Spectrum - Volume 18 Issue 10 October 26, 1995 - Transportation Center joins consortium

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Transportation Center joins consortium

By Liz Crumbley

Spectrum Volume 18 Issue 10 - October 26, 1995

The Virginia Tech Center for Transportation Research has been selected as an associate participant member of the National Automated Highway System Consortium.

The consortium and its partner, the U.S. Department of Transportation, will develop the nation's plan for a reliable and cost-effective automated highway system to improve safety and relieve traffic congestion.

Ray Pethtel, interim director of the transportation center, says membership in the consortium is "a natural tie-in to our partnership with the Virginia Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems project."

The center, designated as one of three intelligent-vehicle highway system research centers of excellence by the Federal Highway Administration in 1993, is the research manager for the 5.7-mile "smart-highway" project between Blacksburg and Roanoke.

The national consortium was formed in 1994 to develop and demonstrate a prototype automated highway system by the year 2002. The prototype will be designed for the operation of fully automatic vehicles in dedicated lanes.

The Tech transportation center's participation, Pethtel said, "will allow us to help shape the direction and overall character of transportation into the 21st century."