Technology that can help keep trade and transportation flowing in the face of the sort of terrorist attacks that briefly crippled the American airline industry and created massive slowdowns for trucks in September already exists, and more is about to be rolled out.

Standards developers announced in early October approval of a new technology that combines intelligent transportation system technology (called "ITS" for short) with the Internet. This means truckers and motorists of the future will have the ability to download data and information from the Internet while on the move at tollbooths, highway restaurants or truck stops.

ITS systems are already in place throughout the United States to promote pass-through toll collection and highway pre-clearance for truckers. Similar technology is in use at border crossings between NAFTA countries to promote quicker and more efficient customs checks. Couple ITS with X-ray technology now in use at the Mexican border, and there's the option for pass-through searches of trucks and trains that technology experts say could improve safety without slowing down general traffic.

Members of the American Society for Testing Materials Subcommittee E17.51 for DSRC (dedicated short-range communications) have agreed to support a pre-existing wireless network standard as the basis of transponder design. ASTM is a major U.S. standards developer. Transponders are the devices that communicate between a vehicle and a roadside reader using DSRC, a form of radio technology.

The new standard for transponder design operates on the 5.9 gigahertz frequency allotted to ITS functions by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 1999. This allows for convergence of DSRC and Internet technologies, according to Lee Armstrong, who heads up U.S. standards efforts for ITS. Armstrong predicts the testing phase and final balloting on the tweaked standard, which he considers a formality, could take place within the year. Products, he says, could start being introduced soon after.

However, he says it would take between five and 10 years before the U.S. would have a fully deployed interoperable ITS system to handle functions that range from highway safety and emergency/disaster relief, to onboard entertainment, pass-through toll functions, highway pre-clearance and even pass-through highway purchases or mobile commerce.

New Technology Provides Emergency Communications

Armstrong and representatives from toll agencies around the country-as well as ITS service providers-say many business and political factors need to be ironed out before the U.S. will enjoy a national, interoperable ITS system. Even so, there's hope the numerous benefits for highway safety and increased trade will greatly outweigh the costs.

According to Armstrong, with ITS equipment in all trucks and emergency vehicles and readers or antennas fixed to major highway signs or street lights at urban intersections, truckers and emergency vehicle operations would have real-time information fed directly into their cabs in both urban settings and on highways.

If such a system was in place on Sept. 11, for example, he says, "Information would have been relayed at most street signs and traffic light intersections in places like New York and Washington, and on most highways signs leading into and out of the cities. There would have been far more information available to truckers and motorists, and far faster with no cell or phone disruptions. There would be the ability to more rapidly clear streets for emergency vehicle access."

Adds technology expert Broady Cash, chair of the writing group that developed the new standard, short-range radio communications of the sort this system promises, "Can also warn drivers about the direction, speed and distance of approaching emergency vehicles so that they don't inadvertently drive into their path. In addition, DSRC can also help prevent collisions at intersections whose signals are down. This is accomplished by passing alerts between the vehicles."

Congressional Mandate for Highway Safety

In the late 1990s, Congress mandated the Department of Transportation to create a national, interoperable ITS system to promote highway safety. But a standard for DSRC was deadlocked for several years for lack of consensus among transponder manufacturers. Standards experts and government officials agree the FCC's 1999 decision to create a frequency solely for ITS at the 5.9 GHz spectrum provided a new approach the market could endorse, along with allowing for Internet access.

The new standard is based on the pre-existing Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers standard 802.11a, which is currently used to create private networks. Cash's writing group has slightly altered the standard, calling it 802.11/RA (for Road Access.)

According to Armstrong, 802.11a/RA is designed to function at the higher 5.9 GHz frequency. It has a transmission range of 3,000 feet (one kilometer), which creates a larger transmission zone than current ITS technology can provide.

"In times of emergency where fire, earthquake or explosions may disrupt other public communications systems, DSRC can continue to operate and provide critical localized information," Cash says. "Even in the event of a city power outage, DSRC systems can operate on solar and battery power. Signal pre-emption is one of the applications implemented by DSRC."

Armstrong adds that new DSRC systems could provide real-time information tied to variable message signs on highways and city intersections, "And you can get that message translated into your native language, not just English."

John Platt, executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, applauds the new DSRC standard as a means of, "allowing vendor manufacturers and service providers like the Thruway to concentrate and plan on how best to deploy these units whenever they're available." He believes the new standard will allow truck and auto manufacturers to install and hard wire transponders into vehicles: "I see this coming sooner as a result of the vote and I think this will answer the need for a national, interoperable DSRC standard," Platt says.

Given the Thruway Authority's continuous replacement program for toll plaza readers, Platt believes a transition to 5.9 GHz-based technologies can be done, "easily" under the current program. New York State is a key player in the EZ-Pass pass-through toll program made up of 18 toll agencies in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.

Speaking for the National Private Truck Council, Gary Petty, president and CEO, agrees with Platt that the sooner the U.S. sees standardization on DSRC the better: "Because it allows the technology manufacturers to begin marketing the co-adaptability of this equipment, especially at a time people are hesitating to make technology investments for the very reason that they don't want to purchase instant obsolescence," Petty says.

Current ITS System Could Provide Help

Of course, as they point out, ITS systems are already in place in many states throughout the U.S. to promote highway pre-clearance and pass-through toll collection, while countries such as Singapore have highly evolved ITS systems in place to regulate urban traffic flow.

U.S. government officials also view ITS as a means of promoting the vision of a seamless transportation system throughout the western hemisphere where trucks, and passengers, can travel without stopping at borders for customs, safety checks and any other clearance. For example, American officials are experimenting with new wireless applications that integrate Global Positioning Systems and ITS and allow relay of information on a vehicle long before arrival at the actual border crossing.

The aim is to allow pre-clearance so drivers with clear records won't need to be inspected unless customs agents feel the need, according to Dan Brady, vice president at Transborder and Trade Corridor Systems in San Diego.