore, a nei-work-based solution makes sense. Such a solution i--well suited to a dvnamic, on-the-tly vocabulary, andconversational natural-language processing approach.and it is cheaper to maintain and upgrade. A hvbndbetween in-car recognition tor the car controls and anetwork-based approach for external information-based services would be ideal.

The type of user interface chosen will be closely tiedwith the nature and type of services that can be deliv-ered to drivers and passengers. Mobility is no loimeronly driving the car but incorporates also the states otbeing at home, in the garage, on the road, and at thedestination. A driver's safety depends on the state otmobility, the time available, and the driver's goals. Weintend to define a metric on the basis of the relation-ship between these four human factors and the ser-vices that can be delivered to car drivers andpassengers.' This metric will be used to define userinterfaces that are safe and match the measures usedby Mercedes-Benz, the Society of AutomotiveEngineers, or similar established safety standards. SeeFigures 5 and 6.

The presentation and user interface architectureshown in Figure 7 assumes that content providers sup-ply the data and the semantics to describe the archi-tecture's structure. The presenter uses this informationalong with the user input and status information (vehi-cle speed, user being the driver or passenger) to renderand deliver content to appropriate output devices.

CONCEPT DEMONSTRATIONIn the first implementation of the Internet-on-wheels

concept car,10 we designed multimedia units for twodifferent zones (drivers and passengers) with the userinterfaces as shown in Figures 5 and 6. Each of thesehas a color screen, channel select buttons, an infraredtransceiver to support handheld devices, and an audiooutlet.

Access to applications differs in these two zones.The driver and the navigator have access to a singlemultimedia unit in the front (Figure 5), and the pas-sengers in the back seat have access to individual mul-timedia units (Figure 6). The demonstrativeapplications in the front zone access informationrelated to traffic and navigation. In the rear zone,access expands to include navigation tools, officeapplications, interactive games, and infotainment.

Drivers can access voice-mail, e-mail, and travel-related information such as restaurant guides andmovie theater locations. By integrating the GPS andmapping technologies, the Internet car becomes loca-tion-aware, which allows for a new class of servicesthat go well beyond classical navigation. The driverwill have access to these services in a hands-free, eyes-free manner through voice commands and speechtechnology. In addition, the armrest in the driver'szone has a slot for a personal device to enable the dri-ver to bring in personal preferences.

Passengers can access richer interactive applicationssuch as onboard or Internet games, audio-on-demand,and the Web. They can access information about cities

Computer

Externaldevices

InfrastructureCar data

Multimedia

• Display

- Speech

Figure 7. Contentproviders define thedata and semantics lorthe presentation anduser interface archi-tecture.

Userinput

Statusinformation

Configurationinformation

Controlreception

• Microphone•Pointer device• Alphanumeric device

and historical places during a drive as they pass them.Passengers can also enjoy an enhanced multimediaenvironment for navigation, stereo, or streamingaudio and video. The built-in infrared transceivers willallow PDAs, handheld PCs (HPCs), and smart phonesto interact with the systems in the car and the Internet.For these new services, user interfaces will allow easyand safe handling of the interactive media.

For the customer assistance centers that currentlyrely on telephony-based service, the Internet car pro-vides an expanded datacentric multimedia environ-ment to deliver new services, including operator's helpmanuals, intelligent roadside travel assistance, andremote diagnostics.

T he intelligent transportation systems commu-nity intends to stimulate research and industryto build an infrastructure that will lead to bet-

ter traffic and transit resource management andenhanced safety. From the perspectives of cost andreusability, a single infrastructure must provide mostof the functionality as opposed to a separate infra-structure for each service. The Internet has the poten-tial to be such an infrastructure. The car acts essentiallyas a probe in this model, collecting and sending data toservice centers, which in future navigation systems willbe used to build dynamic real-time traffic models foron-demand route guidance for individual vehicles.

The spectrum of service possibilities ranges from ahighly integrated, PC-like environment to a fullyautonomous network computer-like system. A safeand convenient human interface design will leveragethe vast pool of potential services from the Internetfor drivers and passengers.

Our research aims to investigate and prototypefuture Internet-based services for cars. By groundingthe concept and architecture of information technol-ogy for a car around the Internet and open standards,the Internet car can take full advantage of the tidalwave of Internet-based services, technologies, anddevices for many years to come. •

AcknowledgmentsWe thank Paul Mehring for his vision in support-

ing this research. Many thanks to Klaus Eitzenbergerand Peter Stiess from Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart whoseresearch and ideas have helped us in this project.

References1. M. Stemm and R. Katz, "Vertical Handoffs in Wireless

Overlay Networks," ACM Mobile Networking, Fall1997.

2. C. Perkins, "Mobile IP," IEEE Comm., May 1997, pp.84-99.

3. W.R. Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated: The Protocols, Addi-son Wesley Longman, Reading, Mass., 1996.

4. H. Balakrishnan et al., "A Comparison of Mechanismsfor Improving TCP Performance over Wireless Links,"Proc. ACM SIGCOMM Conf., ACM Press, New York,1996.

5. H. Balakrishnan, S. Seshan, and R. Katz, "ImprovingReliable Transport and Hand-off Performance in Cellu-lar Wireless Networks," Proc. ACM Mobile Comput-ing & Networking Conf., ACM Press, New York, 1995.

6. A. Fox and E.A. Brewer, "Reducing WWW Latency andBandwidth Requirements via Real-Time Distillation,"Proc. Fifth Int'l World Wide Web Conf, 1996.

January 1998

LOCAL NEWS/WEATHER/ EDITORIAL PAGES

METROMONDAY

FEBRUARY 20, 1995 CCt

Slimes

STREET SMART RICHARD SIMON

Camera Gains More Exposureas a Device for Traffic Control

" When its least expected,You're elected,You're the star today,Smile. , .you're on 'Candid Camera? "

They're everywhere. On freeways.On city sLrccts. AL train crossings.In the subway. And maybe soon on

buses.Indeed, in Southern California's

transportation network, cameras arebecoming as common as freeway callboxes.

The freeway cameras may be used oneday to monitor what the state Office ofTraffic Safety says is a "growing problemwith commuters eating, reading,changing clothes, brushing their teethand generally paying less than fullattention to the road."

But don't worry. They're not used forthat—yet.

New York City is using cameras tocatch drivers running red lights, andother cities are using them to nabspeeders. But in Southern California,where officials arc wary of a publicbacklash to Big Brother government, thecameras have largely been used to helpidentify the cause of traffic jams.

"Privacy is the biggest issue in ourway of spreading this program across thenation," said Wayne Porter of ElectronicData Systems, which set up thesurveillance system in New York.

Local transit officials, however, aregearing up to expand use of camerasalong the Blue Line route between LosAngeles and Long Beach to catch driverswho pull around lowered gates to crossthe tracks. Photos will be taken of thedrivers and their license plates. Violators

Please sec CAMERAS, B3

BOB CAREY / Los Angeles Times

Al Romero adjusts freeway cameras from Caltrans headquarters Downtown.

CAMERAS: TrafficContinued from Blwill receive tickets in the mail.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pre-pared for negative public reaction: The cameras are inbulletproof containers.

Transit officials also arc exploring placing camerason buses to deter crime. And Pasadena (which onceposted a sign reading "Smile, you're on photo radar")is trying to revive the use of cameras to shoot—figura-tively, of course—speeding motorists.

Caltrans has about two dozen closed-circuit camerason Los Angeles freeways but plans to triple the numberwithin a few months and eventually install 400.

The pictures are sent to a control center inDowntown Los Angeles, where workers seated infront of a bank of screens can quickly spot anoverturned big-rig or spilled load of oranges, dispatcha cleanup crew or tow truck anti pass on warnings totraffic reporters. • >.

The cameras can zoom in on crfrs, but close-up shotsproduce a fuzzy picture. "Ypu can't see inside thecars," said Joseph Brahm, ai senior transportationengineer for Caltrans, offering assurances that thecameras are used only for traffic control.

Albert Romero, a Caltrans employee who works in thetraffic control center, said he once spotted a motoriststranded in the middle of the freeway and alerted the

. CHP. The driver turned out to be a carjackcr.But most of the time, sitting in front of the monitors

is like watching one rerun after another. Nothing butcars and more cars, interrupted by an occasionaljackknifed truck or car chase.

Sometimes, Romero relies on commercial TV for thebest view of freeway trouble. When O.J. Simpson led

. police on his famous freeway chase, Romero said, "I• was home, fortunately." Telecopiers provided a betterview of the action, anyway, because Caltrans doesn'thave enough cameras on freeways.

The city of Los Angeles has cameras at about 70major intersections and plans to install up to 150 withinthe*next few years.

The city cameras work much the same way as thefreeway cameras.

Sensors in the ground signal to an electronic map inthe city's traffic control center when a street iscongested. The cameras let traffic engineers know why.

The MTA is planning to install cameras along theentire Blue Line route. Cameras were installed on atest basis at several locations in 1993 after 22 motoristsand pedestrians were killed trying to beat trains acrossthe tracks.

During a six-week trial, the MTA sent out 520tickets—and that was just to motorists caught crossingtracks illegally at one location, Washington Boulevardand Los Angeles Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

MTA officials say the cameras have greatly reducedcollisions between cars and pedestrians. In addition to

an average $250 fine, violators can be ordered toattend traffic school and watch a fil m on rail safety.

But one problem during the trial run was that aboutone-fourth of the violators got away because theydidn't have front license plates to photograph.

The transit agency also uses more than 100 camerasto monitor behavior at Blue Line and subway stations.

Three workers are assigned full-time to watch thescreens. When they observe somebody disobeying therules, such as standing too close to the edge of thetrack, they can bark out orders over an intercom. !

A few years ago, Pasadena used a single cameraaround town to catch speeders. But the program wasdiscontinued when it ran into funding problems andother difficulties.

The camera would photograph a speeding vehicle'slicense plate and the driver.

The city has looked at seeking state legislation thatwould make a photo-radar speeding ticket like aparking ticket. Parking tickets are deemed the respon-sibility of the owner of the car, not the driver.

That is what is done in New York where cameraswere installed in December, 1993, at 18 intersections tocatch cars running red lights. Photos of the vehicle'slicense plate, the traffic light and the street name aresent to the car's registered owner.

New York City officials consider the program asuccess.

The first year, the cameras were responsible for182,731 tickets.

INSIGHTWASHINGTON, DC

WEEKLY 200,000

JUL 15 1996

-7596cxae..

Smart Surveillance GadgetryRedefines Policing, Lifestyles

By Leslie Alan Horvitz

Law-enforcement authorities are singing the praises of increasinglysophisticated surveillance equipment, while civil libertarians arebemoaning the fact that Big Brother is expanding his field of vision.

This summer's Olympics in Atlantawill sport one of the most intensivesurveillance efforts ever mounted

in the United States. "The most high-tech feature is a sensor ID," says LouisChiera, a marketing director for Sen-sormatic Electronics Inc. of DeerfieldBeach, Fla., which designed the sys-tem. Every person accredited to thegames — about 200,000, including15,000 athletes and coaches — willcarry a badge containing a computerchip "that holds all the informationabout that person and what venuesthey're allowed into." The badge, readautomatically by electronic scannersat entrances to various venues, in-cludes a map of the individ-ual's hand to verify his or heridentity.

Not all of this equipmentwill be removed once thegames end in August. "Wehope that people who willtake control over these ven-ues will want to have thistechnology," says- Chiera.Predictably, some observersfind this phenomenon dis-turbing. "You can assumethat the dividing line be-tween overt and covert sur-veillance will disappear,"says Simon Davies, director-general of Privacy Interna-tional, a London-based sur-veillance watchdog group."Because the authoritieshave successfully arguedthat there is no private rightin a public space ... youshould assume that at anypoint you could be sur-veilled."

Already, closed-circuitTV, known at law-enforce-ment agencies and privatesecurity companies by its ac-ronym CCTV, has found itsway into phone booths, buses,

trains, taxis, elevators and automatedteller machines. In Britain, its use iswidespread: CCTVs equipped withpowerful zoom lenses have beeninstalled in more than 100 town cen-ters. Originally intended to curbassaults, car-jackings and burglaries,CCTV is helping police arrest peoplefor underage smoking, littering, park-ing-meter evasion and public urina-tion.

U.S. law-enforcement agencies havenot adopted CCTV to any great extent,but private companies are using it —even installing cameras inside ordi-nary office equipment. "That's right,"runs an advertisement for one system,

"you can install the MicroSwitcherPLUS system in the receptionist's com-puter, the CEO's office, the shippingdepartment or anywhere else a PC islocated."

CCTVs, together with microwaveand electronic sensors, also are usedon U.S. freeways as part of the Intelli-gent Transportation System, or ITS,which the federal government hopes todeploy in 75 metropolitan areas by2005. ITS is intended to smooth theflow of traffic, cut down on pollutionand facilitate emergency response.Unlike British towns, ITS uses low-resolution cameras; while such instru-ments can identify an accident or traf-fic jam, they are incapable of readinglicense plates.

But the future of surveillance isunlikely to be dominated by closed-circuit TV. Security systems are expect-ed to rely increasingly upon biometrics—computerized measurement of phys-ical characteristics. Fingerprinting is afamiliar type of biometrics, only now itcan be conducted with scanners insteadof ink. New technologies exploit uniquepatterns found on the retina or iris of anindividual's eye, as well as variations invoice, handwriting and even typing.And, of course, there's the genetic blue-

print of DNA.Machines now can read'

facial thermoarams — com-puter images created fromthe heat radiating from aperson's face — and com-pare them with those stored:in its memory. Not to be out-done^ two researchers atTufts University outsideBoston are developing asensing system based onbody odor. All these tech-nologies seek to eliminatethe need for ID cards, pass-words and personal-identi-fication numbers, which canbe lost, stolen or compro-mised.

The uses for this technol-ogy seem unlimited. Al-though politicians speak inhushed tones about the pros-pect of introducing nationalidentity cards, the govern-ment already eagerly con-sumes biometrics systems.The U.S. Immigration andNaturalization Service, forinstance, recently intro-duced a program calledINSPASS to make it easierfor 70,000 selected frequent

pg/2 Smart Surveillance Gadgetry Redefines Policing, Lifestyles

fliers to clear customs. Rather thanwait in a long line, the lucky passen-gers simply enter a kiosk where ascanner records the contours of theirhands and compares them to a tem-plate encoded on a smart card in theirpossession. If the passenger's identityis confirmed, he or she can passthrough customs in less than 40 sec-onds.

State governments are acquiringbiometrics systems to combat welfarefraud. One company would identifyConnecticut welfare recipients by irisimage. (It is hoped this method willseem less intrusive than fingerprint-ing.) Another has proposed a biomet-ric index in which welfare recipientswould be grouped by gender, eye color,approximate age, height and weight.Clients would collect benefits alongwith people of similar characteristics(heavyset men over 45 of averageheight with brown eyes) in an effort toprevent double-dipping. So far, theindex has no takers.

Exactly what technologies willprove popular is unclear. "Most of ourcustomers — primarily law-enforce-ment agencies — are still naive aboutthe technology," says Peter Yeich ofPrimtrack, a California company thatproduces sophisticated fingerprintingscanners that cost as much as S70,000."When they are comfortable with howtechnology works for their applica-tion, then the industry will expand."

But civil libertarians and privacyexperts are concerned not only aboutthe scope of such technology but alsoabout the secondary uses of surveil-lance-related data. According toRoger Clarke, an independent con-sultant and visiting fellow in informa-tion systems at Australian NationalUniversity, "multiple organizationsmay get together and pass informationamong themselves and coordinate theway in which they deal with individu-als."

Such fears, while legitimate, may beexaggerated, says Phil Agre, professorof communication at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego. "It's unlikelythat all this data will be stored in onedatabase system," notes Agre. "Theorganizations that use data on indi-viduals are too various in their pur-poses, in their technical means and inthe vocabulary they use to define theirdata in the first place." He acknowl-edges that it will become easier tomerge data from different sources."Credit-repoj/tfng agencies such asTRW and Equifax clearly seem to wantto expand their business to store otherkinds of data besides credit reports,"he says. "If we're looking for some

candidate for centralized dossiers onindividuals, it would probably becredit-reporting agencies."

Agre points out that the UnitedStates is the weakest of the industrial-ized nations in terms of privacyprotection. "We have a patchwork ofspecial-purpose laws that are restrict-ed in scope and that usually do notprovide a great degree of protection,"he says: "The Privacy Act, for "instance,only pertains to the government andnormally not to private industry, andeven then it's routinely flouted by thegovernment."

ITS America, the Washington-based coordinating body of the intelli-gent transportation system, maintainsthat the data it collects will not beused by law-enforcement agencies orfor marketing purposes. According toJay Bockish, a senior engineer foradvanced traffic management, ITSwon't store data as telephone compa-nies do phone records. But he admitsthat critics have justifiable concerns."When information is gathered on anaggregate basis [such as 300 cars anhour going through a particular tollbooth], there's no problem," he says."But when we say Bob Jones wentthrough at quarter of two in the after-noon, there's potentially a problem."He also points out that if someonewishes to remain anonymous, the per-son simply can opt to pay cash ratherthan rely on electronic tags or identi-ty cards. Moreover, most intelligenthighway networks are being funded bytaxpayer dollars. Says Bockish, "If thepublic doesn't see the benefit, this stuffwon't get funded."

Just how does the public see theissue? Recent surveys suggest thatAmericans are ambivalent about pri-vacy and surveillance. While mostseem to want their privacy protected,they also expect benefits that requiretheir privacy to be compromised.Respondents, for instance, posed noobjection to companies issuing themcredit cards based upon their bill-payment records. A 1991 Harris-Equifax Survey found that a solidmajority of respondents, whom theylabeled "privacy pragmatists," recog-nized that they stood to benefit whenpublic agencies and private firms haveaccess to certain personal information.

Maybe so, Agre says, but when helooks at the results he sees a differentstory: "The polls suggest that peoplehave a high degree of concern but alow degree of awareness about threatsto privacy. They know a lot of infor-mation is obtained about them butthey don't know what happens to it orwhat their legal rights are." -j • /

Business Day z Cl

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1996

Page 1 of 2

WhereOn EarthThe Air Force'sGlobal PositioningSystem consists of24 satellites,equally dividedamong 6 orbits.Each satellite,which is 11.000miles out in space,contmously emitsa radio signal thaican De receivedby portable com-puting devices onland, on sea or inthe air By pickingup [he signal fromfour or more satel-lites, ihe computercan determine theuser's locationwithin 20 to 300yards o( the exactposition, depend-ing on how finelythe unit iscalibrated.

How on EarthAlthough the Global Posilioning Syslem was designed in the 1970'sfor military purposes, in recent years the system has become morewidely used for civilian navigation of various types, including these:

The New York TiSource TntnDle N

• Air-traffic control• Airplane navigation ^• Location of downed aircraft

• Hiking and mountain climbing• Wilderness search and rescue• Relocating a favorite fishing hole

• Truck-fleel management• Police, fire and ambulance dispatch• Car dashboard navigation systems

• Harbor trafficcontrol• Off shore oilearches

• Pleasure-boatnavigation

Finding Profit in Aiding the LostA Civilian Industry Is Built on the Military's Locator Technology

ByJOHNMARKOFF

It is a navigational system designedin the 197O's to guide troops and mis-siles, but in the 1990's it has come to beused far more often for helping truck-ers, boaters and hikers find their way.

So in an example of bealing swordsinto sextants, the White House is aboutto announce a policy for insuring contin-ued civilian use of the Air Force's Glob-al Positioning System — a 24-satellilenetwork lhat enables users with smallportable radio receivers to determinetheir precise location anywhere on land,sea or in the air.

The White House policy statementwould for the first time detail the rightsof use for the commercial G.P.S. indus-try, thus removing the longstanding im-plicit threat lhat military prioritiescould disrupt the civilian navigationalsyslem at any time. By bringing a newmeasure of certainty to a business thathas so far developed ad hoc, analystsand executives in the industry say themarket for the receiving equipment andservices could quadruple to $8.4 billiona year by the end of the decade.

"The fact is that there has been si-lence from the Government whileG.P.S. applications have jumped aheadof policy," said Scott Pace, an author ofa recent Rand Corporation study thatwas commissioned by the White House.The study recommended that nationalsecurity concerns not interfere with thevast commercial opportunities uvail-able with the satellite system.

The Sky's the LimitEstimated sales of American-made products for use with theGlobal Positioning System.

$8 billion

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

• Military

• Aviation ; v •' ., Cat navigation ' '

Consumer/cellular ,I•• Oilier products

=

Soixce Ututed States GlobalPositioning System Industiy Council

The New York Times

"A stable and clear policy needs to bepresented to help with both public andprivate decision making about G.P.S.systems," Mr. Pace said.

