Potential contributions of intelligent vehicle/highway systems (IVHS) to reducing transportation’s greenhouse gas production

The road transportation system (including automobiles, buses and trucks) has not yet made significant use of modern electronics technologies to enhance system operations. Intelligent vehicle/highway systems (IVHS) is the label currently applied to the nascent attempts to use advanced technologies to enable travelers, vehicles and the roadway infrastructure to function as an integrated system. IVHS technologies influence both the supply and demand sides of transportation, to promote enhanced operational efficiency and reductions in vehicle miles traveled. These changes can reduce the contribution of the transportation sector to global warming in ways that are explained qualitatively in the paper. Quantitative evaluation of the global-warming implications of IVHS must follow from further research on the technology and travelers’ responses to it, and from development of the policy framework for IVHS implementation.