Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507110033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I didn't know until later that Raphael was a newspaperman himself, with two decades of experience at that time. He put people at the center of his high-tech story by focusing on a three-trooper team (two men and a woman) in their tank-like Car 56, which provided living quarters, a miniature hospital, temporary jail and more for their 10-day patrols.
Now here I am some 30 years later, wondering if I'm seeing the start of that future in the New River Valley. Listening to Ray Pethtel tell the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce last month about the 5.7-mile "smart" road planned between Blacksburg and Interstate 81 near Shawsville brought Raphael's story vividly to mind.
Pethtel, interim director of Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation, comes across as a solid and practical guy, which he would have had to be as Virginia Department of Transportation commissioner from 1986 to 1994. But the kind of computer-assisted technologies he talks about being tested on the project to improve traffic safety would have come in mighty handy in Raphael's science-fictional future.
The first 2-mile segment of the road, all of which is to be built in phases into the next century, would be a test bed for the roads of tomorrow, Pethtel says. The idea is to get more vehicles more safely and more quickly over more existing highway - even if the existing highway isn't as "smart."
There already are conventional roads that collect tolls without cars having to stop. The amounts are automatically deducted from a pre-paid toll account by machines that "recognize" the vehicle. Trucks can get weighed at a Troutville weighing station at 30 mph, rather than having to stop.
"We're going one step further. We're looking to a high-speed weigh-in-motion," Pethtel said.
He also is looking at such things as adaptive cruise control, which would not only keep your car at 65 mph on the interstate, but would react to vehicles slowing down ahead of you. A pop-up windshield display installed on your car could show obstacles ahead.
The smart road has its critics. Since 1990, it has been mentioned in more than 400 pieces in this newspaper, often in letters from readers who see it as too costly in financial and environmental terms.
Noel Taylor may have been the first to suggest a Roanoke-to-Blacksburg road in 1986, when he was Roanoke's mayor. Its Roanoke backers see it as a closer tie to Tech, and its New River Valley backers as a source of research money and high-tech jobs.
The smart road would test magnetic strips which could guide converted vehicles at speeds up to 150 mph. "At that point, you are simply a passenger in the vehicle and a monitor of those systems in front of you," Pethtel said. "The fallibility of the human driver will no longer be important."
What will be important, he said, is having a place to test all this technology as it is gradually added to other vehicles and other highways. The process will take many years, he said, because people are not going to opt for the more expensive and more technological cars all at once.
But soon, Pethtel said, industry will be able to count on the delivery of materials in minutes instead of hours. The same applies to people commuting to distant jobs. "Just think of the potential that opening your mobility that much can contribute to your quality of life," he said.
Chamber President Sue Berkley saw that potential at once. "I personally find it comforting that, when I'm 65 or 70, I'll still have my permit because I'll have an automated car," she said.
by CNB