Industry executives are enthusiasticabout the policy statement, which WhiteHouse officials say is being prepared bythe Office of Science and TechnologyPolicy and is expected to be released by

President Clinton within a few weeks.The document will commit the UnitedStates to continuing to finance the posi-tioning system for Ihe foreseeable fu-ture and make it available for use inter-nationally without the imposition ofuser fees or other commercial restric-tions.

"The commercial industry is poisedto explode," said Randy Hoffman, pres-ident of the Magellan Systems Corpora-tion in San Dimas, Calif., a leadingmaker of commercial navigation equip-ment. "The Presidential policy willbring stability to the market."

A crucial part of the new policy isexpected to be the eventual phasing outof a national security proviso known asselective availability — a crucial re-striction that has limited the use of thetechnology for some civilian applica-tions requiring a high degree of preci-sion, like all-weather airplane landings.

When the military uses the system, asit did in troop positioning in the desertduring the Persian Gulf war, the com-munications wiih the satellites are donevia scrambled radio signals that areuseless to anyone not privy to the code.These signals allow almost pinpoint ac-curacy, so that a tank on the ground or afighter jet aloft can determine its posi-tion within feet. But the commerciallyavailable satellite signals, which arenot scrambled, are modified to allowaccuracy only within several hundredfeet — to keep potential foreign enemiesfrom employing the signal to precisely

Continued on Page C3

P a g e 2 o f 2

THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1996 l,%. C3 -

Finding Profit in Helping the Lost, Using Military TechnologyContinued From First Business Page

aim their own weapons.The "selective availability" policy

has, in effect, deliberately blurredthe vision of the civilian G.P.S. fre-quencies. And it has also given theUnited States the option of interfer-ing with even the unscrambled sig-nals at any time, if deemed neces-sary by mililtary strategists. Butthat limitation and the uncertainty ofthe situtation will eventurally be re-moved.

Longstanding Pentagon oppositionto the combined military and civilianuse of the technology has subsided asthe Defense Department has con-cluded that selective availability isnot the only, or even the best, way todeny hostile military forces the ad-vantages of the location system.

"My feeling is that in the futurethe U.S. Government will design mil-itary G.P.S. receivers so they areable to operate in a radio jammingenvironment," said Michael Swiek,executive secretary of the UnitedStates G.P.S. Industry Council, anindustry group devoted to commer-cial development of the technology.

As part of the White House policystatement, officials say, the Govern-ment will announce that it will workwith foreign governments to devise aseries of regional agreements aimedat developing standard ways to en-hance the accuracy of the position-ing signals and to insure that thesignals cannot be used by hostileforces.

The move will clear the way forthe Federal Aviation Administrationto proceed with its recent decision toadopt the technology as a supple-

mental means of navigation domes-tically and as the primary means ofnavigation over oceans. The agencyis also developing an enhanced sys-tem known as the Wide-Area Aug-mentation System, that will sharplyincrease airline navigational accu-racy over the one- third of the globecentered on the United States. Thesystem will allow commercial airlin-ers to fly more direct routes to theirdestinations beginning in 1998 and by

Commerce overtakesthe Pentagon inusing satellites asnavigation aids.

the year 2001 will permit instru-ments-only approaches to as manyas 8,000 airports — up from fewerthan 1,000 today.

The new White House policy is anattempt to overcome reservationsby European and Asian govern-ments about supporting commercialdevelopment of an industry thatwould rely on what has until nowbeen seen as primarily an Americanmilitary system. And yet, the policyis intended to maintain the techno-logical leadership of the UnitedStates in this area and discourageforeign attempts to develop compet-ing systems.

Already, a Russian network of 24satellites, known as Glonass, is inoperation, with no artificially intro-duced limits on accuracy, but as yetthere are no low-cost receivers being

sold for use with Glonass.Although the Air Force's complete

24-satellite system did not go into fulloperation until last year, the firstcivilian uses began more than a dec-ade ago. In 1983, after a KoreanAirlines jet that strayed into Sovietair space was shot down by the Sovi-et Air Force, President Ronald Rea-gan announced that the UnitedStates would make the fledgling sys-tem available for civilian aviation.He established the Department ofTransportation as the civilian agen-cy that would share managementresponsibility for the system withthe Pentagon.

By the late 1980's, trucking com-panies and ship fleets had begun touse the satellite-based navigationalsystems, even though the receivinggear cost tens of thousands of dol-lars. But by the time of the gulf warin 1991, consumer models of hand-held receivers cost $1,000 or less.That meant that while military com-manders were using the sophistiatedscrambled-signal systems for stra-tegic and tactical planning, Ameri-can troops were using inexpensivereceivers simply to find their wayaround the sands of Kuwait and Iraq.

As the expense of such systemshas plummeted in recent years —aided by the falling cost of micro-electronic components — dozens ofnew applications have begun toemerge. It is now possible to buy ahand-held receiver in a sportinggoods store for back-country hikingfor less than $200, and the price isexpected to continue to decline. De-signers are now focusing on a rangeof innovative applications that in-clude embedding G.P.S. receivers inhand-held cellular telephones and

portable personal computers]Car makers and car-rental com-

panies have made dashboard navi-gation systems available for severalyears. One system now under designwould link a G.P.S. receiver to boththe car's airbag and its cellularphone. That would permit the auto-mobile to instantly and automatical-ly signal its location in the event ofan accident.

Today the market is split into dif-ferent segments. The Magellan Sys-tems Corporation is the dominantplayer in the hand-held and recre-ational market, while Trimble Navi-gation Ltd. is perceived as the over-all technology leader in industrialand business markets ranging frommapping systems to vehicle naviga-tion. Motorola Inc. is also a majorplayer in the vehicle navigation mar-ket, while the Rockwell InternationalCorporation is the leader in militarysales and also in vehicle navigation..Honeywell Inc. is a leader in aviationsystems. Smaller companies likeAshtech Inc. based in Sunnyvale,Calif., have focused on such special-ized markets as surveying and seis-mic monitoring where high accura-cy is required.

Japanese electronics companiesare also active in the market, includ-ing the Sony Corporation, which hasfocused on car navigation, and theMatsushita Electric Industrial Com-pany, which is active in the recre-ational market with products bear-ing the Panasonic brand.

On the horizon are applications forthe handicapped and elderly. Forexample, one system now being de-veloped would act as an electronicguide, using synthetic speech to al-low a blind person to navigate inde-

pendently.Other uses include emergency lo-

cation systems for Alzheimer's pa- •tients and systems that permittracking of vehicles like ambulancesand vans that transport the elderly.

Other, less serious applicationsappear to be limited only by thedesigner's imagination. For exam-ple, golf carts available at 30 coursesaround the country are equipped to .provide precise data on how far aball is away from the hole, using a'system developed by Proshot Golf ofNewport Beach, Calif. Call it theG.P.S. caddy: the system, using soft-ware that relies on recommenda-tions from pros, advises the techno-duffer on which club to use for thenext shot.

SUNDAY RECORDHACKENSACK, NJ

SUNDAY 246,000

NOV 30 1997

Tll£'S

ssoTlie computerized E-ZPass toll system not only helps speed traffic,

it s aiding law enforcement as well. But are E-ZPass databases;: encroaching on motorists' privacy?

By ROBERT GEBELOFF

I N THE HOURS AFTER SaddleRiver millionaire Nelson Gross was

abducted, investigators turned to nnew kind of informant: E-ZPass.

The automatic toll system's data-base showed police that Gross hadcrossed the George WashingtonBridge twice on Sept. 17, a tip thateventually enabled investigators to re- -cover his abandoned BMW on an Upper.Manhattan side street.

Police now consult E-ZPnss recordsfrequently in their pursuit, of bad guys— at least 35 times in the last fewmonths, according to transportation of-ficials. The temptation to resort tosuch computer-aided detective work islikely to increase with the wider useof automated toll and navigation sys-tems that create a record of wherepeople go in their cars.

These transportation technologiesprovide convenience for motorists and anew investigative tool for pol'ice, butthey also raise unprecedented privacyissues. Just who can peer into the E-ZPass database, and for what purpose,has become a hot topic among priva-cy activists and civii libertarians.

Today, it might be a police detec-tive tracking down a suspected murder-er.

But tomorrow, it could be a privateeye documenting liaisons between a phi-landering husband and his paramour.Or a teenage hacker who breaks into thesystem for kicks and posts the trave'-logs of his junior high school teacherson the Internet.

"Right now, there might be justone database somewhere keeping trackof bridge crossings and that doesn'tlook like a giant threat to civil liber-ties," says Phil Agre, a leading au-thority on technology a,nd privacy issuesat the University of California-SanDiego., "The real problem is in the pat-tern that is emerging."

Government officials who keep E-ZPass records insist they will gviard thedata's confidentiality. But they've al-ready had to backtrack on one promise— that they would only release E-ZPass data if ordered by a judge. .

As a result of a July court ruling inNew York, police need only demonstratethat they are investigating a "serious"crime. And some critics believe officialpromises to withhold the informationfrom others, including private detectivesand marketing companies, will not behonored.

This belief is based partly on aMurphy's Law-type philosophy adoptedby privacy experts over the years,that almost all databases will wind upbeing used for purposes other thanthe one for which they were originallyintended.

pg.2 / i t 1 s so E-Z

"When vou have anv rernrH system or databasethat is crouton1 for one pur pose, (he privacyanalyst always asks, 'Will it be used for any otherpurpose?' " says Alan F. Westin, a Columbia Uni-versity professor who has/studied privacy for 40years and publishes the Privacy & AmericanBusiness newsletter in Hackensack.

Westin says a 1995 poll he commissionedfound that 80 percent of the public believes thatconsumers "have lost all control over how per-sonal information about them is collected and usedby companies."

Tracking shopping, reading habitsThe volume of consumer data being gathered

is already extraordinarily extensive. Anyone whouses a discount card at a supermarket is creatinga detailed archive of personal purchasing habitsthat marketers use to refine the sales pitchespeople receive every day in their mailboxes.

The magic of Madison Avenue has becomequite sophisticated. New parents are likely to re-ceive offers for products related to infant carejust days after the baby comes home. A subscriberto a computer magazine is guaranteed a steadysupply of trial software from online companies.

With transportation systems collecting infor-mation, a shopping center might try to get a list ofpeople who drive past it to and from work. Or astore might want a list of people who pull into a

• competitor's parking lot so they could be target-ed with a new round of junk mail.

In this environment, the existence of almostany database can be like "honey to the bees," Wes-tin says, adding that government must make pri-vacy more of a priority, and not an afterthought, toregain, the public trust.

"These systems should not be up and runninguntil there is a statute on the books that sets theboundaries and makes it clear that these are notpublic records," says Westin.

Ideally, he said; there should be a federal lawthat makes privacy of transportation records uni-form across state boundaries.

Records may be resoldMost E-ZPass customers probably assume that

the data on their travels will be used only to trackbilling, not them. But there are good reasons tofear that the records will be used for another pur-pose.

"I've talked to transportation officials who'vebeen quite frank about the inevitability of the in-formation later being resold," Agre said. "They'llsay, 'We in government are always under pressurefor revenue, and we can get millions, so it's in-evitable and there's nothing we can do about it.' "

In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation

Authority, which administers E-ZPass, vows it willrelease records only to law enforcement, andeven then, only if a serious crime is involved.

"If somebody wants records because they're ona fishing expedition, the answer they get is 'No,'''said MTA spokesman Frank Pascual.

But some point to the decision by Manhattanstate Supreme Court Justice Collen McMahon overthe summer as proof that the agency's policy istenuous at best. In that case, police sought to es-tablish that a murder suspect had crossed theVerrazano Narrows Bridge to commit the crime.They demanded E-ZPass records, but did not geta judicial subpoena, as the MTA had required.

After the judge ruled that an administrativesubpoena — essentially, a note from police brassapproving the request — was sufficient to com-pel the MTA to turn the information over, theagency was forced to revise its policy.

But what really caught the eye of privacy ex-perts was the judge's rationale. McMahon notedthat "a reasonable person holds no expectationof confidentiality" when using E-ZPass on publicroadways.Legislation on privacy

In New Jersey, the Legislature included a pri-vacy provision in the law it passed authorizing theuse of E-ZPass on the New Jersey Turnpike andGarden State Parkway starting next year.

In the case of scofflaws, security cameras posi-tioned near the E-ZPass lanes will photograph theviolator's license plate, but the law prohibits tak-ing pictures of the driver or passengers. Cars thathave a valid E-ZPass tag on their windshield arenot photographed.

As for who may obtain records from the E-ZPass archive showing who traveled when andwhere, the law is silent.

Edward Gross, executive director of the NewJersey Turnpike Authority, said the agency willlikely adopt a policy similar to the one in placeat the MTA. He pledges that the authority has thepublic's interest in mind, and won't allow the E-ZPass records to be abused.

With more than 1 million customers already,and more sure to join on when EZPass comes tothe Lincoln and Holland Tunnels later this year,and the Turnpike next year, there's little- evidencethat privacy concerns are making people balk atthe system — particularly since there is plenty ofevidence that EZ-Pass makes commuting moreconvenient.

"I have not received a single call from any ofour members who are concerned about this," saysWilliam Visser, a spokesman for AAA North Jer-sey. "Anything can be abused. There are dishonestpeople all over. But you have to lay out the bene-fits too."

Still, you won't catch privacy advocates likeDavid Rocah using an automated toll system anytime soon.

"I don't use it, and it's not because I havesomething to hide," he says. "I just don't like theidea of that database being there."

p g . 3 / I t ' s so E-Z

KLAUS-PETER STEITZ/STAFF

Motorists taking advantage of E-ZPass lanes on the George Washington Bridge.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, I

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1997'! Y

Computers LetJapan's DriversPlay in Traffic

By ANDREW POLLACK

TOKYO — Kaoru Hinata's car naviga-tion system can plot a course and guidehim to his destination, telling him when toturn left or right. If he's hungry or low onfuel, it can show him the location of thenearest fast-food joint or gasoline station.And it even can receive the latest trafficinformation and tell Mr. Hinata whichroads are congested and which parking lotsstill have space available.

Given all these whiz-bang features, howdoes the 32-year -old produce-market work-er use his $3,000 car navigator? One way isto watch television on the navigator'sscreen, helping to while away the timestuck in traffic jams.

The car navigation system, in which acomputerized map showing the car's loca-tion is displayed on a dashboard-mountedscreen, is usually advertised as a tool tohelp drivers find their way, saving timeand fuel.

But in Japan, where such systems are inmore widespread use than anywhere in theworld, the navigator is also becoming thehub of car information and entertainment,delivering television, data, video games,and other comforts of home to one's homeon wheels. The information highway meetsthe asphalt highway.

The experience in Japan could be a prel-ude to what will happen in the UnitedStates, where car navigation systems arestarting to be offered to consumers and

Cl THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1997 Y cS"

Continued on Page 5

In Japan, a New Way to Play in TrafficContinued From First Business Page

provided in rental cars.In gadget-happy Japan, about

780,000 systems were shipped lastyear, an increase of 51.5 percentfrom 1995. In the first half of thisyear, sales were up 9.4 percent, ac-cording to the Electronic IndustriesAssociation of Japan.

Car navigators, most of which sellfor about $2,000, are essentially com-puters with a small liquid crystaldisplay screen and a player for theCD-ROM's that contain the digitalmaps and a data base of addresses.The car's location — determinedmainly using Global Positioning Sys-tem satellites developed by the Pen-tagon — is displayed on the map andis adjusted accordingly as the carmoves.

But having a screen, and with theaddition of a television tuner and twosmall antennas on the roof of the car,the navigator can serve as a televi-sion. The navigators can also be usedto play music compact disks and, insome cases, to sing karaoke or playgames.

So now, there is a rush in Japantoward what is being called carmultimedia. Already dozens of soft-ware titles, sold on CD-ROM's, havebeen developed for car navigators.Golf programs provide tips on thegame and guide a driver to thecourse of his choice. A programcalled "Places where Girls Choose toFeel Romantic" offers informationabout and directions to dating spotsand hotels. Some disks offer quizgames.

But the newest effort is in trans-mitting information to the car navi-gators for display on the screen.

The Vehicle Infqrmation and Com-munication System, or VICS, thefirst system of its kind in the world,transmits information on the latesttraffic conditions to navigators byradio waves and light beacons. Con-gested roads show up on the screencolored in red. Navigators can thenautomatically plot a course to avoidtlie worst congestion.

VICS, supported by Japan's Gov-ernment and numerous companies,is available in the Tokyo, Osaka and

Nagoya regions and has about250,000 users. The ability to receiveVICS information adds about $500 tothe cost of a navigator but there is nocharge for the traffic information.

Coming next are two-way systems,allowing users to request more cus-tomized information. Starting thisfall, the Mercedes-Benz unit of Daim-.ler-Benz is equipping all its S-classcars sold in Japan with a navigatorthat will use a cellular phone to auto-matically dial an information serv-ice every five minutes, retrieving notonly the latest traffic updates for thearea the driver wants, but alsoweather, fishing reports, airlineflight Information and schedules ofevents.

The system will be able to esti-mate the driver's time of arrival

Digital maps helpdrivers navigate.Karaoke softwarehelps them relax.

based on the latest traffic, congestioninformation.

Similar systems will be introducedIn Germany in 1998 and in the UnitedStates probably about 1999, said Her-mann Gaus, senior vice president ofDaimler-Benz.

The Toyota Motor Corporation es-tablished a company in July that alsoaims to use cellular phones and carnavigators to provide drivers withinformation on traffic, news, weath-er, gas stations, restaurants andparking.

Honda Motor has just announced anavigator, available as an option onthe Japanese version of its new Ac-cord, that will allow drivers to tapinto the Internet, a step towardtransforming the car irtio an officeon wheels.

Toshiba, with 12 other companies,is looking at developing a satellitebroadcasting service aimed at carsand other mobile users. Instead of

the big dish-shaped antennas neededto receive existing satellite broad-casting services like DirecTV, theToshiba system would be designed tobe received by a pencil-shaped an-tenna only four to six inches long.

Whether drivers will pay for suchinformation, some of which is avail-able free on the radio, remains to beseen. The Mercedes service in Japanwill cost more than $40 to become amember, plus a subscription fee ofabout $25 a month as well as cellulartelephone charges.

An even bigger potential problemis that drivers could be distracted,causing accidents.

"It's more difficult to rememberthe operation of this machine than itis to learn to drive," said KiichiroYoshimoto, a freelance photogra-pher, who nonetheless was veryadept at operating the navigator'sremote control with one hand whilesteering with the other.

"It's dangerous to drive whenyou're looking at the screen," hesaid. "And if you are operating thisand you get a cellular phone call,then you panic."

It is not illegal in Japan for adriver to watch television while thecar is in motion. Under voluntaryguidelines issued by the Japan Auto-mobile Manufacturers Association,the parking brake must be on for thetelevision set to work or for naviga-tor users to be able to perform tasksmore complicated than just lookingat the map and zooming in or out —tasks such as plotting a destinationor making choices from a menu. Butsystems installed by car stereoshops often don't have these safe-guards or drivers figure out how tocircumvent them.

Yoshimi Tanaka, deputy directorof the traffic regulation division atthe National Police Agency, saidsafety had not been a big problem. Inthe last six months of 1996, naviga-tors were responsible for 62 acci-dents injuring 84 people, he said.That pales beside the 1,140 accidents,causing 1,627 injuries and 9 deaths,linked to cellular phone use.

Still, Mr. Gaus of Daimler-Benzsaid that in Germany car navigatorsdid not use screens because of safetyconcerns, but guided drivers by voice

A Computer in Every DashboardCar navigation systems, which locate one's vehicle on a map, are now becoming communications lools aswell. The Vehicle Information and Communication System {VICS) transmits, via radio waves and lightbeacons, information on the lates! traffic conditions. That information is then displayed on the navigatofscreen in one of three ways.

0MapsCongested roadsin the area arehighlighted in redon a map showingthe location of thecar.

Source. Vehicle Mom and Co-Timunicalion System Cente

One program givesgolf tips, anothergives directions toromantic spots.

alone. Toyota Media Station's serv-ice will also provide information onlyby voice when the vehicle is moving.Since the navigation systems al-ready have electronic speech synthe-sis to tell drivers when to turn rightor left, they can be readily adapted toread data or E-mail aloud, engineerssay.

Takeshi Imai, chief engineer fornavigation systems at Honda, con-tends that navigators actually en-hance safely because a driver who islost can be distracted. Navigatorscan also pinpoint the car's location inan accident, allowing help to arrivesooner.

