
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990                   TAG: 9003152509
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROBERS THINKS `SMART HIGHWAY' SMART ECONOMICS

Using a new road linking Blacksburg with the Roanoke Valley to test so-called "smart highway" technology would have "tremendous economic development potential," Roanoke County Supervisor Dick Robers told the Roanoke Kiwanis Club Wednesday.

"Smart highway" is a catch-all phrase. In the not-so-distant future, it could mean roads with sensors and electronic signs to warn drivers of backups and hazards ahead - an idea already being tried around Washington, D.C.

Eventually, it could mean development of high-speed driverless cars, Robers said.

"Think of the potential if we can bring research and development-type jobs [and] scientific-type jobs to the valley," said Robers, who has pushed the smart highway idea for the past year.

There would be spin-off manufacturing jobs, too, if the region became a center for the development of smart highway technology, he said.

Billions of dollars already are being spent on smart highway technology in Europe and Japan, Robers said. "We're way behind in the U.S., but we can catch up."

The idea of using one lane of the proposed Blacksburg-Roanoke road to test the new technology has "come a long way" in the past year, he said. And people who chuckled and dismissed it as "science-fiction fantasy" are paying closer attention now.

A conference on smart highway technology will be held at Virginia Tech on April 24. Representatives from General Motors, the Ford Motor Co., Motorola, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley are expected to attend.

And Robers is scheduled to testify before a congressional subcommittee in Washington today, along with Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon; Dr. Antoine Hobeika, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research; and Steve Musselwhite, the valley's representative on the state transportation board.

Smart highway technology "is going to happen," Robers told the Kiwanians. "Why not do it right here?"

The proposed Blacksburg-Roanoke road would be ideal for testing the technology for several reasons, he said. The road would cross all sorts of terrain. Virginia Tech has a department of transportation research. And the Roanoke Valley has a budding high-tech industrial base, particularly in fiber optics, with companies such as ITT and Fibercom Inc., he said.

by CNB