Vehicles and infrastructure are integrally related parts of the transportation system. Today, vehicles are designed with a static representation of the infrastructure. Infrastructure is designed with a static representation of vehicles. Transportation system performance can be improved through bringing together the design of vehicles and infrastructure. This process may be called, "Simultaneous Vehicle Infrastructure Design" (SVID).

There are compelling reasons to begin to define the conceptual framework and to develop the tools which SVID will require. There are transportation system performance issues associated with safety, environmental impact, technology deployment, mobility equity, and economic competitiveness. SVID redefines the nature of the transportation design problem, both for this nation and the community of nations. SVID identifies an opportunity for international cooperation in adopting a systems approach to transportation. Within this international cooperation, there is the potential to reward effective competition for those who understand and meaningfully answer the redefined transportation design problem.

The opportunity offered by SVID is at least matched by the rigorous demands required to achieve it. SVID offers a challenge to the science and technology infrastructure of the United States. There are metaphors for the processes and tools which are needed, but the processes and tools do not now exist. and will call forth the very best from our nation's science and technology base. For this reason, I am pleased to present this paper at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I would like to express my appreciation to Larry Blair, who has served with distinction as the Executive Vice President of the Alliance for Transportation Research (ATR). and as the Transportation Program Manager, Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was with me when this concept began several years ago. To help pursue the subject of this paper, Mr. Blair facilitated initial and follow-on meetings with the American automobile industry, as well as my presentation today.

Over the past four years, I have had the privilege of working with Los Alamos National Laboratory on several important transportation projects. These have included TRANsportation SIMulation Systems (TRANSIMS), LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) for mobile sources of air pollution, and highway traffic applications of neural networks. The challenge I will share today is, I believe, worthy of the Laboratory’s distinguished past as well as its ongoing commitment to the national well being.

The presentation begins with definitions followed by a description of the current design processes. SVID is suggested as a desirable change in the design process. Precedents are identified which suggest the timing is

appropriate to accept the challenges associated with SVID. Specific steps to implement SVID are described as we share with other nations and develop a competitive capability within our nation. The presentation concludes with short-term and longer-term benefits of this approach.

Transportation begins with individual interest. An individual wishes to move oneself, others, materials or information from one point to another. The social response to satisfy the interest of many individuals, who may have different or competing interests, is the transportation system. The transportation system affects all persons. It affects social organization, the provision of opportunity, and the delivery of services as fundamental as health, recreation, economic activity and security.

From the perspective of the transportation system, individuals, materials, and information are elements to move. Some means is employed to move elements from one point to another. With the exception of walking, the means of movement is a form of vehicle. Infrastructure is the environment employed for movement connecting the point of origin and destination. The environment is in part that which is constructed for the purpose of transportation, and in part the natural. and social setting of the construction. Infrastructure includes operational controls, energy fueling and parts replacement required for the system to function.

The transportation system may be described as including elements, vehicles, infrastructure, and the interaction among these components. It is well understood that vehicles and structures require maintenance. It may also be understood that the same maintenance concern extends to all aspects of the infrastructure required for transportation. Maintenance is of concern in the natural environment, as in the concern for mobile sources of air pollution and demand on energy resources. It is an issue in the social environment, as evidenced in the desire for livable neighborhoods and equitable access to opportunity.

There are readily identifiable types of vehicles and environments which serve individual interests in different ways, and with varying effectiveness. These are modes of transport. The dominant mode in the United States and many nations is highway transportation. Passenger care and heavy commercial vehicles move across pavements and along roadway corridors with support services for energy resupply and parts replacement. The automobiles and trucks are the vehicles which use the roads and corridor services; the roads, vehicle, and roadway support services help comprise part of the highway infrastructure.

Other transportation modes utilize fixed rail, air, and water. Transportation as a system is all modes of movement. It is, therefore, inherently multimodal. Transportation includes all connections among the modes; and is, therefore, inherently intermodal. Transportation begins with the individual and extends to all other individuals. The system builds from each individual interest in their local community, to their region. nation and community of nations. The transportation system is individually based and globally connected.