Honda just introduced a naviga-tion system that emits a sound towaken a driver who is dozing off. Thenavigator can detect an erratic driv-ing pattern that could indicatedrowsiness,

American companies, includingthe Microsoft Corporation, are work-ing on car computer systems. Butwhether navigation systems catch onin the United Slates remains lo beseen.

In Japan, it is much harder to find

0 TextTextual information on the estimatedtravel iime between two points issent by VICS.

Q GraphicsSome roadwayschematics showcongestedsegments in red.Others estimatehow long it willtake to travel fromone place toanother.

The New York Times

one's way than in the United Statesbecause most streets do not havenames. There could be more restric-tions on screens visible to drivers inthe United States.

Then there is the peculiar relation-ship between the Japanese and theircars. With Japanese homes crampedand walls thin, the Japanese tend totreat their cars like sanctuaries, aplace to get a little peace and quietor, conversely, to blast the stereowithout annoying the neighbors

Even though many urban Japa-nese barely use their cars, they keepthem spotless and fill them withgadgets. Some, people take theirsfioes off in their cars as they do intheir homes. "The car is sort of aroom for us." Mr. Hinata said.

CHICAGO, ILTHURSDAY 664,584

NOV 20 1997

I-PASS technology getting up to speedBy Rogers WorthingtonTRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

There's something both cheeryand eerie about the changes to theI-PASS electronic toll-collection sys-tem now being built into mainlineplazas of the Illinois tollway.

The cheery part is that if youhave one of the system's transpon-ders on your windshield and an I-PASS account, you will soon beable to zip through some toll plazasat highway speeds.

In a recent test at the IllinoisToll Highway Authority's I-PASSproving gro inds, cars swoopedbeneath th£ trussed gantry at up to70 m.p.h. Each time, the window-mounted I-PASS transponder emit-ted a confirming beep, indicatingthat the toll had been paid elec-tronically.

The eerie part is that the systemappears to work so well here andin other states that it could usherin a proliferation of toll roadsnationwide. And why not, withhuman labor, a major cost in tollcollecting, largely eliminated?

When and if etveryone gets the I-PASS religion, gone will be theclanky coin baskets that carry tollmoney down a tube to a vault tray,where it is removed and truckedoff to the tollway's subterraneancounting room in Downers Grove.

The all-electronic I-PASS systemcould do for traditional toll gather-ing what automated te l lermachines have done for personalbanking and what the Internet maydo to reference librarians and, per-haps, the printed page.

"With electronic toll collection, itis possible to imagine toll roadsbeing pervasive," said Philip Agre,,a communications professor at the{Jniversitv of California ft SapDiego, /He hasPexpTessecl concernstrcst such technology could invademotorists' privacy if their commut-ing patterns were publicly dis-closed. Already, many states selldriver's license information.

The history of electronic toll col-lection in Illinois has been markedby delay and intrigue. Nearly fiveyears after tollway officials startedexperimenting with it, fewer than40,000 cars have I-PASS transpon-ders.

As a car rolls through a tollplaza equipped with I-PASS lanes,the transponder sends an electronicsignal to a receiver, and the motor-ist is automatically billed. Driverspre-pay the tollway when they putdown $38 to lease a transponder.

To ensure safety, the new I-PASSexpress lanes that let motoristsdrive through at highway speedsare wider and separated from otherlanes by long concrete barriers.Also, the traditional tollgate isreplaced by a video camera thatrecords the license plates of anycars that pass through without I-PASS transponders.

Though fewer than 40,000 of the1.2 million motorists who use thetollway daily have signed up for I-PASS, tollway officials predict thatup to 600,000 eventually will becomeelectronic payers. Officials have anambitious goal of signing up 260,000more by the end of next year.

Part of the impetus for such adramatic increase, officials hope,will be the new express I-PASSequipment It is first being installeday the Boughton Road toll plaza onthe North-South Tollway, and thenew Pfingsten Road plaza on theTri-State Tollway. But only threeother plazas on the 50plaza systemare scheduled to get the expresslanes by the year 2000.

All but four of the system's pla-zas, however, are set to get at leastsome form of I-PASS by the end of1998.

Glitches have largely beenworked out in other states. NewYork City's system counted theshadows of cars as vehicles. It alsoadded axles to other cars, thus bill-ing them at the higher truck rate.In the South, where anti-glare wind-shield accessories are common,transponder signals initially werethwarted altogether.

Some have wondered whether toll-jumpers will speed past the videosecurity monitors, and others havequestioned what would happen toout-of-state cars that use an I-PASSlane—inadvertently or otherwise.

"People from remote states willget a free ride. They're not going topursue someone from Idaho," saidPeter Samuel, editor of the TollRoads newsletter, who nonetheless

considers electronic toll collecting";; raging success."

No one doubts that the system ischeaper. The Federal HighwayAdministration reported recentlythat the Oklahoma TurnpikeAuthority's electronic toll-collectionlanes yielded a 90 percent savingsin operating costs compared withmanned lanes.

The federal analysts also foundthat toll collection capacity even ats top-andgo electronic lanesincreased by at least 250 percent,fuel consumption decreased by upto 12 percent, and emissionsdecreased up to 83 percent

Transportation analysts see stillanother potential bonus in elec-tronic toll collection: Because it caninstantly change toll rates, it hasenormous potential for ushering in"congestion pricing," in whichmotorists are charged more whenthey drive in rush hour.

But then there's the eerie partWith the lower costs of electronic

toll collection, states may betempted to follow through on aninvitation in the Clinton adminis-tration's transportation bill to col-lect tolls on interstate highways topay for maintenance.

Some also have expressed pri-vacy concerns. With electronic tollcollection, a fairly comprehensivepicture of people's driving habitscan be developed..

In at least two states, law en-forcement officials have used elec-tronic toll data to prove the where-abouts of subjects in criminal cases.

If toll authorities want to avoidsuch suspicions, they could selldebit cards that would work muchlike the telephone calling cards forsale in vending machines, saidMarc Rotenberg, director of theElectronic Privacy Information Cen-ter in Washington, D.C. The cardcould be bought at varying valuesand inserted into the transponderuntil that value was exhausted.

I-PASS spokesman DonaldO'Toole says Illinois tollway offi-cials will not make membershiplists commercially available, andnames, addresses and phone num-bers would be deleted if the listswere obtained under a Freedom ofInformation Act request

p g . 2 / I - P A S S t e c h n o l o g y

According to Rick Schuman, ofthe Intelligent Transportation Soci-ety of America, a technology tradegroup, the new systems are beingdesigned to protect privacy.

Schuman is more excited aboutthe possibilities of the new systems.He sees the transponders used inelectronic toll collection as the firststep in developing a wireless com-munication device in cars thatcould have national applications.

"This transponder will ultimatelycome as part of the car, and evolveinto the equivalent of a wirelessATM or credit card," he said.

Tribune photo by George Thompson

The Boughton Road toll plaza on the North-South Tollwaywill allow I-PASS users to breeze through at highway speed.

Toll system's I-PASSmoves into the fast lane

With a transponder on the windshield, a driver willsoon be able to move through some toll plazas at

highway speed in specially equipped lanes.

I-FA3S: Making a move to alleviate tollway plaza congestionE> .he end of 1998, the Illinois Toll Highway Authority hopes that 300,000 users of the Illinois tollway systemwil tuck loose change back in their pockets and use upgraded, pager-like transponders to pay tolls on its 274-r*;ile system of roads. About 40,000 drivers now use I-PASS and pay for tolls using a pre-paid debit account. In

. Jctober 1998, the Boughton Road Toll Plaza on the North-South Tollway will allow I-PASS drivers to use expresslanes to pay for tolls while driving at a normal highway speed.

Boughton Road Toll Plaza: How I-PASS express lanes workFor a car equipped with I-PASS, a toll transaction is.virtually instantaneous when adriver passes through an express lane equipped with an electronic toll collection r^«N

system.

pg .3 / I-PASS technology getting up to speed

i tJ AS the l-PASS-equipped carapproaches the toll plaza, the driverenters an express lane while nonI-PASS users enter manualorautomatic toll payment lanes at adecreased rate of speed.

The future Boughton Road toll plaza

Manual and

Concrete barriers begin approximately1,700 feet from toll plaza •/.-•.' '

i'V;:

As the car passes underthe I-PASS trusses, anantenna broadcasts aradio frequency overthe road area.

ImplementingI-PASS express lanes

During the next severalyears, the tollway plansto construct expresslanes at five toll plazas.In the future, as tollplazas are rebuilt, moreexpress lanes will beadded. By the end of1998, virtually all thetollway plazas willaccept I-PASS.

•Under construction

The pager-liketransponder, located onthe windshield of thecar, transmits theidentification number ofthe I-PASS user back tothe antenna. Acomputer at the tollwayheadquarters processesthe information and theuser's transaction isrelayed back to the tollplaza area.

Video cameras film thecar and its license platefor accountability afterit passes under thetrusses.

J Pfingsten*! October 1998

October 1999>Vr;

Illinois Hwy. 31October 1999

I Bougtiton Road[October 1998

11fal<ii

-1163rd Street2000

Source: Illinois Toll

Highway Authority

Meanwhile, the I-PASS antennarelays transaction informationback to the car's transponder,which emits a series of beepsand displays account informationon a small screen.

: Proposed,toll.plazanotto scale

i^:r:~r-::rv=

LOS ANGELES TIMES A58 FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 28. 1997 *

TOLL: Task Force Considers Routes;• LOS ANGELES TIMES

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1997 A 1

Could LA. BeHeading TowardToll Roads?By RICHARD SIMON

Eventually, even the unthink-able gets thought—including thepossibility of toll lanes in LosAngeles, birthplace of the freeway.

Under a proposal picking upspeed in government offices, solocommuters would pay a toll for theprivilege of blowing past slow-moving traffic on Los Angelesfreeways, while carpoolers coulduse the lanes for free.

A task force of business, envi-ronmental and labor leaders andtransportation planners is consid-'ering Los Angeles County routessuitable for a toll lane experiment.The Antelope Valley Freeway isthe front-runner. The lanes wouldbe similar to those in operation onthe Riverside Freeway in OrangeCounty and Interstate 15 in SanDiego County.

Those lanes were constructed astoll roads; the Los Angeles experi-ment would use existing carpoollanes. However, the change wouldface financial, political and envi-ronmental hurdles.

Planners also are consideringtoll lanes on Interstate 15 in River-side County.

Planners say that introducingtoll lanes to Los Angeles Countywill be politically more difficult,but potentially more significantbecause of the region's fabled grid-lock and its reputation as a testinggrounds for new transportationideas.

But don't dig into your pocketyet.

The 70-member task force,known as REACH for ReduceEmissions and Congestion onHighways, is aware that tinkeringwith the sacred freeway system ispolitically risky, especially if itpromotes something called "Lexuslanes" by critics.

"I know what names you getcalled when you try to do some-thing new," said Judy Wright, aformer Claremont city council-woman and past task force chair-

Please see TOLL, A58

Continued from Alwoman.

(Separately, the Southern California Assn. of Gov-ernments has proposed using tolls on new truck laneson the Golden State and Santa Ana freeways in LosAngeles County and on the Long Beach and Pomonafreeways. Truckers would pay only if they wanted toget out of congested free lanes. But the president-electof the California Trucking Assn. said he would opposea toll. "We pay enough in highway taxes," he said. Theproposals call for moving the carpool lanes to an aerialstructure, freeing up space on the roadway for trucklanes.)

And before freeways can become feeways, the stateLegislature must give its approval. That's no easytask, with Senate President Pro Tern Bill Lockyercalling toll roads a "polite form of highway robbery."

Federal approval is required for tolls on interstates.But President Clinton this year suggested giving stateapermission to charge tolls on interstates and use therevenue to improve their transportation systems.

W ith the government facing environmental,financial and political obstacles to buildingnew highways, "we see pricing as a way of

improving the efficiency of the system," said JohnBerg, team leader for highway revenue and pricing forthe Federal Highway Administration.

"We use pricing in so many sectors of the economyto allocate scarce space," Berg said. "Hotels chargemore in peak season than in off peak. Phone calls costyou more during the middle of the day than if you callon the weekends."

The REACH task force has been studying "conges-tion pricing" for nearly three years with $1.4 million infederal grants. The group has been working closelywith the Southern California Assn. of Governments,the South Coast Air Quality Management District andthe California Department of Transportation.

But local planners are moving cautiously, remem-bering the public revolt over the Santa MonicaFreeway diamond lane in 1975. That experiment,abandoned after five months, involved taking away alane open to all drivers and restricting it to carpools.

This time, planners will probably recommend add-ing a lane that would be open for free to carpoolers andfor a yet to be specified fee to solo commuters. Theyalso are exploring opening any new carpool lanes astoll lanes.

Other cities are watching Los Angeles."They know you have huge traffic, and the attitude

is, 'If it can be made to work in L.A., it can workanywhere,' " said Peter Samuel, editor of Toll Roadsnewsletter.

Nightmare images of Los Angeles' traffic havebecome a staple of other cities' political campaigns. InDenver, lawn signs in support of a recent light-railmeasure known as 4A read: "4A or L.A." In Portland,Ore., TV ads in support of a mass transit propositionoffered the option: "Light rail or Los Angeles."

Although the idea of introducing a toll—even ifvoluntary—in Los Angeles would appear to be a longshot, proponents believe that they can steer clear ofpolitical gridlock. They point to focus groups and pollsshowing public support for the concept.

To critics who call the lanes elitist, they say tollrevenues could be used for mass transit and othertraffic improvements that would benefit everybody.They also contend that the Riverside Freeway tolllanes carry just as many Hondas as Lexuses.

Planners see "high occupancy/toll" or HOT lanes,as they are called, as a way to head off catastrophicgridlock.

"We see growing interest in HOT lanes around thecountry," said Kenneth Orski, chairman of the highoccupancy/toll lane task force of the Institute of

• Transportation Engineers in Washington.With the era of building freeways in the Los

! Angeles region virtually at an end, transportationplanners are now focused on finding ways to bettermanage what they have, such as using high-techdevices such as sensors in the pavement to alertauthorities and motorists to trouble spots sooner.

Adding toll lanes to some of the most congestedfreeways—the Santa Monica, Hollywood, Santa Ananear downtown Los Angeles and Ventura through theSan Fernando Valley—would be environmentally,financially and politically more difficult

There is no space to add lanes without spendinghundreds of millions of dollars to buy land or buildelevated roadways like the one on the Harbor Freeway.

Caltrans officials said the state agency first wants tocomplete its long-promised network of carpool laneson the freeway system. But they said the agencywould consider adding toll lanes if space is available toaccommodate them.

The toll lanes are considered a politically saferway to go—at least initially—than some of theother "congestion pricing" ideas under consid-

eration, such as charging motorists a fee—perhaps 5 to10 cents per mile—based on how far they drive duringrush hour or an emissions fee based on how much theircar pollutes. The REACH task force is still studyingthe ideas for the future, if needed.

"Freeways weren't named freeways because theydon't cost money," Wright said. "They were namedfreeways because they had no stop signals."

A number of issues still must be resolved; Willopening up carpool lanes to solo-paying commutersclog those lanes and discourage carpooling? Howshould toll revenues be spent? And perhaps mostimportant, is it fair to let those who can afford a tollspeed by those who can't?

Some think the idea of tolls in Freeway City will endup like proposals for subterranean freeways oropening the Los Angeles River to traffic during thedry season.

But proponents say circumstances have changed:A recent study by the Texas Transportation Institute

named Los Angeles the most congested city in the nationfor the 10th year in a row, though some transit expertsdispute the findings, saying Los Angeles' traffic is noworse than other big cities. Traffic delays are projected togrow three times worse by 2020. The average round-tripcommute—now about 45 minutes—could easily be anhour and a half longer early in the next century, plannerssay. And the percentage of drive-alone commuters-more than 70% of all commuters—continues to grow,despite efforts to promote carpooling.

Toll collection is now fully automated; no need tostop any more at tollbooths, the image that EastCoast transplants remember. Transponders in-

stalled on cars signal devices on the roadway andautomatically debit drivers' accounts. Cameras photo-graph cars without transponders, and tickets aremailed to car owners.

In Orange County, 29,000 cars each day use theRiverside Freeway toll lanes, which opened in Decem-ber 1995. Drivers pay from 60 cents to $2.95 to shavean average 20 minutes off a 10-mile commute, officialssay. The price varies depending on time of day andcongestion level.

In San Diego County, 900 solo commuters pay $70 amonth to drive in an eight-mile carpool/toll lane on1-15 under a federal demonstration project begun inDecember 1996. -

But the more ethnically and politically diverse LosAngeles County could be a tougher place to establishtoll lanes.

State Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles)said, "We should use our limited right-of-way spacefor bus express lanes and high-occupancy vehiclelanes, not high-income vehicle lanes."

Assembly Transportation Committee ChairmanKevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) said, "I don't thinktransportation should be based upon whether or not[people] can afford i t "

But Senate Transportation Committee ChairmanQuentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) said he wouldsupport a toll lane experiment in Los Angeles Countyand believes that the Legislature would approve it too."We approved it in San Diego County," he noted.

Ward Elliott, a government professor at ClaremontMcKenna College and longtime proponent of "con-gestion pricing," said: "We have the most jammedroads and the most polluted air in the county andshould, therefore, be more receptive at ground level,not less, than people in other cities."

But in Minnesota, officials recently dropped plansfor toll lanes after a challenger to the governorwhipped up a public frenzy.

"We just don't have the congestion here yet wherepeople are desperate," said Robert Johns, associatedirector of the Center for Transportation Studies at theUniversity of Minnesota. He said the public culturethere is "very egalitarian and is not ready to help therich get to work faster."

Closer to home, Orange County officials recentlybacked off from a proposal to open up new carpoollanes on a section of the Riverside Freeway as tolllanes. The ianes would have extended the existing tolllanes to the Los Angeles County line. Opponentsobjected to "charging people to use a road that theyalready paid for." Orange County, nonetheless, plansto study toll lanes on the Orange Freeway.

Toll lanes soon will open in Houston and arc understudy for a stretch of U.S. 101 through Sonoma Countyin Northern California and in Dallas, Phoenix, Port-land, Ore., and Boulder, Colo..

One of the ideas behind the toll lanes is to get betteruse out of underused carpool lanes.

"To the extent that there are [underused carpool]lanes in the L.A. area, [toll lanes] offer probably one ofthe few remaining opportunities to squeeze a littlemore traffic out of the system," Orski said.

On the other hand, some carpool lanes are becomingcongested.

"In order to keep the carpool lanes flowingsmoothly," said Deborah Redman, REACH projectmanager, "we may in a number of corridors face theissue of having to raise the eligibility to get on carpoollanes, from two persons to three persons, like it is inmost of the rest of the country."

Joel Fox, president of the Howard Jarvis TaxpayersAssn., said that adding toll lanes could win publicsupport if it is clear that toll payers are financing thelane, and it is "not being subsidized by those who arewatching the fast cars go by."

THE DIEBOLD INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES, INC.

The Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies, Inc. is an operating foundationestablished in 1968 by John Diebold, Chairman and founder of The JDConsulting Group, Inc., formerly The Diebold Group, Inc. Exploring ihc public-private interface to achieve maximum societal benefit from technological changeis the principal focus of the Institute's activities.

The Institute, which pioneered some of the early work on Ihc concept of pri-vatization, aims to explore the participation of the private sector in the deliveryof public services. It undertakes projects that enable the study of these issues.

A lecture program at Harvard University examined technology, business andpolicy, as well as the role of profit. The Institute has a research interchangearrangement with over 100 academic and research institutions. In addition, itmanages the Marietta Schweitzer Fellowship Fund, which provides scholarshipsfor Europeans studying in the United States.

Its current work, the information-based infrastructure project, is an interna-tional cooperative effort whose goal is to assess the value of information tech-nology in societal infrastructures and, where appropriate, bring about the policyconditions to improve the quality of life for a broad segment of the general pub-lic. Policies are evaluated to determine which stimulate and which inhibit devel-opment of effective information-based infrastructures in the United States,Europe, and Japan.

Just as the commercial application of information technology has impactedand improved business, critically important areas of public life could also makedramatic gains through further use of technology. Public infrastructures thatcould be improved by information technology include road transportation, healthcare and environmental monitoring and response studies, education, communi-cations and public safety.

"ll

TRANSPORTATION T fINFOSTRUCTURES

The Development ofIntelligent Transportation Systems

THE DIEBOLD INSTITUTE FORPUBLIC POLICY STUDIES, INC.

