CLINTON SEEKS $224 MILLION FOR SMART CARS

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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993                   TAG: 9304160346
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Staff and wire reports
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON SEEKS $224 MILLION FOR SMART CARS
Smart cars that tell drivers where to turn to avoid rush-hour traffic and highways that keep cars in line are getting a boost from the Clinton administration.
The president asked for $224 million in next year's budget, 50 percent more than this year, to spur development of smart cars and highways.
A House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation held a hearing Thursday to add its support to the futuristic Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems concept.
Instead of meeting on Capitol Hill, the panel went to a hotel where a 3-year-old group called IVHS America was holding its annual convention, featuring scores of high-tech exhibits. They included computers for car dashboards that advise motorists which routes are clearest during rush hour and road sensors that warn when a car is crossing the center line.
Backers of a smart road linking Blacksburg with Interstate 81 will be hoping for a share of the additional federal money. Virginia Tech is helping the state Department of Transportation design the road, which will allow researchers to test innovative electronic and fiber-optic technologies to increase speed and safety on rural highways.
It's already been announced that Tech will be the primary recipient of a $1.37 million federal grant for research on smart road technology. Also, the federal government has OK'd giving the Department of Transportation $5.9 million for planning the road.
The Transportation Department estimates traffic congestion causes over 2 billion hours of delays nationwide each year, and that the tie-ups could become four times worse by the year 2000. Researchers say this bumper-to-bumper frustration costs more than $40 billion a year in lost productivity.
Frederick Tucker, a vice president of Motorola Inc., told the panel Thursday the nation is at a critical stage in the development of the advanced highway systems. "Based on our early progress, we risk becoming complacent just when a major share of the task remains to be done," he said.
Thomas Horan of George Mason University's Institute of Public Policy testified that a skeptical public must be convinced the systems will work.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB