Report Title:

Intelligent Highways; DOT Feasibility Study

Description:

Requires the department of transportation to conduct a feasibility study on converting freeways into intelligent highways that can automatically control movement of cars.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1516

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to transportation.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. According to the United States General Accounting Office, American drivers and passengers lose two billion hours and about $100,000,000,000 each year to traffic congestion and delays. An additional $70,000,000,000 is spent on traffic accidents. Also, idling cars clog the air with nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide, wasting approximately two billion gallons of fuel annually. Billions of dollars more have been spent on electronics and systems to alleviate this logjam, including the high-priced loop sensors, video cameras, and electronic display signs and other invasive technologies that have been used in the past.

These problems have stimulated the development of intelligent transportation systems, which are advanced systems that create "interactive highways" to help get drivers and their goods to destinations more quickly and cost effectively. Many of these systems use technology to create real-time traffic and congestion data for dissemination to drivers.

Other systems actually outfit cars and roads with sensors to automatically control the movement of cars on the road, similar to sending "packets" of data over transmission lines. Traffic congestion occurs because any moving vehicle requires a safety zone of space around it. The faster the vehicle moves, the greater the space needed for safe travel. The wide disparity in drivers' skills is the last ingredient necessary to produce traffic congestion. However, one form of intelligent highway system would install computers in cars that control the speed, braking, and steering. Sensors would calculate how close the vehicles are to surrounding ones. On-board navigation systems direct where the cars go. The last component would be a magnetic strip in the highway that relays all this on-board data to a central computer. Essentially, this system eliminates disparities in drivers' skill and optimizes the "safety zone" spacing between vehicles, so that more vehicles can be packed on any given section of roadway.

The purpose of this Act is to require the department of transportation to conduct a feasibility study on converting Hawaii's highways, or parts thereof, to intelligent highways to reduce traffic congestion.

SECTION 2. (a) The department of transportation shall conduct a feasibility study on converting parts of highways in the State to intelligent highways to reduce traffic congestion. Specifically, the department shall examine various intelligent highway systems, including systems that use:

(1) Computer controls on cars to regulate speed, braking, and steering;

(2) Sensors on cars to sense the proximity of other vehicles and the car's location, speed, and direction on the road; and

(3) Sensors in roads that receive and transmit signals to a central controlling computer that regulates the flow of traffic.

(b) The department shall also investigate the progress of experimental systems elsewhere and the feasibility of adapting developing systems to Hawaii's roads. Furthermore, the department shall investigate the availability of federal or other funding available for the development or construction of such intelligent highway systems.

(c) The department shall report its findings and recommendations to the governor and the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2004.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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