Studies Prepared forThe Diebold Institute Infostructure Project

Westport, Connecticut

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\ 62' Transportation Infrastructures»

Another major social issue is how ITS costs will be allocated. Will costs beborne by the general public (through taxes) or only by dirccl users of Ihc tech-nology (e.g., through tolls)? If costs arc passed on directly to users, (he potentialexists for road systems lhat discriminate against the poor and favor the wealthy,thereby creating political and social problems. It must be determined whether thebenefit of the actual users paying for their increased convenience outweighs thepotential for discrimination, or whether the general public benefit of ITS justifiesits being paid for through taxes, as are many other public systems.

Loss of control is inherent in various intelligent transportation systems, andthe driver's unwillingness to accept this could be a potential barrier for the tech-nology. For example, with dynamic route guidance systems the driver relin-quishes control over route choices. With collision avoidance systems (he driverrelinquishes control over the vehicle when the threat of an accident is imminent.With the automated highway, the driver loses total control of the vehicle for thatsegment of the trip. People may be reluctant to give up any of these controlchoices.

Moreover, the process of learning about and using ITS components may bestressful for drivers. There will be a need for advanced driver education becauseITS will complicate vehicle operation. In this regard, suppliers will face the chal-lenge of developing good ergonomic designs when creating ITS. In addition, thevolume and continual exchange of information from traveler information sys-tems might create "information overload," resulting in distraction or disoricnta-tion. Drivers would have to learn to adapt to the constant flow of information.Perhaps the driver's ability to handle these information systems while operatinga vehicle should be evaluated, because of the potential impact on public safety.

Finally, ITS may be perceived as competing with other possible solutions tohighway problems, for example, building more roads, investing in public trans-portation systems, or reducing traffic volumes. Without some recognition lhatITS can conflict with other societal goals and that guidelines arc needed toresolve these conflicts, ITS will struggle to achieve its full potential.

REFERENCES

Booz-Allen & Hamilton (consulting firm, Bethcsda, MD). 1993. "InstitutionalImpediments lo Metro Traffic Management Coordination." Unpublished report.

Mobility 2000. 1990. Intelligent Vehicles and Highway Systems. 1990 Summary. Dallas:Mobility 2000.

Urban Institute. 1993. "IVHS Staffing and Educational Needs." Unpublished report.Alexandria, VA: Urban Institute.

The Need for Cooperation betweenthe Public and Private Sectors

Implicit in the previous chapters' discussions is the recognition that ITS tech-nologies may not be adopted, much less achieve their potential benefits, unlessthere is close cooperation between the public sector and the private sector. Thetwo sectors have different, but often complementary, strengths. For example, thepublic sector is skilled at developing infrastructure and ensuring equity andsocial cohesion, and the private sector is skilled at innovating and responding torapid change. According to David Osborne and Ted Gaebler (1992):

Business does some things better than government, but government does some things bet-ter than business. The public sector tends to be better, for instance, at policy management,regulation, ensuring equity, preventing discrimination or exploitation, ensuring continuityand stability of services, and ensuring social cohesion. . . . Business tends to be better atperforming economic tasks, innovating, replicating successful experiments, adapting torapid change, abandoning unsuccessful or obsolete activities, and performing complex ortechnical tasks.

If ultimately there is to be successful implementation of ITS, it will be necessary(1) to effectively join the strengths of the two sectors at various stages from con-ceptualization through R&D, and (2) lo understand the kinds of organizationalapproaches that facilitate public-private endeavors. Many current R&D and pilotprograms for ITS in the United States, Europe, and Japan already bring togethergovernment and industry.

In (he United States the ITS program has never been considered exclusive-ly, or even primarily, a federal program. In fact, reports by the U.S. Departmentof Transportation (DOT) and ITS America (the nation's focal research and edu-cational organization for ITS, formerly called IVHS America) have concludedyears ago that the ITS program must be a cooperative effort (U.S. DOT 1990),that the private sector should have primary responsibilities for developing ITS

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64 Transportation Infostructures

technologies (U.S. DOT 1992), and that private firms may ultimately account foras much as 80 percent of total expenditures for ITS products and services (I VHSAmerica 1992).

Moreover, analysis of the obstacles facing information-based highway trans-portation infrastructures indicates the need for (I) a "champion" for ITS who canoperate in a multi-interest environment and who is willing to take risks, (2) entre-preneurial vision to identify commercial opportunities, and (3) llic ability tooperate innovative services efficiently. These are characteristics of the privatesector rather than the public sector, which makes the majority of investments intoday's transportation system. This points to the importance of the private sectortaking a major role in the funding and operation of ITS in partnership with thepublic sector.

PUBLIC SECTOR-PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS IN ITS

Advantages of Public-Private Partnerships

If deployment of ITS technologies is left solely to the public sector, thepotential for these technologies to improve the performance of (he highwaytransportation system may not be realized. There are numerous reasons for pur-suing partnerships between the public and the private sectors in the developmentoflTS.

Marketplace Expertise

The private sector has experience in developing, marketing, and commer-cializing new technologies and products. Furthermore, private-sector participa-tion is often needed to provide the technical expertise required to market newproducts. Private firms are usually better able to gauge the market's response toa new product or service. Demands for ITS products will vary according to geo-graphic location, type of trip, user willingness to pay for ITS products and ser-vices, and other factors. Some travelers may even be willing to pay for additionallevels of service, but public agencies have minimal experience in providing sep-arate products and services to different segments of the market and generally findthis approach politically difficult. Thus a strategy that starts with serving nichemarkets and broadens ultimately to the general public requires private sector par-ticipation.

Technical Expertise

The technical expertise required to operate and maintain certain ITS tech-nologies is beyond the current capability of many state and local transportationdepartments. In some cases the personnel needed to deploy, operate, and main-tain ITS products and systems will come through the retraining of current staff,

I lie Need for Cooperation 65

but in other cases public agencies may find it more cost-effective to enter into acontractual arrangement with one or more private firms to provide specific ITSproducts or services. Moreover, private firms can more easily establish ad hocbusiness relationships with other firms. This is in contrast to public agencies,which generally require detailed, formal agreements before they can work withprivate firms or other government agencies.

Revenue Generation

In terms of generating revenue, it would be costly for state and local trans-portation agencies alone to fund the deployment of new ITS technologies. Thus,a greater financial role for the private sector in transportation seems necessary.This could take several forms, including direct investment and indirect supportthrough advertising. In fact, the Intcrmoclal Surface Transportation EfficiencyAct (ISTEA) of 1991 (sec Chapter I) encourages the creation of pubicsector-private sector partnerships to finance highway transportation projects.Although there will be difficulties along the way, the ITS program may offeropportunities to generate revenues by allowing firms to advertise on highwayadvisory radio, variable message signs, and other traveler information services.

Data Collection

Data collection is another area in which cooperation between public and pri-vate sectors may be useful. Private firms arc usually restricted from installinghardware that is physically connected to public roadways, but because certainITS technologies do not require actual physical connection to roadways, there isless need to rely exclusively on public agencies to gather traffic data. Indeed,several private firms already use probes and surveillance cameras to collect traf-fic information. In a related scenario, it may be desirable for government agen-cies to collect data and have a private firm provide traffic information using thatdata.

An interesting approach has been developed in Wcstcheslcr County, NewYork. The county awards contracts, or franchises, to firms that collect and ana-lyze data. Recently, Wcstchester awarded an exclusive franchise to a firm to col-lect, assemble, and disseminate traffic information throughout the county. Thecontractor must provide traffic information and/or data to the county and is thenpermitted to sell specific traffic information/data, as determined by the county.The franchise also allows the firm to offer certain services (e.g., incident man-agement and variable message sign operation) based on the data it collects.

HELP, Inc., is another example of a private-sector participant in highwayoperations. This organization was formed following the completion of an opera-tional test, IIELP/Crcsccnt, a U.S. DOT-sponsorcd miillislatc, multinationalresearch effort involving the Federal Highway Administration, TransportCanada, more than a dozen stales, and several molor carriers. It tested an intc-

•3

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f l ic Need for Cooperation 77

advanced travel information systems, for which marketing expertise is a key suc-cess factor. The ISTBA also exhorts metropolitan areas and slates to develop"transportation improvement programs," which must consider private-sectorfunding for transportation in general and ITS in particular. As a result, substan-tial amounts (additional to the $660 million) will be invested in ITS areas (e.g.,automatic toll booths and variable pricing) (hat are expected to accompany (hepurchase of existing roads and the construction of new ones by private investors,

The second is the April 1992 Executive Order on Privatization of State andLocal Government Assets, which directs federal agencies to approve requests bystate and local governments to privatize infrastructure assets; it indicates specif-ically (hat "assets" arc meant to include roads, lunnels, bridges, and the like.Previously, the Office of Management and Budget had insisted that the federalgovernment be repaid its past grants in the event the infrastructure was sold. TheExecutive Order did away with (his disincentive. State and local governmentsnow arc able to keep the majority of the proceeds of such privatization. Thus, theExecutive Order has gone a long way (oward removing any remaining blocks toaction.

We must now focus attention on ways in which incentives that will encour-age utilization of advanced technologies can be built into routine infrastructure-financing. This should create a strong "demand pull," a force that would be ofimmense importance in unleashing the innovations necessary to create an infra-structure suitable to an advanced industrial society.

Finally, the ideas developed in (he preceding paragraphs need to be validat-ed through operational tests of private-sector participation in ITS. Key roles tobe tested arc private-sector funding of ITS and private-sector operation of ITS.A recommended approach would be to identify a number of major ITS projectswilling to include the private sector as a provider of risk capital and/or as anoperator of ITS. The next step would be to develop joint business plans, perhapswith some assistance from the U.S. Dcparimcnt of Transportation's FederalHighway Administration. Once agreement has been reached, operational testsshould be carried out and cxlcnsivc feedback should be provided to interestedparties.

Encouraging Pay-for-Use Services

A major obstacle (o the implementation of ITS is the view that it must befree at the point of use. Tn an alternative approach, ITS could be viewed as a rev-enue source for municipalities, ITS services could be charged for on a pay-for-use basis (as is the case with toll bridges and toll roads), and investment prioritiescould be set according to the profit-generating potential of proposed projects. Anadded attraction to this approach is that incentives can be introduced to encour-agc/discourage certain types of behavior by highway users. For example, travel

s

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78 Transportation Infostructures

$•**

••»»*<'

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during periods of low vehicle usage might carry lower rates than travel duringhigh usage periods.

Encouraging pay-for-use ITS services must be done in two steps. First, it isnecessary to convince transportation authorities that insisting on ITS servicesbeing free at the point of use will significantly impede the development and delaythe benefits oflTS. The initial expense and operating costs of ITS arc not likelylo be supported by the public sector. If the private sector has to forego revenueopportunities, it will be effectively eliminated as a potential investor. A focusedawareness campaign is needed to get this message across.

Second, analysis is needed to determine why such pay-for-use highwaytransportation services as toll roads and toll bridges are considered acceptableand what benefits the users perceive they are receiving. Once these findings areknown, they should be used to identify the parts of ITS for which pay-for-usewould be acceptable.

Adam Smith's words in The Wealth of Nations (1776) are relevant to thisissue:

[T]he erection and maintenance of the public works which facilitate the commerce of anycountry, such as good roads, bridges, navigable canals, harbors, etc., must require verydifferent degrees of expense in the different periods of society. . . . It docs nol seem nec-essary that the expense of those public works should be defrayed from the public revenue.. . . The greater part of such public works may easily be so managed, as In afford a par-ticular revenue sufficient for defraying their own expense, without bringing any burdenupon the general revenue of society. A highway, a bridge, a navigable canal, for example,may in most cases be both made and maintained by a small toll upon the carriages whichmake use of them.

Introducing Niche Services

Yet another major obstacle to the implementation of ITS is the view that itmust be a universal service. It is time to create a climate in which the introduc-tion of niche services is seen as beneficial. Again, a campaign focused at trans-portation authorities is necessary to demonstrate that the insistence upon ITSservices being universal from the outset will significantly impede the develop-ment of ITS.

The introduction of niche services is often an important precursor to thedevelopment of universal services. A good example is the telephone, which oncewas affordable only to a few people. Now it is available in the majority of homesin the United States and Western Europe. In Japan autonomous in-vchicle navi-gation systems were originally introduced as low-function gadgets for "themotorist with everything." Progressively the price was reduced and the qualityimproved, and now the systems are well on their way to becoming a standard fea-ture in vehicles in Japan.

The Need for Cooperation 79

A succession of niche services may very rapidly evolve into a more univer-sal service and, at any rate, will make more manageable the ultimate task ofexpanding ITS to incorporate all travelers. In many cases, those who do not sub-scribe lo and pay for an ITS service will nevertheless benefit from its use by oth-ers. This is certainly the case with automated toll booths; also, approaches thatdivert equipped drivers from congested roadways to alternative routes benefitother drivers by relieving congestion.

Complementary to encouraging departments of transportation to establishniche services, research should be carried out to identify the most commerciallyattractive niche services.

Establishing Guidelines for Resolving Conflicts

with Other Societal Goals

ITS development can in some cases conflict with other societal goals suchas personal privacy, preservation of the environment, and local control of trans-portation. It can also be in competition with other potential solutions to highwaytransportation problems, including investment in public transportation. Theimportance of each of the goals and solutions will vary enormously from loca-tion to location, so no general approach is relevant to all situations. The bestapproach is to establish guidelines on good practice.

Establishment of guidelines for handling conflicts with other societal goalsis a task that should be carried out by an organization with no vested interests inselling ITS equipment or services. The guidelines should encompass (1) how topredict conflicts with other societal goals, (2) how lo develop ITS to accommo-date other societal goals, (3) how to interrelate ITS solutions with otherapproaches for solving highway problems, and (4) how to present ITS solutionsto groups that arc concerned about possible infringements on their interests.

The guidelines would derive from the experience gained during projectssuch as the Electronic Toll and Traffic Management (ETTM) project in (he NewYork/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area. During development of the technical spec-ifications for this electronic toll-collection system, a number of privacy issueswere considered. One aspect was the freedom to choose whether to use the sys-tem or not. The ETTM specification requests a mechanism to deactivate the sys-tem for selected trips. Another concern relates to (he use of transaction data.ETTM intends to keep (he data confidential. Video enforcement and speed limitenforcement also raised privacy issues. Regarding video enforcement, only thelicense plalc (not individuals themselves) will be photographed. Liability will beimposed on the owner of the vehicle. In addition, legislation is to be passed pro-hibiting the use of video enforcement or electronic toll data for speed limitenforcement.

* » •

>

80 Transportation Infostructurcs

Improving the Quality of Benefit Assessment Procedures

Prospects for (he deployment of ITS would be greatly enhanced if (he pro-cedures used to investigate ITS benefits were improved. Parties who arc involvedin this process should include potential suppliers of ITS goods and services; law-makers at federal, stale, and city levels; and departments of transportation at alllevels. Improving the quality of the analytical tools will be a three-stage process.

It would begin by raising the awareness of interested parlies about Ihc socialand commercial opportunities provided by ITS. At the same time, these interest-ed parties should be made aware of gaps in our knowledge about the rclnlivcimportance of the benefits. For example, we do not know whether rapid identifi-cation of and response to incidents on the highway would be more beneficial thantraffic management. An awareness presentation must be prepared and deliveredto interested parties.

The second stage would involve improving our conceptualization of vehicleuser behavior and traffic patterns. Much can be achieved through surveys andsimulations without the need for expensive experimentation. For instance, we donot know how many journeys vehicle users make for which the time of the jour-ney could be shifted. Such information could help identify what type of prclripinformation would be most useful to travelers. A program of urgent research toimprove our conceptualization of vehicle user behavior and traffic patterns mustbe developed and evaluated.

The third stage will involve carrying out further ITS experimentation.Improved conceptualization will enhance our ability to predict the most promis-ing ITS applications. These improved predictions will have to be tested in com-mercially oriented, model ITS projects in selected metropolitan areas to gainpractical experience of the likely costs and benefits of ITS.

An area to which special attention should be devoted is thai of commercialvehicle operations. It has been noted that half the potential benefits of ITS derivefrom commercial vehicles—a group of road users that would be willing to payfor appropriate ITS services. Furthermore, any improvement in efficiency woulddirectly enhance national competitive advantage because of the economic gainsthat would result.

All the issues discussed in this section would benefit from an internationalsharing of research results and, in some cases, from joint projects. The similari-ty of approaches lo highway transportation in (he United Slates and Europemakes joint research especially attractive. One fruitful area for international col-laboration is that of standards setting for ITS. Another area that might benefitgreatly is that of determining the cost-benefit for (he most promising ITS appli-cations. This knowledge is key lo determining priorities for investing in ITS.

Ihc Need for Conpcralion 81

REFERENCES

• VMS America. 1992. Strategic Plan for Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems in theUnited Slates. Washington, DC: IVHS America (now ITS America).

Osbornc, David, and Ted Gacblcr. 1992. Reinventing Government: How theEntrepreneurial Spirit Is Transfoiming the Public Sector. Reading, MA: Addison-Weslcy.

U.S. Department of Transportation. 1990. Report to Congress on Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems. Washington, DC: Department of Transportation.. 1992. IVHS Strategic Plan: Report to Congress. Washington, DC: Department of

Transportation.

Volume 13, No. 3 The CPSR Newsletter Fall 1995

Looking Down the Road: Transport Infortnaticsand the New Landscape of Privacy Issues

. by Phil Agrc

Two technologies, computernetworking and public-key cryptography,have transformed the landscape oftechnology-and-privacy issues. Thisarticle illustrates the changes and explorestheir consequences by describing theemerging privacy issues regardingtransport informatics, primarily in theUnited States.

Transport informatics is a Europeanterm for the use of information andcommunication technologies intransportation (Giannopoulos 1993,Hepworth 1992). It encompasses a widevariety of activities whose underlyingunity is not always obvious. The largestinstitutional focus for transportinformatics research and development inthe United States has been the IntelligentVehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS)program of the U.S. Department ofTransportation (DoT). The industrialpartners of the IVHS have recentlyswitched to the more general termintelligent transportation systems (ITS) inorder to include a broader range of surfacetransportation modalities—especially citystreets. The ITS program aims to define acommon architecture for the many stateand private initiatives concerning transportinformatics.

Despite its potential for increasedefficiency, transport informatics can alsolead to significant invasions of privacythrough the automated tracking ofindividual vehicles (Agre and Harbs1994). This is a matter of considerableconcern, since pervasive surveillance ofcitizens' road travel could chill thefreedom of association that is crucial to ademocratic society. Most of this articlefocuses on these issues; the last part of thearticle places the issues in a larger contextby exploring how the privacy movementcan best respond to, and take the initiativein, the emerging privacy landscape.

What Exactly Is TransportInformatics?

Transport informatics does not referto any specific technology, nor has it

sprung from any single technicalbreakthrough. It includes a broad range ofapplications that have becomeeconomically feasible as the basic price ofcomputation and communication—especially digital wireless—has dropped.Working groups invested considerableeffort in the late 1980s and early 1990sidentifying and classifying the potentialapplications: commercial logistics,regulatory automation, traffic informationservices, route planning, law enforcement,and so forth (U.S. Department ofTransportation 1992). This work was bothtechnical and political, and it produced aframework for cooperation amongproducers and users of the new technology(Klein 1993).

Transport informatics is both supply-driven and demand-driven, in that "push"from hopeful producers of the technologyis at least as important as "pull" frompotential users. On the supply side, the endof the Cold War left many defensecompanies looking for new markets. Theyproceeded in their accustomed manner bydeveloping a strong alliance with thegovernment—in this case, the Departmentof Transportation. To coordinate thisalliance, they have formed an organizationcalled ITS America, an official advisoryboard to the DoT, whose membershipincludes companies, state departments oftransportation, and university researchgroups (IVHS America 1993). Manyobservers have expressed concern thatthese defense-oriented firms aredeveloping baroque architectures that maybe poorly matched to the needs of acivilian market. A bias toward centralizedcontrol is evident throughout the manyprojects in existence and on the drawingboard. Privacy advocates in particularhave expressed concern over proposals touse potentially invasive technologies, suchas video surveillance and vehicleidentification transponders.

A major aspect of the supply-sidepicture is significant government support,primarily at the state and regional level,for automated toll collection. Although

only a modest amount of this tollcollecting has been implemented, muchmore is planned. Budgetary considerationsand pressures for privatization drive thistrend; at an ideological level it ismotivated by economic arguments for thereduction of taxpayer subsidies to roadusers. This theory is sometimes called"congestion pricing" (Wallace 1995),although it is doubtful that the tolls wouldactually amount to true "prices" in acompetitive market.

On the demand side, the market fortransport informatics includes bothindustrial and consumer applications.(Other application domains, such asmilitary and civilian government transportare not treated in this article, nor areregulatory automation and environmentalprograms such as emissions monitoring.)As is often the case, industrial users are farahead in their use of transport informatics,and consumer applications may tend tofollow the models already established bycommercial users.

For a decade now, industrialdistribution systems have been undergoinga quiet revolution as a result of improvedinformation and communicationtechnologies. Just-in-time scheduling, forexample, reduces the unproductive capitaldevoted to inventories, while also makingrough spots in the chain of productionevident to central management.Likewise,Wal-Mart and the large"warehouse" retail stores depend oncontinual stock monitoring to scheduleshipments of goods directly fromfactories. These and related developmentsrequire greater predictability in every linkof the distribution chain, which has led tothe construction of "integrated logistics"systems. It has become common, forexample, to think of highways, traintracks, and other shipping routes asmetaphorical conveyor belts in a globalfactory. Information technology makesthis metaphor a reality by tracking thespatial location of every vehicle and

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package in real time. It is difficult tooverestimate the consequences ofintegrated logistics for the world economyand its participants. Although it providesmuch of the motivation for transportinformatics, integrated logistics is a muchbroader phenomenon. Its economic andtechnical logic is wholly straightforwardand exceedingly powerful, but this logicincludes no concept of privacy. Simplytaking this model, with its exclusive focuson integration and efficiency, andtransplanting it from commercial toconsumer applications would almostcertainly lead to significant privacyproblems.

These two forces, the supply side andthe demand side, converged in the passageof the Intermodal Surface TransportationEfficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). Alongwith the architecture developmentprogram I have mentioned, this legislationinstructed the DoT to conduct researchinto a variety of social issues, includingprivacy. One result of this research was aDoT report to the Congress entitledNontechnical Constraints and Barriers toImplementation of Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (U.S. Department ofTransportation 1994). The wordsconstraints and barriers indicatesomething of the attitude toward privacyof the ITS establishment: privacy concernshave generally been treated as obstacles tothe systems' development, rather than aspart of their necessary functionality.

Technical Choices and PrivacyRisks

Privacy risks arise in transportinformatics systems in several ways.Generally, these involve planned orcoincidental surveillance of users'movements and other behavior. (For amore detailed survey see Alpert [1995].)Examples of applications and their privacyimplications include the following.

• The automated real-time tracking ofcommercial trucks is a workplaceprivacy issue for truck drivers and manyother logistical workers. At the sametime, the tracking systems reduce thearbitrary pressures associated with

crudely estimated normative schedules(Lappin 1995).

• At least one rental car company hasbeen experimenting with systems totrack its cars (Marks 1994, Wald 1994).This facility, based on the GlobalPositioning System, is promoted asproviding drivers with directions andemergency services. But clearly it couldalso be used to track the company'sproperty. The nature of the renter'slegitimate expectation of privacy in theface of these technologies remains to beestablished.

• Many regional transportation authoritiesare installing hundreds of video camerason heavily traveled routes (Simon1995). Ostensibly meant to detectcongestion, accidents, road debris, andother conditions requiring officialintervention, these cameras may findother applications that raise civilliberties concerns. These traffic-flowcameras generally do not have theresolution to read license plates, butother cameras have been installed (forexample, on underpasses) specificallyfor that purpose, as in tracking vehiclesfor statistical purposes. Other proposedsurveillance technologies includesystems that track individual drivers'cellular telephones or vehicleidentification transponders.

• Some conceptual papers on ITS haveenvisioned more coercive applications,in which automated monitoring systemswould "provide the individual driverwith immediate feedback on hisbehavior. In case a driver neglects theseefforts to correct his misbehavior, thesame information could be used toenforce correct behaviour by variousmeans, such as fines, license or speedlimitation (policing)" (Organization forEconomic Cooperation andDevelopment 1992: 25).

In the rest of this section, I examine inmore detail the use of Automatic VehicleIdentification (AVI) for roadway tollcollection. This issue is important both inits own right and because it raises manybroader concerns regarding the whole area

16

of personal data collection by ITSsystems.

Databases of individual drivers' tollpayments could have a wide variety ofpotential secondary uses, from marketingto law enforcement to civil litigation topolitical repression. AVI is typicallyimplemented using a transponder, anelectronic unit roughly the size of acigarette package, usually attached to thebumper or dashboard of the car, thatinteracts through digital radio signals withroadside beacons. A car entering a tollwaywill "hear" a request for identificationfrom the nearby beacon, and respond bytransmitting its identification number. Thedetails vary, but the most common designis for the beacon to relay this number to acentral computer that deducts thenecessary sum from a prepaid account andreturns an acknowledgment to the beacon.Drivers without adequate funds in theiraccounts will be notified to pay in cash ata conventional toll booth.

The crucial issue is whether thispayment system is anonymous. This intum depends on both the transponder-beacon communications and thearchitecture for registering drivers'payments. For example, if the transpondertransmits the driver's license number orvehicle identification number (VIN) thenthe system is definitely not anonymous.Normally, though, the transpondertransmits its own serial number. Therefore,the system as a whole is anonymous if thisnumber is not associated with any otheridentifier that can be connected to theindividual. Unfortunately, in the UnitedStates, the transponder number is mostoften associated with a driver's accountnumber—whether a bank account numberor the number of a debit accountmaintained by the road authority. The E-Pass system in Orlando, Florida, forexample, issues each customer a monthlystatement that includes the customer'sname and address, together with acomplete list of toll payments for themonth. Each entry on this statement liststhe precise time and location of the tollpayment, including which lane the driver

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was in (Garfinkel 1995). Many suchsystems do permit customers to payanonymously with cash, but this option isusually much less convenient and is rarelyused once the system has been inoperation for a few months.

Inherently anonymous toll-paymentarchitectures are possible, and at least oneis under active development. This is anAVI system being developed by theAmtech Corporation (Dallas, Texas) basedon "digital cash." Digital cash is a schemeinvented by David Chaum (1992) andmarketed by his company Digicash(Amsterdam); it is based on public-keycryptography and permits parties to atransaction to transfer funds reliably inelectronic form without having to identifythemselves to one another. Although law-enforcement authorities are concerned thatdigital cash may lend itself to money-laundering, tax evasion, and otherfinancial crimes, toll-collection providesone potential application of digital cashfor which criminal abuses are hard toimagine. Unfortunately, although digitalcash has enjoyed a great deal of officialattention in Europe and Japan, I have seenno evidence that any American authority isplanning to use it. Many have never evenheard of it.

(Eric Hughes has pointed out to methat other anonymous toll-paymentschemes are conceivable as well. Forexample, a customer might remotelyinstruct her bank to create a temporaryaccount from which a short series of tollpayments might be drawn; the roadauthority would be able to connect thesepayments to one another without beingable to connect them to the customer.)

Privacy protectionEarly decisions about ITS payment

architectures may have lasting effects.Technical standards are often difficult tochange once they become entrenched inthe market, and if non-anonymousschemes become prevalent then only themost courageous agencies will pursueanonymous alternatives. ITS America,though, has pursued privacy issuesprimarily through the development of a setof "Fair Information and Privacy

Principles," currently in "draft final" form(Phillips 1995). These principles areimportant because they will provideguidance to numerous industry andgovernment people—largely urbanplanners and transportation engineers—who have little prior experience withdatabases of personal information or theprivacy issues they imply. A copy of theseprinciples is available on the WorldwideWeb at: http://weber.ucsd.edu/-pagre/its-privacy.html. Not surprisingly, the draftprinciples are extremely weak. They makeno mention of anonymity. In fact, theyexplicitly state that personal informationcollected through ITS may be used fornon-ITS purposes, stipulating only thatdrivers be notified and given theopportunity to opt out. They suggest thatlaw-enforcement uses of ITS informationbe authorized by state governments, andthey propose no limits on the law-enforcement uses that state governmentsmight authorize. The principles arevoluntary, and they suggest no proceduresthrough which compliance with themmight be monitored. Nor do they specifywhich organizations will be liable whenindividuals are harmed through theimproper use of ITS information.

Individuals' ITS records havevirtually no statutory privacy protection(Glancy 1995). Moreover, neither tort lawnor the Fourth Amendment promise muchprotection (Halpem 1995, Weisberg 1995).The United States, unlike most industrialcountries, has no generalized regulatorymachinery for privacy protection.Furthermore, since most ITS systems willbe operated by public agencies such asstate transportation departments andregional transportation authorities, therecords on individual toll payments thatthese systems maintain will often fallwithin the scope of state open recordslaws. (See Connors article, this issue.) ITSAmerica's draft privacy principlesrecognize this danger—but instead ofrecommending changes in the law, theyeffectively suggest that the records be heldby. private entities.

The ITS America privacy principlesare scheduled to be revised and adoptedearly next year. (A small number of

privacy advocates attended a meeting inWashington to discuss the principles inJuly 1995 and expressed their strongconcerns; another meeting is tentativelyscheduled for November to review theissues in the context of ITS architecturedevelopment.) Short of comprehensivedata protection legislation, however, it isdoubtful that even the strongest privacyprinciples would have any significanteffect. Once databases of personalinformation from ITS systems grow, awide variety of organizations will startproposing secondary uses for theinformation. It is impossible to predictwith certainty that abuses will occur, butnumerous other privacy-sensitivetechnologies provide strong anddiscouraging precedents. Telephonecompanies, for example, must respond toan enormous volume of subpoenas fortheir records; transportation authoritiesthat maintain individually identifiableinformation in their databases may findthemselves in the same position.Subpoenas are not costly to issue, thoughthey may be expensive to comply with,and ITS information should be asattractive as phone company records for avariety of legal purposes.

In my view, therefore, the technicalissues are far more important than thelanguage of voluntary principles.Individually identifiable information, oncecollected, is virtually certain to be abused;inherently anonymous architectures avoidthe whole problem by not collecting theinformation in the first place. It is this kindof foundational design choice that must befaced early in the process to avert needlessprivacy erosion in the rush to implementITS systems.

The New Landscape of PrivacySo far, I have painted a pessimistic

picture of the prospects for privacyprotection in American ITS schemes.Viewed in the broadest context, though,AVI-based toll collection is about the mosttractable privacy issue that one might hopeto encounter for several reasons: -

• The dangers are easily explained to thepublic.

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• The combination of government andindustry participation provides those ofall political persuasions with an enemyof their choice.

• The functionality provided by thesystems does not actually require themto collect individually identifiableinformation.

• None of the key special interest groupsinvolved in ITS have a strong reason topromote secondary uses of tollinformation.

• A straightforward technological solutioncan make the systems inherentlyanonymous.

The good news, then, is that somehope exists that AVI-based toll collectionmight be conducted in a manner consistentwith privacy protection. The bad news, ofcourse, is that if privacy advocates cannotprevail in this case, then the prognosis forother cases is poor indeed. Whether thenews is good or bad, it is important forprivacy advocates to view the AmericanITS program, and transport informaticsgenerally, as part of a newly emerginglandscape of privacy issues.

As I mentioned in the introduction,this new landscape is the product of twotechnologies: computer networking andpublic-key cryptography. Computernetworking is not itself a new technology,but only in the last few years has it begunto have a pervasive influence on industrialpractices. At the most basic level,networking makes it possible to envisionapplications that are unified functionallydespite being distributed across a largegeographic territory. Transportinformatics, of course, is centrallyconcerned with the coordination ofactivities spread over large areas,particularly when employed as part of anintegrated logistics system that createstight linkages across a global system ofproduction and distribution. At a moresubtle level, networking makes possiblethe integration of computational processesacross different functions andorganizations. As a practical matter, thismeans that information technologists find

18

themselves trying to interconnect databasesystems that have arisen independently ina wide variety of local circumstances. Thisis not just a technical problem ofconversion between different data formats.More importantly, it is also a semanticproblem: each database is likely to reflectthe vocabulary and conventions of theparticular work group that created it(Robinson and Bannon 1991). This notonly makes the technical task moredifficult, but also increases risks of harmto individuals, since personal data held inone system may be totally inappropriatefor use in another. Transport informaticsprovides strong motivations for firms tointerlink their machines over networks sothat, for example, a shipping firm'scustomers can automatically check on thestatus of their shipments. Likewise,secondary uses of information collected byAVI toll-collection systems would begreatly facilitated by unrestricted real-timenetworked access to those databases. In allsuch cases, however, the meaning andquality of the data, even if suitable for theoriginal purpose, may generate seriousprivacy questions when transposed to anew context and combined with personalinformation from other databases.

Computer networking, then, createsthe conditions for greatly increased risksto individual privacy. Public-keycryptography, on the other hand, createsthe conditions to greatly alleviate theserisks. As Marc Rotenberg has pointed out,cryptography significantly changes theview of technology that has been implicitand explicit in most analyses of the socialeffects of technology. For the past fiftyyears, social theorists have, with somejustification, identified technology withsocial control. Privacy advocates, as aresult, have often been placed in theposition of criticizing technology as such,or else arguing for the reduction orlimitation of technical functionality.Digital cash and other technologies basedon widely available strong cryptography,though, effectively invert the politicalsituation. (See Biddle article, this issue.)By allowing privacy advocates to take apro-technology stance, these newtechnologies cast the opponents of strongprivacy protections as those who cling to

technologically backward methods.

The challenge, of course, is to ensurethat privacy-enhancing technology isactually used. This depends upon bothpolitical and market forces. Althoughinformation technologies are dropping inprice, their development and use arenonetheless powerfully driven bystandards. Consider, for example, thesuccess of the Internet's TCP/IP protocol,which is effectively reducing the need forother internetworking protocols. TCP/IPpermits interconnection with a hugenumber of existing networks that alreadyuse TCP/IP, and this compatibilitygenerally outweighs the narrowadvantages of any specific alternative. Byanalogy, in the case of toll-collection,much depends on the type of electronicfinancial infrastructure that develops ineach region of the world. At the moment,it seems likely that Europe will develop ananonymous scheme based on a variant ofdigital cash such as Mondex, whereas theUnited States will develop a non-anonymous system modeled on creditcards—for example, the electronicpayment system being developed by Visa(Holland and Cortese 1995). Of course,several different payment systems maystill arise, but once a non-anonymoussystem becomes a well-establishedstandard, privacy concerns alone may beunable to create the market conditions forthe construction of an anonymousalternative.

Another problem is the depth towhich privacy invasion is ingrained in thepractices of computer system designers(Agre 1994). The point is not that mostsystem designers consciously set out toinvade anybody's privacy. Instead, theproblem lies in the practice of creatinginternal representations that mirror realityin a point-by-point fashion, so that asystem can only support an activity by"capturing" it. The first step in current-daysystem design, after all, is to define a setof data structures to be maintained—forpeople, types of vehicles, the vehiclesthemselves, roads, lanes, accounts,transactions, dates, times, and so on—and

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a convention for creating identifiers foreach type of data structure. For example,people might be identified by SocialSecurity number, vehicles by government-assigned vehicle identification numbers,and so forth. Such a system might protectanonymity by simply omitting anyrepresentation of individual people. Butdoing so would be difficult in practice,given that so many existing systems dorepresent data in an individuallyidentifiable fashion, thus permitting aperson's identity to be reconstructed easilythrough the merging of records fromdifferent sources.

The widespread use of public-keycryptography to protect privacy, then, willrequire a considerable change in mindsetamong programmers. In effect we arewitnessing two different revolutions: thecomputer networking revolution and theconsequent merger of all the world'sdatabases, and the public-keycryptography revolution with its potentialto protect individual identities withoutlimiting system functionality. The questionis, which revolution will happen first?

The answer to this question, ofcourse, depends on numerous factors, notthe least of which is pure chance. Privacyadvocates can play several roles:

• They can ensure that designers andstandards committees are aware oftechnical options that protect privacywithout sacrificing functionality.

• They can build and publicizedemonstration systems that employdigital cash and other privacy-protectingtechnologies.

• They can explain the issues to the pressand the public, refusing to allowthemselves to be positioned asopponents of technology.

They can use the Internet to keep sometechnologically adept communities up todate on the issues as they evolve, askingInternet participants to track the issuesin their own localities and spreadingnews of public hearings and otheropportunities to present the issues.

They can provide grassroots support forindustry alliances that push for strongcryptography against governmentproposals that threaten both civilliberties and commercial security.

They can provide backgroundinformation, policy analysis, technicalassistance, and media connections tocitizens' groups that are organizingprotests against privacy-degradingprojects—such as bad implementationsof ITS, particularly for purposes ofcongestion pricing.

They can identify, organize, and trainlocal privacy activists.

Most fundamentally, though, privacyadvocates can exert an influence byworking with a range of other groups.Conditions should be auspicious for thiskind of coalition-building. "Digitalconvergence," after all, is not just atechnical phenomenon. It is also apolitical phenomenon, as an enormousvariety of individuals and groupsbecome aware of previously unimaginedcommon interests concerninginformation technology and its uses.Privacy advocates today, for example,have strong allies among librarians,doctors and nurses, trade unionists,ethnic activists, advocates for theelderly, conservative opponents ofoverreaching government, and manyothers. Concern about privacy has alsotaken on its own life as a culturalphenomenon; the general public isaware in an abstract way of the threatsto their privacy, but most people havelittle concrete understanding of the exactnature of these threats. This vacuum isoften filled by strange dystopian talesabout microchips being implanted inpeople's bodies; correct informationabout the dangers to privacy would beconsiderably more useful andempowering.

We are thus faced with the task ofkeeping the political dialogue abouttechnology and privacy as technicallysound and broadly inclusive as possible. Inthis way, we can hope to ensure thattransport informatics in particular, and

similar systems across the broaderlandscape more generally, will evolve in away that provides the benefits ofautomation while retaining maximumprotection of personal privacy.

References

Agre, Philip E., "Surveillance andCapture: Two Models of Privacy,"The Information Society 10(2),1994, pp. 101-27.

Alpert Sheri A., "Privacy and IntelligentHighways: Finding the Right ofWay," Santa Clara Computer and

' High Technology Law Journal 11(1),1995, pp. 97-118.

Chaum David, "Achieving ElectronicPrivacy," Scientific American267(2), 1992,pp. 96-101.

Garfinkel Simson, "The Road WatchesYou," New York Times, 3 May1995, p. A17.

Giannopoulos, G. and A. Gillespie, eds,Transport and CommunicationInnovations in Europe, New York:Halsted Press, 1993.

Glancy, Dorothy, "Privacy and IntelligentTransportation Technology," SantaClara Computer and HighTechnology Law Journal 11(1),1995, pp. 151-88.

Halpern, Sheldon W., "The Traffic inSouls," Santa Clara Computer andHigh Technology Law Journal 11(1),1995, pp. 45-73.

Hepworth, Mark, and Ken Ducatel,Transport in the Information Age:Wheels and Wires, London:Belhaven Press, 1992.

Holland, Kelley and Amy Cortese, 'TheFuture of Money: E-cash CouldTransform the World's FinancialLife," Business Week, 12 June 1995,pp. 66-78.

IVHS America, Proceedings of the 1993. Annual Meeting of IVHS America:

Surface Transportation: Mobility,Technology, and Society, 14-17

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April 1993, Washington, DC: IVHSAmerica.

Klein, Han , "Reconciling InstitutionalInterests and TechnicalFunctionality: The Advantages ofLoosely-Coupled Systems,"Proceedings of VNIS'93 (VehicleNavigation and InformationSystems), IEEE/IEE, Ottawa,Canada, 12-15 October 1993.

Lappin, Todd , "Truckin1," Wired 3(1),1995, pp. 117-23, 166.

Marks, Peter, "For a Few LuckyMotorists, Guidance by Satellite,"New York Times, 2 April 1994, pp.1, 16.

Organization for Economic Cooperationand Development, IntelligentVehicle Highway Systems: Reviewof Field Trials, Paris: OECD, 1992.

Phillips, Don, "Big Brother in the BackSeat?: The Advent of the 'IntelligentHighway' Spurs a Debate over

Privacy," Washington Post, 23February 1995, p. D10.

Robinson, Mike and Liam Bannon,"Questioning Representations," inLiam Bannon, Mike Robinson, andKjeld Schmidt, eds, ECSCW'91:Proceedings of the Second EuropeanConference on Computer-SupportedCooperative Work, Dordrecht:Kluwer, 1991.

Simon, Richard, "Camera Gains MoreExposure as a Device for TrafficControl," Los Angeles Times, 20February 1995, pp. Bl and B3.

U.S. Department of Transportation, IVHSStrategic Plan: Report to Congress,December 1992.

U.S. Department of Transportation,Nontechnical Constraints andBarriers to Implementation ofIntelligent Vehicle-Highway

Systems: A Report to Congress,June 1994. . . , . - , . .

Wald, Matthew L., "Two TechnologiesJoin to Assist Lost Drivers," NewYork Times, 30 March 1994, p. A13.

Wallace, Charles P., "Singapore in High-Tech Tangle to Fight AutomobileGridlock," Los Angeles Times, 3February 1995, p. A5.

Weisberg, Robert, "IVHS, Legal Privacy,and the Legacy of Dr. Faustus,"Santa Clara Computer and HighTechnology Law Journal 11(1),

• 1995, pp. 75-96.

Phil Agre is an assistant professor ofcommunication at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego. He edits a freemonthly online newsletter entitled TheNetwork Observer, http://communication, ucsd. edu/pagre/tno.html. His email address ispagre @ ucsd. edit.

continued from page 14

California sought to obtain printouts ofarrest records for use in a private business.Of the six California counties approached,only two raised objections to handing overthese records, although the state'sInformation Practices Act lists suchrecords as "confidential." (Peninsula TimeTribune, April 4, 1991, p. 4.)

Mary Connors is a researchpsychologist focusing on issues ofhuman/machine interaction. She isCPSR's Western regional director and isactive in the Palo Alto Civil LibertiesWorking Group. She can be contactedat mconnors@cpsr.org.

If yOU m o v e , please notify the .CPSR. National Office.The CPSR Newsletter is mailed hulkrate, and the postal service will notforward bulk mail.

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20

F R O M T H E D A N I S H B O A R D O F T E C H N O L O G Y

No. 5/1995

On the way to intelligent traffic- results from a consensus conference

Scepticism about traffic informatics predominates. A panel consisting of 14laymen does not see any substantial economic, environmental or safety benefitsfrom massive public investments in traffic informatics. - Perhaps with theexception of public transport.

The total amount of traffic is increasing, and in the future one of the tools to controltraffic will be the use of information technology - also known as traffic informatics.

The basic idea of traffic informatics is that the right information at the right time canmake road traffic more efficient, environmentally friendly, economical andcomfortable. Thus, there are great expectations to the technology, but what aboutpossible drawbacks and problems?

What is traffic informatics?

Traffic informatics may bedefined as:

The application of modern informationtechnology within the traffic sector.By modern information technology

we understand computers anddata communication.

There is a need to clarify where and howtraffic informatics should be used, and thusthe direction in which the population wantstraffic to develop.

The Danish Board of Technology thereforeheld a consensus conference about trafficinformatics at Christiansborg Palace from 28to 31 October 1994 .

The purpose of the conference was to reviewthe technological level of traffic informatics

and to evaluate and answer questions aboutapplication possibilities and consequences inrelation to for example safety, the environmentand the economy.

Another purpose was to generate interest anddisseminate knowledge in order to popularisethe discussion about the subject and to contrib-ute to making the basis for traffic policydecisions in this area more qualified.

The Danish Board of Technology initiates overall assessments of the possibilities and consequences inherent inthe technological development - and promotes popular debate on technology.

The results of the Board's projects and debating activities express the opinions of the involved experts or laymen.

TeknologiNaevnet'AN?ONIGA»E^«3X)iemO«:&OPENHAGEN>K^

Main conclusions of the final document ofthe layman panel

The layman panel is predominantly sceptical abouttraffic informatics. The main conclusions of the finaldocument of the panel fall within the following head-ings:

EconomyThe prognoses, on which the economic calculations forthe introduction of traffic informatics are based, are aprojection of traffic development during the last twentyyears.

inattentiveness, etc.). There is also a risk that driverslose their skills, so that they are not able to drive a carmanually.

The panel finds that in the short term road safety is bestand most cheaply promoted by investment in traditional,low-technology safety measures.

The environmentIt is the impression of the panel that traffic informaticsis of only marginal importance to the solution of envi-ronmental problems in traffic.

The basic viewpointof the panel is thatthere is no substantialevidence indicatingthat considerable eco-nomic, environmentalor safety benefits willbe derived from mas-sive public invest-ments in traffic infor-matics. Therefore,the panel does not atpresent recommendthe public sector tospend a lot of re-sources in this area.However, there maybe benefits for publictransport.

What are the goals to be achieved intraffic informatics?:

Route guidance Current travel directions in relation toa keyed in destination

Parking guidance Travel directions in relation tovacant parking spaces in a certain area

Automatic user payment Registration and levy of tolls,for example for driving on a motorway

Automatic police control Monitoring and registrationof road-users' (illegal) behaviour

Collision and avoidance systems Systems which bymeans of detectors register that a vehicle is on a colli-sion course and which warn about and/or prevent animminent collision

Clearly, manufac-turers and business-men exert a pressurefor the introductionof new technology.Any socio-economicbenefits as such de- ™"™ " ™"" ™""1' ™™^™™™pend on the system chosen, and the distribution betweenpublic and private funding.

SafetyAs regards general road safety, traffic informatics maysolve some problems but may at the same time causenew ones to arise. Traffic informatics may be used toincrease safety, but hardly to an extent that can makeroad safety a conclusive argument for the introductionof traffic informatics on a large scale.

Traffic informatics in the form of navigation systemsand variable signs may give road-users the possibility ofconcentrating about traffic and may thus improve roadsafety.

On the other hand, the panel worries that the introduc-tion of traffic informatics may jeopardise road safety ifit involves techno-stress in drivers (stress, apathy,

Automatic speed guidance or regulation Systems thatadvise about - or automatically regulate - the speed ofthe vehicle to a suitable level on the basis of forexample road surface, weather conditions, type of road,etc.

Environmental con-siderations can there-fore not be used asan argument infavour of the intro-duction of traffic in-formatics.

Indirectly, however,traffic informaticscontains a possibilityof making publictransport more attrac-tive - this may resultin fewer cars on theroads which is an ad-vantage to the envi-ronment. The panelrecommends thattraffic informatics isused to further publictransport - also forenvironmental rea-sons. Moreover, thepanel wants trafficinformatics to beused to improve theinteraction between

various forms of transport.

RegistrationAs a number of traffic informatics systems are based onthe collection and treatment of personal information, arange of new registers will come into being. It may beregisters for toll payment, traffic registration or identifi-cation of vehicles or drivers.

When databases are established it is important to collectonly data which is necessary in connection with theoperation of the traffic informatics system.

The panel demands that registration in systems register-ing persons must be voluntary. Efforts should be madeto ensure as much anonymity as possible.

Public transportTraffic informatics may be used to make public as well

On the way to intelligent traffic

as individual transport more efficient, and similarlyinteraction between the various forms of transport maybe improved. Interesting experimental projects havealready been launched. The panel recommends thatthese efforts be continued.

ness and a false sense of security. The panel recom-mends the involvement of both professional behaviour-ists and user panels as early in the product developmentas possible. The same applies in connection with testingand approval of equipment.

There are large differencesas regards the benefitsderived by public transportin various areas from trafficinformatics. In the country,it is particularly importantthat the systems axe mademore flexible, so that largebuses do not run with fewpassengers. In major citiesthere are important environ-mental and safety reasons tolimit the number of cars inthe city centres. This shouldbe effected partly by makingpublic transport more attrac-tive, partly by improving theinteraction between variousforms of transport.

Moreover, "park your carand take the train" schemesmay be devised wheredrivers can park in thesuburbs and take publictransport to the city centre.

Facts about the consensus conference

The consensus conference is a public hearingwhere a panel of interested and well-preparedlaymen question a number of experts. The laymenhave been found on the basis of broad and carefulselection. The conference lasts four days, of whichthree days are open to the public.

The first two days the interviewing panel listensand asks questions to the experts about a numberof subjects, laid down in advance by the laymenthemselves. On the basis of this, the panel sumsup its evaluations in a final document which ispresented to the conference participants and thepublic on the last day of the conference. The finaldocument is subsequently published in the form ofa report which also contains all the experts'contributions. The report is distributed to partici-pants in the conference, members of the DanishParliament and other interested parties. Theconsensus conference was prepared by the Secre-tariat to the Danish Board of Technology in co-operation with a planning group.

LegislationIt is the impression of thepanel that, by and large,current legislation is a suffi-cient framework for the in-troduction of traffic infor-matics. However, the panelis aware of some areaswhere things may develop insuch a way that current legi-slation is not adequate:

• New systems for data re-gistration. Today it is legalto register sensitive personalinformation in private regis-ters on three conditions: theperson must provide the in-formation himself, he mustknow that it is registered,and it must be necessary forthe company to register theinformation. It may, how-ever, be anticipated that anumber of problems mayarise if the systems are able

The panel emphasises the importance of giving highpriority to public transport in connection with thedevelopment of traffic informatics.

Pedestrians and cyclistsAs product development in traffic informatics is con-trolled by expected market potential, it has until nowbeen aimed at cars and related means of transport.Pedestrians and cyclists have, on the other hand, notbeen considered by the product development in trafficinformatics yet.

If traffic informatics is used to improve public transport,it will also benefit pedestrians and cyclists as it may,among other things, reduce the amount of motor traffic.

With the existing technology, the panel does not findthat traffic informatics will benefit children in traffic. Itcannot replace traditional traffic training and informa-tion. The panel recommends the exploration of thepossibilities to use traffic informatics to help children intraffic. ~~*£ -

Impact on human psyche and behaviourThere are some built-in inconsistencies in the fact that,on the one hand, this technology has a lot of advantagesand, on the other, a number of unintended side effectssuch as stress reactions, apathy, distraction, inattentive-

to register where we have been when.

• Safety systems, etc. which, to be effective, requirethat everybody has them. However, the panel does notbelieve that any of the existing systems are so effectivethat they deserve to be introduced by law.

• Automatic speed registration. This system is based onthe idea that any fine for speeding is imposed on theowner of the vehicle - regardless of whether anotherperson was driving it. The panel wants this matter ofresponsibility to be settled.

• The panel believes that it should be obligatory for thedriver to pull over if he wants to use electronic equip-ment involving a risk that he impedes or inconveniencesother road-users.

The decision processThe equipment and fitting out of vehicles are mattersincreasingly controlled by international bodies. Generaltraffic planning is carried out at different levels, so thatthere is room for local decisions.

The panel expects that in the years to come there will besweeping and to a wide extent unpredictable develop-ment in the traffic informatics area. As this technologyis to be employed by users on a large scale in a danger-ous and sensitive environment, it is of utmost import-

On the way to intelligent traffic

ance that the technology is developed in an appropriateway and that it is very easy for the users to operate.

To achieve this result it is necessary constantly toinvolve the users in the further development of trafficinformatics technology before it is finally developed,approved and marketed. This objective may be attainedin several ways, but the panel finds that it is of greatimportance that users and drivers are constantlyinvolved before the technology is released and largeinvestments made.

(Source: Final document and expert consultation paperfrom the consensus conference held from 28 to 31Oaober 1994, the Danish Board of Technology series ofreports 1995/1 (not translated))

Interviewing panel:

Allan Christensen, 45, associate professorAnders Peter Larsen, 44, consultant

at a job centreAnita Herdahl, 37, school teacher

Ann Tina Bahnsen, 30, assistant dataprogrammer

Bente Rasmussen, 52, case attendant in theDanish Maritime Authority

Dorthe Lillelund Andersen, 25, agronomiststudent at the Royal Veterinary andAgricultural University, Copenhagen

Dorthe Jensen, 22, student at RoskildeUniversity Centre

Fritz Gram Pedersen, 64, retired senior clerkfrom Telecom A/S

Harry Blunck, 52, business economist,currently unemployed

Irene Hansen, 30, nurse, studies computerscience at the University of CopenhagenKurt Nielsen, 32, computer consultant

Ove Reine, 31, engineerPoul Erik M0ller, 49, controller at

Bang & OlufsenTove D Serensen, 57, careers guidance

officer, currently unemployed

Expert panel:

Finn Krenk of the Road DirectoratePer Hedelund of Siemens

Erik Toft of the Ministry of TransportNiels Helberg of the Danish Council of Road

Safety ResearchJens Elsbo of Copenhagen TransportLizzi Haaning of the Danish Cyclist

AssociationIvan Lund Pedersen of NOAH TrafficIb Rasmussen of the Road Safety and

Transport AgencyKurt Markworth of the Municipality

of AalborgMichael Warming of the Danish Building

Research InstituteStig Franze'n of Chalmars Teknik Park,

GothenburgSteffen Strip, computer ethics consultant

Kim Steen-Petersen of the DanishRoad Association

Jan Kildebogaard of the Road DirectorateLeif Nielsen of the Federation of

Danish Motorists

Planning group:

Jan Kildebogaard of the Road DirectorateLeif Hald Petersen of the Danish

Transport CouncilThomas Krag of the Danish Cyclist

AssociationKnud Th. Pedersen of the Federation of

Danish MotoristsHenriette Hye-Knudsen of the Secretariat to

the Danish Board of Technology

The final document and expert consultation paper from the consensus conference held from 28 to 31 October 1994have been published in Danish in the report series of the Danish Board of Technology - Pa vej mod intelligent

trqftk, 1995/1 (121 pages - Price: DKK 75.00)

- A .

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDIRECTORATE-GENERAL IIIINDUSTRYLegislation and standardization and telematics networksStandardization

Brussels, 5 July, 1995KHL/uk/5§95-000DGm/B/2

M/

SOGITS N 879(For formal consultation)

BC-T-335

DRAFT STANDARDISATION MANDATE FORWARDED TOCEN/CENELEC/ETSI IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TITLE

Work programme for electronic toll systems standardisation.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this mandate is to prepare a work programme for the development ofvoluntary European harmonised standards covering the elements involved in electronictoll systems such as IC-cards.

The standards shall support Directive 93/89/EEC on " the application by Member Statesof taxes on certain vehicles used for the carriage of goods by road and tolls and chargesfor the use of certain infrastructures" with particular reference to common technicalstandards to promote interoperability.

JUSTIFICATION

Directive 93/89/EEC demands the Commission to present a report to the Council before31 December 1997 on implementation of the Directive taking into account ofdevelopments in technology. Directive 93/89/EEC also calls for the introduction ofelectronic toll and/or user-charge systems bearing in mind the desirability of achievinginter-operability between those systems

CEN has recognised the importance of this area, which is covered by several TechnicalCommittees. CEN TC278 is dealing with Road Traffic and Transport Telematics, whereWG1 is responsible for Automatic Fee Collection and Access Control. CEN TC224 is

Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels, BelgiumTelephone: direct line (+32-2)299 44 77, exchange 299 11 11 - Fax: 296 95 00Telex COMEU B 21877 - Telegraphic address COMEUR Brussels

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDIRECTORATE-GENERAL IIIINDUSTRYLegislation and standardization and telematics networksStandardization

Brussels, 5 July, 1995KHL/uk/5696-000DGm/B/2

M/

SOGITS N 878(For formal consultation)

BC-T-336

DRAFT STANDARDISATION MANDATE FORWARDED TOCEN/CENELEC/ETSI IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TITLE

Standards for IC cards for road toll collection. •

PURPOSE

The purpose of this mandate is the establishment of voluntary European Standardscovering the elements involved in using IC cards to provide automatic fee collection ofroad toll.

JUSTIFICATION

Existing IC-card standards will provide a solid set of tools and building blocks forimplementing Automatic Fee Collection systems. However, in order to enable true inter-operability and compatibility of systems, more than a common set of tools is required. It isessential that, from the wide variety of choices which the common set of tools provide,also common choices are made. This mandate support the development of standardswhich will provide the specification of these common choices.

ORDER

This mandate shall requfre the establishment of European Standards covering the elementsinvolved in using IC cards to provide automatic fee collection of road toll

Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels, BelgiumTelephone: direct line (+32-2)299 44 77, exchange 299 11 11 - Fax: 296 95 00Telex COMEU B 21877 - Telegraphic address COMEUR Brussels

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 20, 1995City Final

OPENING SOON: THE TOLL ZONE

Unlon-Tiibuns / JEBRY RIFE

Traffic passes under an array of sensors that will be used to control toll traffic on state Route 91 in Orange County.

Orange County toll road to blaze trailivate highway

vM be first of its kind in stateBy URI BERLINERStaff Writer

C indy Langston has such a grisly commute onthe traffic-clogged Route 91 freeway in Or-ange County that she's exhausted when she

finally sits down to work in Anaheim at 7 a.m.By the time she completes the hour-plus return

trip to her home in Riverside County, she has justenough energy to gulp down a microwaved dinnerand crawl into bed.

Life in the slow lane is a drag.Relief could be on the way. A 10-mile private toll

road —'• the first of its kind in California — will openalong the freeway's median later this month. Twoasphalt lanes in each direction, the $126 million i*.

I project has tongues wagging over its new technolo**"

gy and controversial pricing structure.According to the developers, the California Pri-

vate Transportation Co., the road will cut pollutionand save rush-hour commuters up to a total of 40minutes daily. Critics say it's the first step to sepa-rate highways for the affluent and the poor.

Langston, an accounts receivable clerk, favorsanything that cuts her freeway hassle. But there's acatch. If she drives alone during rush hour, shemust pay $2.50 in each direction; when she com-mutes with her regular car pool, the trip is free.

"It's a bit pricey, but it's great if you're in a carpool," she said.

The experiment — dubbed the 91 ExpressLanes — is the first automated toll road in theworld. The system uses overhead antennas to readwallet-sized transponders attached to motorists'

» S e e T o 1 1 f O a d o n P a 9 e A ' 3 1

OPENING SOON91 Express Lanes

Union-Tribun* / JERRY RIFE

Pay as you go: When motorists travel state Route 91 's express lanes, transponders suck as this will be read byoverhead antennas and toll fees will be automatically charged to the motorists.

Toll roadCritics raise the issueof haves and have-nots

Continued from A-1

windshields. Customers hear abeep when tolls are automaticallydeducted near the road midpoint.The technology includes methodsto catch scofflaws who attempt touse the toll road without paying.

Along with high-tech gadgetry,the project employs customercome-ons that harken back to theBurma Shave billboards of the '50s.As they approach the road, motor-ists pass one large sign, "WhenHeavy Traffic is a Pain," followedby another, "Move on Over to theFasTrak Lane."

Under a franchise agreementwith Caltrans, the private operatorwill collect tolls for 35 years, with acap on profits, after which the pro-ject reverts to the state. The devel-oper also pays the California High-way Patrol for police services.

The fate of the Orange Countyventure will be watched closely, es-pecially in San Diego County,where an 11-mile private parkwayis in the planning stage.

Unlike many European and Asiancountries, the United States fi-nances all its highways publicly.When a 14-mile toll corridor be-tween Washington's Dulles Airportand northern Virginia opened inSeptember, it became the nation'sfirst private toll foad in more than50 years.

The project opened six monthsahead of schedule, as thousands ofgridlock-weary suburbanitestoasted with champagne at aribbon-cutting ceremony. But else-where, notably in California, roadprivatization has drawn heated op-position as well as strong support.

Private toll roads are "un-Califor-nian" and will hurt low- and middle-income drivers, insists state SenateLeader Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward.

"The poor schlub who has no al-ternative will sit in traffic as theLexuses fly by," said DuanePeterson, press spokesman forstate Sen. Tom Hayden, D-SantaMonica. "It's a strategy to havefirst-class freeways for those whocan afford them and second-classroads for those who can't."

Of course, not everyone agrees.Rather than punishing low-incomemotorists, the extension will reducecongestion even for motorists whodon't use the toll lanes, said RobertPoole of the Reason Foundation inLos Angeles. -)>-.-y, ,.v;vfl

PROPOSED STATE 125TOLL ROAD

(125)RANCHOSAN DIEGOSweelwater <

_,-* Springs Rd. . '

PUBLIC FUNDED

PORTION OF

ROAD(NOTOLl)

Sal

I uS T A T E

N \ ^ " • PRISONB » ~ * l . - • •isa Rd.

I fu^oais I . . Sl.mp,eV,vaRd. •. CAUFOBm..1^ "-^^—I •.: ', • MEXICO

Poole is considered the intellec-tual force behind the market-basedapproach to road construction. In1989, the state enacted a bill withhis philosophical imprint that allowsCaltrans to award private transpor-tation franchises.

Four demonstration projectshave been selected, including StateRoad 125 South, a parkway be-tween State Route 54 and OtayMesa in San Diego. That $400 mil-lion venture, backed by transporta-tion giant Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.and a French firm, Transroute In-ternational, is undergoing environ-mental review. Developers hope toopen the road by late 1998 or early1999.

The private sector is willing toput up money to do this; we'reseeing it all over the country," saidPoole.

But will motorists, who alreadypay gas taxes for highways (and ahalf-cent sales tax in San DiegoCounty) fork over tolls for the privi-lege of driving an uncongestedroad?

This is an experiment in theroad as a consumer product," saidGreg Brooks, a spokesman for theOrange County developers. "We'vehad thousands of calls to our ser-vice center for information. Less

UNION-TRIBUNE

than 5 percent of them have beennegative."

Commuters view the toll laneswith mixed feelings, said GaryCherms of the Norco Chamber ofCommerce in Riverside County.They're complaining, but if peoplecan get home 20 minutes faster,they'll be glad. I think the road willpay for itself."

Cherms disputes the idea thatthe toll will separate automotivehaves from have-nots. The primaryusers, he said, are likely to be resi-dents with modest incomes andbrutal commutes to Orange Countyor even to Los Angeles.

But Langston, the accounts re-ceivable clerk, said only thewealthy will be able to afford a solocommute: "When you add your gas,it's $200 a month. That's as muchas a car payment."

To toll supporters like Poole, pri-vatization is the only way to addroads and repair existing ones with-out raising taxes.

"The gas tax (the major source ofhighway revenues) keeps shrinkingin inflation-adjusted terms," he said."We need an additional source offunding." • i

More Important, privatizationbackers',say projects like,91 Ex-

\press introduce realistic market-«, •*• : t * ! - ! ' • - ' • • • / • - . - / « * - ; * ' ,

pricing to driving. Fees are stiff,during peak demand hours; rela-tively cheap when traffic is light.The approach, says Poole, not onlyreduces congestion, but is fair: ordi-narily, taxpayers pick up the tab forroads they may never drive on; tollroads are financed only by peoplewho use them.

Still, some drivers balk at the 91Express. "It seems expensive," saidSusan Pylant of Corona in RiversideCounty. "And when prices are lowyou don't have much traffic on thefree road, so I don't understandwhy you'd use it."

But the developers, who lookedat more than 75 potential sites be-fore proposing the Orange Countyroad, are convinced they have awinning formula.

Poole hopes the project spurs atransportation revolution in whichroads get built because of consumerdemand instead of pork-barrel poli-tics.

In the case of Express 91, wherecar pools of at least three occupantsride free, the project has forged anunlikely alliance: free-market en-thusiasts and environmentalists.

"We're excited about it," said Mi-chael Cameron, an economist withthe Environmental Defense Fund in.Oakland.

Environmentalists favor "conges-tion pricing" because it figures toreduce pollution: Fewer freewaytrips equal cleaner air. The Envi-ronmental Defense Fund contendstraffic will decline by 25 percent onthe 91 freeway by 1999.

But toll-road opponents counterthat any reduction in congestionwill come at the expense of low andmiddle-income drivers. "Theywould be forced off," said Lockyer."Wealthier drivers would benefit."

Critics also say private road proj-ects are uneconomical because de?velopers keep a portion of the reve-\nue as profit.

The contractors and their lobby-ists aren't interested in a fiscallyprudent transportation system,"said Peterson, Hayden's spokes-man.

just the opposite, counteredBrooks, the developer's spokes-man. Because labor costs and inter-est payments mount during everyday of construction, private firmsare anxious to build roads fasterthan such public agencies as Cal-

.' trans.The future of private roads is

unlikely to be settled by ideologicaldisputes. Ultimately, it will be up tomotorists. Do they want to paymore for a faster trip or a smootherstretch of highway?

Keep your eyes on the toll road..Drivers will be voting with theirsteering wheels,d , -t ,• < ~-. ••

[Note: I received this on the Internet, so I cannot be completely certain that it is an accurateversion of the article. I have no reason to believe that it isn't, though.]

London Times February 18 1997

A prototype meter on the windscreen is charged using a smartcard. A "ray-gun" tollingsystem would deduct credit during motorway travel

Motorway drivers face billing by electronic beam

BY JONATHAN PRYNN, TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT

DRIVERS face having to pay for using motorways by early next century after thedevelopment of "ray-gun" tolling technology.

Trials of the tolling system, which uses microwaves to detect and charge passing vehicles,are showing big improvements in reliability, although it is not yet in use anywhere in theworld.

If the system goes ahead, every car using the motorways would have to be fitted with adashboard meter costing =A320 to =A330. The meter would be "read" by microwavebeams emitted from overhead gantries. Motorists could pay either by charging up asmartcard or by receiving a monthly bill.

Cars without a meter or with no credit would be photographed by automatic camerassimilar to speed cameras and the drivers would risk prosecution.

Early tests in Germany showed the equipment to be highly inaccurate and thousands ofmotorists would have been charged for journeys they did not make. However, recentadvances at the transport research laboratory in Berkshire suggested that only one car in10,000 would be wrongly charged. Scientists on the project aim to cut the figure to one inten million.

The Government wants to introduce tolling to raise money for improving roads and toincrease the cost of motoring to persuade more people to use public transport. Critics haveargued that the tolls would simply force traffic off the motorways on to untolled roads,leading to more congestion. Continental-style tolling booths have been ruled out because ofthe volume of traffic on British motorways and because of the land they take up.

Tim Wander, a spokesman for the GEC-Marconi consortium, one of two working on atolling system for British roads, said the technology was now so advanced that the sensorscould detect and separately charge two cars driving bumper to bumper at lOOmph.

Patrick Clipperton, business development manager of Bosch Telecom, the rivalconsortium, said talks were going on in Brussels to introduce a unified system acrossEurope.

The technology could also be used by the police: each sensor can detect the size, make andspeed of the cars passing the gantries. John Watts, the Roads Minister, who was visitingthe trial site yesterday, said no decision had been taken on whether the police would haveaccess to the data.

Mr Watts said that if trials proved successful the technology would be tested on a stretch ofthe M3 near Basingstoke before a final decision was taken on whether tolling should go

ahead. Levels of tolls have not been set but when the policy was first announced by theGovernment in 1993, they were estimated at 1.5p per mile for cars and 4.5p per mile forheavy goods vehicles.

Mr Watts said that the tolls could be set at different levels at different times of day todiscourage rush-hour traffic or to encourage lorries to travel at night.

Technical and legislative obstacles mean that tolling is unlikely to be introduced for aboutsix years. However, motoring organisations are already complaining that Britain's 21million drivers contribute far more to the Treasury's coffers than they get back throughspending on roads. Labour has said that it would scrap the trials because the system wouldforce traffic on to smaller roads.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1997 BU

Beyond Self-Serve: Robots and Magic WandsBy LAURA KOSS-FEDER

BUYING gasoline is a chore; driverswant to get in and out of the gasstation as quickly as possible and be

on their way.To help ease the process, some big gaso-

line retailers are experimenting with newgadgets, including radio transmissions; ro-bot arms and scanner technology. All areintended to move motorists along — andmaybe even without the smell of gasoline ontheir hands.

"This is a fiercely competitive business,and the gasoline companies are trying todifferentiate themselves from each other,"said Ed Maran, an associate analyst withA. G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.

One of the best-known programs is theMobil Corporation's Speedpass system. In-troduced in May and now available at morethan 2,500 Mobil stations, it allows custom-ers to buy gas at the pump'and have thecharge automatically billed to a pre-select-ed credit card. Enrolled drivers are given atag, which can be attached to a key ring orplaced in a vehicle's rear window. Motoristscan wave the key tag at a scanner at thepump, or stop at a special pump that scansthe window tag; either tag activates thefueling.

To bolster the use of Speedpass, Mobildiscontinued the sign-up fees, which origi-nally ranged from $4.95 to $10.95. Joe Gior-dano, Mobil's acting pricing and technologymanager, said research showed that con-sumers using Speedpass increased their gaspurchases by about one per month.

Shell Oil is testing its similar Easy Paysystem, consisting of an electronic key-chain device that is also waved in front of ascanner at the pump. The device costs $3.99,and the service is now available at 125 ofShell's 9,000 stations. Shell is1 not yet surewhether the one-time fee for the device willremain, said Art Driscoll, manager of prod-uct development for Shell Oil Products. .

Early next year, Shell will also begin

Mobil's "Speedpass," a chip on a keychain, charges gas purchases to a creditcard when the chain is waved at a pump.

testing its Smart Pump, an automated fuel-ing system. A robotic arm automaticallypumps gas through a special fuel cap thatreplaces the car's original cap. The new capcan still be used for conventional fueling atother gas stations, Mr. Driscoll said.. The Smart Pump also requires a low-range radio transmitter that is mounted tothe windshield. Once the customer selects agrade of gas, the automated fueling armmoves around the car. finds the fuel cap,

opens the fuel door and dispenses gas)* Atypical self-service fueling would be cutfrom four minutes to about two, accordingto the company.

Mr. Driscoll said Shell had not decidedwhether to charge for the service. "Re-search has shown us that customers willpay a premium for this level of service," hesaid. "While we don't want to put any barri-ers to people using this service, I wouldn'tbe surprised if customers would pay a

transaction fee of 75 cents or $1."Texaco plans to test a system similar to

Smart Pump in the first half of 1998, using aradio impulse to signal an automatic roboticarm to find the gas cap and pump gasoline.

Dick Arold, brand manager for Star En-terprise, a Houston-based oil refining andmarketing company that is half-owned byTexaco, said Star would test the program intwo or three Texaco gas stations, whichhave not been chosen yet. The service would

be available to credit card users who runtheir cards through automatic readers. Cus-tomers would also need a special gas capand a button-sized transponder affixed totheir cars.

Star has not decided whether to chargecustomers for the service; if so, Mr. Aroldestimated, the cost could be a nickel a gallonmore than traditional self-serve gasolineprices.

Texaco is also testing a cash "acceptor"in five stations in Phoenix; the technologyautomatically accepts paper currency atgas pumps. Mr. Arold said the technologymight be combined with the robotic arm,1perhaps in a year or so, to accommodatecustomers who prefer to pay with cash.

Some new services have nothing to dowith dispensing gasoline. The Chevron Cor-,poration is considering a program with theSan Francisco Giants that would allow cus-tomers to buy and receive baseball ticketsat automated teller machines at Chevron 'stations. A test may be undertaken in 1998 atone or two stations in Northern California.

BT'S too early to tell whether these serv-ices will pay off in new business — or:whether they could create problems. For

instance, the signal devices that allow auto-matic charging of gas purchases essentiallyfunction as credit cards do, so they mightbecome a target of thieves and hackers.

"There has been a mention of security asa concern," said John Callanan, publisher ofthe Journal of Petroleum Marketing, themonthly publication of the Petroleum Mar-keters Association. "There could be the op-portunity for someone to hack into some-'thing and break into certain codes."

And what about a possible technical mal-function, say, of a robotic arm? "One of themost important components to any of theseservices is that they be mistake-free," Mr.Arold said. "One of the biggest disasterswould be if something went wrong and therewere damage to a car."

Another potential negative is that custom-ers won't understand how the services work."Some may think that if something is in-stalled on their car, they won't be able tobuy gas at another brand's station; this isn'ttrue," said Ed Rothschild of Podesta Associ-!ates, a Washington consulting firm. ;

Finally, the services are geared towardcustomers who pay with credit cards. Butcash-paying customers make up about 65percent of all gasoline buyers, Mr. Driscollsaid. Q

i A 2 0 I SATURDAY. DECEMBER 27. 1997 / F LOS ANGELES TIMES

Technology May Not Drive Nation'sProductivity, but It Can Hail a Taxi

ANGbLLS 1IML.S F/SATUKDAV. DliO-.MLihK 27. A21

• Growth: Optimists saystatistics do not fully

reflect business gains, likeimprovements at Yellow

Cab. However, skeptics say ^ m c r p n c e i n d c x m a y bc o v e r e s l i .

evidence is lacking.

Finally, they point out that cur-rent techniques for measuring pro-ductivity are geared primarily tomanufacturing, although the na-tion now produces about $1.50worth of services for every $1 !worth of manufactured goods.

Service firms have been amongthe biggest beneficiaries of theefficiencies generated by the com-puter revolution.

John T. Pearl & Associates,, aPeoria, 111., insurance firm, has justinstalled a computer system thathas cut the time it takes for its

bounding after years'of relative steppcd-up productivity growth is underwriters to process applica-stagnation? For one perspective, one of the few credible explana- Please see ECONOMY, A21just call a Yellow Cab the next time t ' o n s f o r t h e u- s- economy s ex-vou're here. tended period of high growth and

low inflation.Yardeni believes that the im-

proved productivity has led to a

By ART PINETIMES STAFF WRITER

Essentially, there are iwoschools of thought about the "pro-ductivity paradox."*

The optimists believe that thestatistics are flawed and have notfully captured the recent gains inproductivity, much as the con-

mating the inflation rate. In thelast six months, they say, th e

~. productivity numbers are finallycatching up.

Ed Yardcni, chief economist for

D ALLAS-Is America's eco- the Deulsche Morgan Grenfell in-nomic productivity finally re- vestment firm, argues that

b d i f f l i t p e d u p productivity growth is

Chances are that the supervisorcan tell instantly which of thecompany's 450 taxis is nearest -you-and available-and can send " n c w economy" that will enableit immediately. If there is no cab in t h e United States to enjoy contin-your area, the next closest one is u c d economic growth and low in-dispatched automatically (Islion well into the 21st century.

Yellow Cab is guiding its taxis "n r e a l l v i s t h e Goldilockswith the same technology that the economy," Yardeni said-as in, notDefense Department developed to too hot, not too coid.provide navigation systems for itsmissiles and aircraft: the satellite- T f Yardeni is correct, the benefitsbased global positioning system. -L could be enormous. Even a 1-

A GPS sot in every cab continu- percentage-point rise in annualally tracks each taxi's location and productivity, proponents argue,transmits it to the dispatcher, who could add so much to the nation'scan follow it on a monitor. The ' economy that the extra tax rev-system automatically searches for • enue would provide full Socialthe nearest taxi that is available Security benefits for the babyand even calculates the likely fare, boom generation,based on estimated distance. Others, however, are skeptical

The system is a boon not only to about such assertions. Barry P.customers. James E. Richards, Bosworth, an economist at theYellow Cab's president, says it has Brookings Institution think tank,transformed the way the firm does argues that despite the gains of thebusiness, enabling managers to de- last two quarters, the longer-termploy cabs more efficiently, saving statistics "don't s- pport any notionthousands of dollars annually on t l i a I w c n a v " '•"• • i (-n c e o f improv-labor and operating costs, and allbut eliminating cheating by driversand dispatchers.

"1 have to say I'm amazed my-self." Richards said.

The revolution at Yellow Cab isonly one of thousands of dra-

matic efficiencies being achievedevery day- at large and smallbusinesses a!! over the country,using not only computers but alsoother high-technology equipmentincluding lasers and biotechnology.

It is one of the paradoxes oftoday's economy that this torrentof technology is not fueling asustained increase in the nation'sproductivity—the output per workhour of the average Americanworker. . I

The issue is important because ,rising worker productivity is what iultimately lifts the standard of •living of all Americans. ',

Until 1973, U.S. productivity had •been growing at a robust 2.5% to3f,o a year, raising living standards }sharply and helping, in general, to jkrrp inflation low. Since then, ;however, productivity growth has 'averaged a disappointing 1%—andeven less since the mid-1980s.

But productivity has spurted in 'the last six months, rising at a 2.4% 'annual rate last spring and'4.1% in 'the summer quarter. Analysts are I,sharply divided over whetherithese are aberrations or the start of!,a trend. . . • j

Even the Federal Reserve is ispin over the issue. In minutes of iits November meeting, which weremade public earlier this month, theI->d's policy-setting Federal OpenMarket Committee cited the recentincrease in productivity growth as i

one reason (along with the eco-nomic turmoil in Asia) that it didno! raise interest rates. But severalmembers of the panel were clearlyskeptical.

The past few quarters' improve-ment in the statistics "are typicalof what happens at this stage ofany expansion," when output isrising rapidly and business is try-ing to hold its hiring down,Bosworth contends. "We've heardthese kinds of arguments before."

Whatever the statistics show,the anecdotal evidence of produc-tivity gains is impressive by anystandard.

• Dell Computer Corp. now rou-tinely asks customers to place theirorders over the Internet, eliminat-ing the need to maintain hugeinventories, sprawling warehousesand large staffs. Its newest factoryis being built without space forstoring excess stock.

• Quad Graphics, a Milwaukeeprinting company, has installedrobot-assisted stacking, storageand retrieval systems that enable itto use wider, faster presses and tosave money on postage by auto-matically storing magazines by ZIPCode.

• Russell Corp., a textile makerin Alexander City, Ala., has put incomputer-controlled spinning andcutting equipment that has helpedit double production with the samenumber of employees and build-ings. The system uses robots to

help consolidate manual op-erations.

Those who contend that theeconomy is changing cite suchexamples, multiplied many timesover, as strong evidence that pro- .ductivity must be improving dra-matically despite the sluggishnessreflected by the official statistics.

They cite a variety of factorsthat may have spurred productiv- :ity in recent years: Globalization ofthe economy has prodded compa-nies into seeking to reduce costs.Government deregulation hasmade firms more efficient.Business investment has mush-roomed.

The Productivity RecordFrom 1948 to 1973, U.S. productivity, as measured by the outputper work hour of the average American worker, grew at anaverage of 2.8% a year, raising living standards and helping tokeep inflation low. Since then, however, productivity growth hasaveraged a disappointing 1%. But productivity has spurted in thepast six months, rising at a 2.4% annual rate last spring and 4.1 %in the summer quarter.

'77 '79 '81 ' "83

Source: Bineou of Labor Stati

ECONOMY: ProductivityStatistics Being ScrutinizedContinued from A2Otions from 45 days to less than 10.

Moreover, laptop computers en-able field agents to provide instantrate quotes right in front of poten-tial customers, quickly fill out de-tailed application forms and checkon the status of applications. Cus-tomers can even buy policies overthe Internet.

W. Michael Cox, chief economistat the Federal Reserve Bank ofDallas, points out that the govern-ment's productivity-measuringtechniques also do not adequatelygauge improvements in the qualityof goods or services being pro-duced, which also adds to effi-ciency.

Cox points out, for example, thatautomobiles are built so much bet-ter these days that business buyersare saving millions of dollars onmaintenance, operating costs andreplacement. Yet efficiencies suchas these, he says, are not reflectedin the productivity figures.

Levi Strauss & Co. has installedcomputer-controlled lasers thatenable it to cut and sew custom-fitjeans for individual buyers usingmeasurements taken in stores andtransmitted electronically to thefactory—a service unimaginableeven a few years ago.

• ' ^ ' T ' h e productivity is showingA up everywhere but in the

numbers," Coxasserted.Frank Stafford, a University of

Michigan economist, argues thatproductivity gains have been allthe greater because the statisticsexaggerate the number of hoursworked.

Although statistics suggest thatAmericans are working longerhours than they used to, timestudies show that they spend agreater share of those hours—up tosix each week—doing things notrelated to their work—from mak-ing personal phone calls to playingsolitaire on computers.

Stafford's conclusion: "The pro-ductivity slowdown in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s was substan-tially a measurement problem."

Allen Sinai, economist at Pri-mark Decision Economics, addsthat productivity has not seemed toreflect the effect of new technol-ogy because it often takes yearsbefore the benefits of an inventioncan be fully exploited.

For the first several years afterthe invention of the microproces-sor in 1971, he points out, comput-ers were used as little more thanefficient calculators and typewrit-ers.

Likewise, when laser technologywas invented in the late 1960s,officials at Bell Labs refused topatent it because they thought ithad no application in telecommuni-cations. Only after fiber opticscame of age did Bell fully realizethe laser's potential.

Today, by contrast, imaginativefirms have combined these andother technologies in all kinds ofproductive ways.

Soli-Flo, an Oceanside, Calif.,• company, uses lasers and theglobal positioning system to im-prove efficiency in dredging lakesand rivers. The GPS guidesdredges automatically, eliminating

; costly overlaps caused by conven-tional surveying, which is impre-cise and slow.

Thanks to sophisticated softwareprograms, even companies withworldwide reach can keep dailytabs on an array of operations.

Wal-Mart, for example, has de-veloped a computer software sys-tem that enables it to downloaddata from cash registers across thecountry every night and use theinformation to replenish and dis-tribute its inventory—even notify-ing suppliers when to step up theirproduction lines.

Businesses have needed time toget used to such innovations. GerryGustafson, a Rockford, 111., plasticsmanufacturer, says his"firm did notbegin investing in the new high-tech equipment until it was nearlydriven out of business by better-equipped competitors.

"We'll never become obsoleteagain," he vowed.

For all the anecdotal evidence,there are still plenty of skeptics.

David A. Wyss, an economist atDRI/Standard & Poor's, predictsthat the spurt of productivitygrowth last spring and summer;will prove to be a fluke. "I don'tthink this is the start of the NewEconomy," he said.

Larry Mishel of the Economicl b l h

Computer technology consti-tutes only 2% of business invest-ment in capital stock, Sichel says,and much of that is simply toreplace older computers, wh ichbecome obsolete in almost no time.

Here in Dallas, however. YellowCab President Richards says tech-nology's effect can scarcely beoverestimated. Far from being justa gimmick, he says, the new sys-tem has already sped up taxi re-sponse times, saved money onoperations and provided more ca-pacity for growth.

Drivers love it because they nolonger have to scramble to learnthe best times and places to waitfor customers or to defend them-selves against other drivers whomay try to poach. In-cab monitorscreens show every cabby wherethe busiest parts of town are.

I t also has virtually eliminatedthe payola system that enabled

dispatchers to play favorites bysaving choice fares for those cab-bies who were willing to slip thema few dollars each month. Thesedays, the computer picks out thenearest available cab. It's incor-ruptible.

Another benefit: Cabbies can sig-nal the dispatcher quietly—with thetouch of a button—if they get intoan accident or a passenger pulls agun on them. The dispatcher cangive police the taxi's location with-out having to ask the driver.

"There's just no reason to haveto sit around idly anymore waitingfor business to come my way," saidBrad Elliott, a 24-year-old driverwho joined the company a yearago. "For myself, I love it. It's agreat system to have in place."

Richards concedes that the sys-tem was so full of bugs during itsfirst few months that the companynearly boxed it all up and sent itback to the manufacturer.

Drivers pushed buttons willy-nilly, overloading the emergencysignal. The system crashed repeat-dl E d h dPolicy nstitute, a liberal research ^ E r r o r g d m t h d

group is another defender of the ^ lfift t h e «eP

m SQ h o b b l e d

Productivity data. ^ a t the company once was unableWhile productivity may have t 0 s e n d a ^ t 0 a w o m a n w n o

been underestimated, he says, the n e e d e d t 0 1 1 0 a h U a lerror is unlikely-to be very l a rge - « W e w e r e c e r t a i n l y u n h f o r

maybe the difference between awhile," Richards said,growth of 1.1% a year and 1% a N o m o r e N o w n e t s ^ t

year-and certainly will not sup- d r i v e r t u r n o v e r i s down substan-port assertions that ^ i m p r o v e - tally, the firm is attracting appli-ment has led the country into a c a n t s f r o m o t h e r c o m p a n i e / a n d

^SheUseniorecono, ™£L 2£ £ o ^ y .mist for the Federal Reserve dozens of new employees.Board, HI a skeptic for a different, .., d o n . t t n i n k w e . v e t r e a l j z e dreason, No matter how dazzling the a | 1 l h e p o t e n l j a l / . h c s a i d .computer revolution may seem toAmericans fascinated with imageson a monitor, he says, its effect onproductivity has been overstated.

Cos Angeles SlimesMONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1998 D l

RoadScholars

IRIS SCHNEIDER / Los Angeles Timeo

From left, researcher Phyllis Nelson, student Buddy Nelsen andUCLA professors Oscar Stafsudd and loannis Kanellakopoulos.

'Smart' cars that couldrevolutionize transportation

and reduce pollution aremoving closer to realitywith technology being

developed in the Southland.

By KAREN KAPLAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

For most people, the thought of doubling thenumber of cars on the Southland's crowdedhighways inspires dread and maybe a little roadrage. But for "a group of research engineers

along the Tech Coast, it is something of a Holy Grail.These researchers at UCLA, USC, UC Irvine and UC

Riverside are developing intelligent transportationtechnologies that, when fully implemented, couldboost freeway capacity as much as 200% while reduc-ing travel time and cutting back on air pollution.

"Certainly there's been a whole sequence of techno-logical innovations since Henry Ford, but the thingthat hasn't changed since Henry Ford's time is the in-teraction between the vehicle and the roadway," saidSteven Shladover, deputy director of Partners for Ad-vanced Transit and Highways, a research effort ad-ministered by UC Berkeley that receives about $6million a year from the California Department ofTransportation, as well as funding from other sources.

PATH'S goal is to make cars "smarter" by enablingPlease see CARS, D6

Traffic Control"Smart" cars could increase the traffic capacity of today's freeways without

requiring any new road construction. Sensors and actuators would work in tandemto pack more cars in traffic lanes. The devices would help vehicles maintain a safedistance from one another and keep them cruising at a constant speed, eliminatingmuch of the abrupt acceleration and braking that causes traffic jams and adds toair pollution.

How It Works . _ _Researchers are designing intelligent cruise-

control systems that allow one car to follow •another. The high-tech car will automatically slowdown if the car ahead slows, or speed up if the leadvehicle accelerates. Tiny sensors attached to the Capturing Reflectionsfront of a car can measure the distance between A i™,. hnunpM nff r^fwtivpit and the vehicle ahead. Engineers at UCLAare p a t S iS thetaillights andusing infrared technology to build an inexpensive reflective paint in the licensesystem that uses lasers like those found in compact plate. These reflections becomedisc players. . i data that are recorded and

"compared."

Electronic SnapshotsA microprocessor instructs a charge-coupled device, or CCD, to take anelectronic picture (brown arrow) of thecar in front. A split second later, a laserfires and the CCD camera takes anotherpicture (pink arrow), this time with thelaser illuminating reflective patches onthe taillights ana the license plate.

Gauglng the DistanceThe CCD repeats this process over andover, comparing the position of thelicense plate and taillights, which enablesit to determine the relative speed of anddistance between the two cars.

Tell Me What to DorfKi?: After measuring changes in the

relative distance, the microprocessordecides whether the car should speedup or slow down. Commands are then

5 sent to tiny actuators controllingthe car's throttle and brakes.

;-vBe^er:-;|^•>' As more drivers adopt "smart" technology, highway ;;C«i£fc '\ capacity grows. Vehicles per hour, per lane: _ . I '^ j i

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 5096,, 60%Percentage of 'smart cars'

Sources: Center for Advanced Transportation at USC; UCLA

70% 80% 90% 100%

MATT MOODY / Los Angciea Times

D6 MONDAY. JANUARY 12, 1998 LOS ANGELES TIMES

COVER STORY

CARS: 'Smart' Technology Could Revolutionize DrivingContinued from Dlthem to communicate and synchronize their positionswith other vehicles on the road. That would allow for asmoother flow of traffic, which—in theory—wouldprevent collisions, reduce congestion and cut hydro-carbon emissions 10% to 20%.

"These technologies offer an opportunity for makingsome really significant improvements in the way thetransportation system works, just like modern elec-tronics have improved many other aspects of life,"Shladover said. "This makes it possible to significantlyimprove the efficiency and safety and comfort andconvenience and emissions and fuel economy associ-ated with travel."

Futurists have envisioned intelligent transportationsystems since the 1930s, but not until last summerwere researchers able to provide a practical demon-stration of an automated highway: 10 driverless Buickscruising along a carpool lane in northern San DiegoCounty.

Moving from that stage to implementation, how-ever, will require more research.

In order for cars to coordinate with one another,they must have intelligent cruise-control systems.Instead of merely maintaining a constant speed, a carwith intelligent cruise control could, in theory,maintain a constant distance behind another car,automatically speeding up or slowing down in re-sponse to changes in the lead vehicle. Intelligentcruise-control systems could also guide cars aroundcurves or into another lane when necessary.

In prototypes under development at UCLA andelsewhere, tiny sensors mounted on a car gather dataabout nearby vehicles and lane markers, then feed theinformation to an on-board microprocessor, whichuses it to calculate relative speed and distance. Themicroprocessor sends commands to chip-size ma-chines called actuators, which control the car'sthrottle and brake to make it speed up or slow down.

The challenge is to build not only a working system,but an inexpensive one. Engineers at UCLA are usinginfrared sensors instead of more pricey radar to trackdistances between cars, for example.

UCLA's IRIS system (for Intelligent Ranging withInfrared Sensors) packs a microprocessor, a semicon-ductor-based camera known as a charge-coupleddevice and a low-power laser into a contraption aboutthe size of a garage door opener.

The CCD camera takes an electronic picture of thecar ahead. A fraction of a second later, it takes asecond picture, this time with the laser illuminatingspecial reflective patches on the lead car's taillightsand license plate.

The system then produces a digital image of the leadvehicle's taillights and license plate and compares thepictures. By repeating this process over and over, thechip can use standard triangulation techniques todetermine the relative speed of the car ahead. (Atwo-camera system that determines the actual dis-tance between the vehicles and the speed at whichthey are traveling is also under development.) Theinformation is used to decide whether the car shouldspeed up or slow down.

The IRIS system is at least four to five timescheaper than a comparable radar-based system,

said Ioannis Kanellakopoulos, a UCLA electricalengineering professor who has spent the last sevenmonths developing IRIS with professor Oscar Stafsuddand researcher Phyllis Nelson. They are testing thehardware on a car at the Westwood campus and are intalks with several potential industry partners aboutcommercializing the technology.

Researchers at the Center for Advanced Transpor-tation Technologies at USC expect intelligent cruisecontrol to practically eliminate the familiar "slinkyeffect" that occurs when a road disturbance causespockets of backed-up traffic. In a traffic jam, anxiousdrivers speed up as much as they can when the carahead of them starts to move, then are forced to slamon the brakes and come to a quick stop, creatingfrustrating stop-and-go conditions, said Petros Ioan-nou, director of the USC center.

With intelligent cruise control, cars would beprogrammed to synchronize their speed with thevehicles ahead of them, eliminating the herky-jerky

pattern of such tie-ups.A study conducted by Ioannou found that as more

drivers install intelligent cruise-control systems, morecars could be on the freeway at once without acorresponding increase in travel time.

In a single hour, a typical freeway lane can handleabout 2,000 cars traveling at 60 mph. If half the cars onthe road were equipped with intelligent cruise control,the same lane could carry nearly 3,000 cars in the sameperiod. With 80% of cars equipped, the capacity ismore than 4,000 cars in an hour, and if all cars had thetechnology, nearly 5,500 vehicles could use the singlefreeway lane.

UCLA's Kanellakopoulos is also working on acomputer model to simulate the behavior of big-rigtrucks driving in synchronized platoons. He and othersbelieve the trucks could be strung together like traincars using "electronic tow bars"—sensor and actuatorsystems that could eliminate the need for humandrivers in all but the front-running rig. An 18-wheelernear PATH headquarters in Berkeley is being outfit-ted for automated-driving tests in April.

At UC Riverside, electrical engineering professorJay Farrell is using data from global positioningsystem satellites—the core of the system now used toprovide the electronic map displays found in manyrental cars—to develop a more precise technology thatcan tell cars exactly where they are.

Farrell says technology he is developing should beable to pinpoint a vehicle's location to within 1centimeter (0.4 inch) by keeping track of the numberof radio wave cycles in a GPS signal to calculate howfar a receiver is from a specific satellite. Once theprecise distance is known, a vehicle can use a 'navigation system of gyroscopes and accelerometersto calculate its changing position as it moves awayfrom the starting point.

But Farrell said combining GPS navigation withintelligent cruise control so a car can figure out

where to go and then drive there is at least 10 yearsaway. More funding is needed to resolve some"nitty-gritty technical issues," such as how often the

system would have to confirm its location with theGPS system. An even bigger hurdle, he said, isimproving obstacle detection so that cars can maneu-ver around occasional highway nuisances, like a sofafallen off the back of a truck.

Researchers at the Institute of TransportationStudies at UC Irvine are developing traffic manage-ment software to reduce gridlock caused by collisions,stalled cars and other roadway disturbances.

The center uses traffic data supplied over fiber-op-tic networks in real time from Caltrans to test itscomputer models, said Baher Abdulhai, a researchengineer at the institute. One program under develop-ment would divert traffic from highways to surfacestreets to circumvent accidents and automaticallyadjust the timing of traffic lights in order to accommo-date the additional cars.

It's not just convenience that might be enhanced bythese new systems. A reduction in hydrocarbonemissions could also result if the systems reduce theamount of time vehicles spend on the roads, saidMatthew Barth, an electrical engineering professor atUC Riverside.

Moreover, by cutting, down on stops and starts,smart driving will improve air quality, because a car'semissions control system is most effective when thecar is being driven at a steady rate, Barth said.

However, if intelligent transportation technologiesimprove freeway conditions so much that drivers taketo the roads in greater numbers, all of these benefitscould be wiped out, he acknowledged.

Even with all the technical obstacles, members ofthe PATH consortium are convinced that solving themis cheaper than the alternative.

"We either have to manage our existing capacitybetter or build more roads," Abdulhai said. "But wedon't have money for more roads, and we don't havespace for more roads, and the environment can'thandle new roads."

Karen Kaplan covers technology, telecommunicationsand aerospace. She can be reached at karen.Kaplan®latlmes.com

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Marketplace - BlWednesday, December 4, 1996

TECHNOLOGY

Privacy Concerns Are Roadblocks on 'Smart9 HighwaysBy Ross KEKUEK

SnilJ Itcpt/'UT (J/ Tiih WAI.I. -STUKKT JO^HNAI.

Are "smart" highways too nosy?Many states are installing high-tech roadside sensors

that promise to speed traffic, eliminate tollbooths and cutcosts. Trucking companies have invested in similar equip-ment—often linked to satellites—to improvefleet management. But the government'seasy access to the lode of data being com-piled on drivers alarms privacy advocates.

Sixteen of the nation's 65 regional toll au-thorities now use such monitoring equip-ment, which collect a lot more than motorists'change. The devices—often located in or neartollbooths-can pinpoint vehicle whereaboutsat specific times. Roadside cameras can pho-tograph motorists and their cars' licenseplates, thus recording the routes they fre-quent and the distances they travel.

Makers of smart-highway devices, in-cluding General Motors Corp.'s HughesElectronics unit and Lockheed MartinCorp., have high hopes for the products' po-tential. One Hughes official forecasts in-dustry sales of S2 billion of automated toll-collection systems alone over the next fiveyears. But such optimism is tempered byworry that a backlash by motorists willslow installation.

Fears of abuse, even if misplaced, coulddelay state-sponsored projects, says D.Craig Roberts, an attorney tor ITS Ameri-ca, a consortium of auto makers, manufac-turers of smart-highway devices and publictransportation agencies. "From our per-spective, this is a potential show-stopper,"Mr. Roberts says of rising privacy worries."It's like a big nail in the road."

Working with the various public toll authorities as wellas the American Civil Liberties Union, Mr. Roberts'sgroup has been trying to draw up ground rules governingwhen a driver's whereabouts may be checked using auto-mated highway devices. In Florida and New York, for ex-ample, police ahead)' use toll records to check suspects'whereabouts and investigate stolen vehicles.

"What's frightening is when there are no protocols for

control of the information," says Randy Morris, a com-missioner of Seminole County, Fla.

Last summer, Mr. Morris led a successful drive to dis-mantle a traffic-monitoring system in the county. He be-came concerned about privacy violations after watchinga demonstration in which system engineers used road-

side cameras to zoom in on pedestrians who had nothingto do with traffic flow.

Of the various smart-highway systems, automated tollcollection is the most extensively used; tens of thousandsof U.S. motorists participate. Along State Route 9f nearLos Angeles, for example, two corporations have builtwhat amounts to a four-lane stretch of private highway,accessible only to motorists who purchase an automatedradio device for their cars. Drivers' credit cards are

charged periodically for their use of the road, as calculat-ed by the system. Those who wish more anonymity can goto a toll office and pay cash. The lanes were built by a jointventure of Bechtel Group Inc. and Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc.

Privacy concerns have led officials elsewhere in thestate to proceed cautiously. Earlier this year, the Califor-

nia Air Resources Board tabled a proposalthat would have required installation oftransponders in new cars to alert authoritieswhen a vehicle's antipollution device failed.Some board members were concerned abouta public outciy similar to one that has erupt-ed over the state's practice of photographinglicense plates in order to survey motoristsaffected by planned road repairs.

The surveys are being conducted by theCalifornia Department of Transportation,which also does the camera work. Jim Drago,an agency spokesman, says he has heardfrom about 50(1 motorists fuming with com-ments like "Isn't this the ultimate Big Broth-er looking over me? Where is this going?"Nonetheless, the camera surveys continuebecause they generate a higher response ratethan random direct-mail questionnaires.

Phil Agre. a University of California atSan Diego professor who has consulted withthe ACLU on highway-privacy issues, ar-gues that individual citizens shouldn't haveto take special action lo keep the govern-ment out of their business. "Anonymityshould be your right lo begin with," he says,suggesting that toll agencies use billing sys-tems akin to prepaid telephone calling cards.

Privacy concerns are also slowing adop-tion of an automated truck-weighing systemin several Western states. The system,

called PrePass. is operated by a Phoenix-based consor-tium. Help Inc., which is supported by Lockheed Martinand includes representatives of trucking companies andsiime Western states on its board. It operates at six loca-tions along Interstate 5 in California, as well as on cer-tain highways in New Mexico and Arizona.

About a mile before a truck reaches a station equippedwith the PrePass system, its weight is calculated as it

Please Turn to Page B7, Column I

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1996 3 7

; Privacy Concerns Are. A Growing RoadblockI On 'Smart' Highways

Continued From Page Bl!'drives over sensors buried in the pave-[•ment. A few seconds later, the driver gets»an automated radio notification if the truck;*is heavy enough to require a stop at the1 weigh station. As a truck proceeds alongthe highway, PrePass tracks its route.

"Trucking companies participate voluntar-ily; Help bills them up to S2.50 for each•remote measurement.

1° Clients praise the system for saving'time and fuel, but plans to expand it have•hit snags. Before adopting the weighing"equipment, Oregon, Idaho and Washing-t o n officials wanted assurances that they^ould use Help's information to enforce

• --collection of freight taxes, which are partlyTbased on distance traveled.

!" Help decided not to install equipment ini'Oregon, for fear that some truckers would'," stop participating. Officials in Washington'•and Idaho never got to the negotiation• 'stage. Participating truckers argue that!'automating such records would subject1 them to selective enforcement, because''-nonparticipants wouldn't be singled out.,I .Help says its records in California, New;; Mexico and Arizona aren't scrutinized by1 state officials.i: To mollify such concerns, Help also1'says it intends to destroy weight data'• shortly after it is recorded. "You can't';subpoena data that doesn't exist," says['"Richard Landis, Help's president.I = The trucking industry is also watching!.a case involving Artie Express Inc., an; Ohio-based hauler. The Federal Highwayi Administration has subpoenaed the rec-I'ords that Artie keeps through a satellite| truck-tracking system made by Qualcomm' Inc. of San Diego. The federal agency is •^investigating whether Artie meets driver' drug-testing and rest requirements. Artiei is challenging the subpoena.

PAGE 4 INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1995

ASIA

Singapore Moves Toward Electronic Tolls for ChiclesBy Michael Richardson

International Herald Tribune

SINGAPORE — In a major step toward atransportation network for the 21st century, Sin-gapore has awarded a contract to create an elec-tronic toll system to reduce automobile con-gestion in the city-state.

The system, described as the world's first forurban traffic management, will use electronicdebit cards installed on all of Singapore's650,000 motor vehicles. The so-called smartcards will be slotted into small holders mountedinside the windshield.

As vehicles pass under electronic scannersmounted on gantries leading to congested areasand busy highways, charges will be deductedfrom credit stored in the cards. The first phase of

the system, which will cost 197 million Sin-gapore dollars ($140 million), will start op-eration in late 1997. It will be extended in stagesto provide island-wide coverage by the end of thecentury.

A contract for the program was awarded Fri-day to Philips Singapore, Mitsubishi Heavy In-dustries and Miyoshi Electronics of Japan andCEI Systems & Engineering, a subsidiary of theSingapore government's Singapore Technolo-gies group.

One advantage of electronic road pricing isthat charges can be automatically raised at peakperiods or on busy routes to discourage the use ofprivate vehicles without involving lines of mo-torists at toll booths.

Since 1975, Singapore has restricted, rush-hour access to the city center to drivers who have,,

bought special permits, which have to be dis-played on windshields and are monitored bypolice manning entry checkpoints.

The government also imposes hefty taxes oncars and makes people who want to own them bidfor the right to do so. That privilege costs about18,250 dollars for small automobiles and 45,000dollars for medium- size family sedans. Undergovernment regulations, cars more than 10 yearsold must be taken off the road.

This system has succeeded in controlling traf-fie flow much better than in most other EastAsian cities.

Despite some of the world's highest own-ership prices, Singaporeans are turning to cars inever-growing numbers as their affluence in-creases..fl) Roadsnow occupy 11 percent of Singapore's

587 square kilometers, about the same area ashousing. Mah Bow Tan, the communicationsminister, warned last month that if trends con-tinued, roads could take up 16 percent of theisland-state by 2010.

He said that the increase would be at theexpense of housing, schools, offices, factories,parks and gardens.

"I do not think Singaporeans are prepared toaccept that," Mr. Mah added.

The Land Transport Authority was instructedby the government recently to prepare a WhitePaper by mid-November to detail how Singaporecould develop and sustain a world-class trans-port system.

The country, already has a mass rapid transportsystem that runs underground in the business

[district and on elevated rails elsewhere.