The connection among individual interests in different nations creates the need for transportation services which serve the community of nations. National , and regional transportation services are significant and, diverse. While they may be disjointed, either within or between nations, they are based on the same individual interests. They draw upon similar material and related methods for vehicle and infrastructure construction, common energy resources for system operation, and impact the same natural environment.

The performance of the transportation system can be assessed at any level for the movement of individuals, materials or information. Performance may be measured in terms such as energy utilization, emissions, safety, equity and economic activity.

Simultaneous Vehicle Infrastructure Design (SVID) is a systems approach to transportation. It brings together vehicle and infrastructure designers to assess and select alternatives which improve the performance of both the vehicle and infrastructure. SVID provides the process by which transportation improvements may be assessed and implemented. While the first, critically important SVID application is in highway transportation, the process and tools are extensible to other modes and to the transportation system as a whole.

Highway infrastructure design includes types, quantities, maintenance and recycling of pavement and structure materials. It includes geometric design of highways and the operational control of vehicles using the roads and bridges. Infrastructure design is dynamic, just as vehicle design. There is annual and ongoing infrastructure research, development, and deployment. Infrastructure design activities are parallel to, but separate from, vehicle design activities.

Infrastructure designs are based on static assumptions about vehicles. Design improvements are made in infrastructure, for example in new technology for safety, without regard to changes in vehicle design.

In this nation, infrastructure is commonly designed by the public sector. The private sector is involved in some infrastructure projects, and there is an interest in joint public and private ventures.

Vehicle designs are based on static assumptions about infrastructure. There is no means of assessing design for improved vehicle performance in relation to changes in infrastructure design. Vehicle manufacturers test facilities represent many infrastructure conditions, but do not replicate roadway conditions such as those associated with long-term use by heavy commercial vehicles.

The automobile industry in the United States has begun to utilize the nation's science and technology ban. National laboratory, production facility, and automobile manufacturer teams have been formed to improve specific aspects of vehicle performance. An example of this activity is Ford Motor Company interaction with AlliedSignal. Ford electronically transmits to AlliedSignal the design for an automobile part. The design is evaluated for manufacturability, and design changes are suggested. Upon approval, a rapid prototype is formed and the part can be manufactured. Such positive action is being taken in vehicle design which advances concurrent engineering, rapid prototyping, and flexible manufacturing. These efforts do not currently involve infrastructure designer.

In the United States, regulation is the primary interface between infrastructure designers and vehicle designers. Significant resources are expended to form, reform, or prevent regulation. Regulation requires certain actions on the part of private industry in the design and manufacture of vehicles, and on the part of public entities in the design and construction of infrastructure. Regulation often provides value, but it may or may not offer the best way of identifying and achieving common interests. Tom Deen has observed the importance of improving transportation regulation.

"The issue... is not whether we will have more regulation, but whether we can find ways to increase its effectiveness and minimize its costs."

Regulation is developed independently of the design process, and is independently responded to by vehicle designers and infrastructure designers. Regulation provides an interface, but does not provide a constructive environment for vehicle and infrastructure designers to meet and work in collaboration.

There is a need to provide a process by which vehicle and infrastructure designers can work together. From collaboration, there is also the potential for more appropriate regulation. The process proposed is simultaneous design of vehicles and infrastructure.

SVID begins with observing the necessary relationship between vehicle and infrastructure performance. Rather than conform or restrain vehicle or Infrastructure design through regulation, SVID emphasizes system performance as the metric for vehicle and infrastructure design and development SVID is the process by which the highway transportation can be designed as a system. James Kelsey, Director of the Transportation Systems Center, Sandia National Laboratories, described the potential of SVID to move transportation toward a systems approach.

SVID changes vehicle and infrastructure design. Design issues would be addressed and opportunities explored in a collaborative and interactive environment. Vehicle safety, energy. and emissions would be assessed in context of the roadway and its environment. Concerns about human factors in infrastructure, such as line of sight and visibility analyses, would be assessed within the context of vehicle and infrastructure interaction. Concerns about human factors in vehicles would be assessed through the interaction with existing and new geometric design, pavement materials, lighting. signing, as well as construction and, maintenance practices, concurrent design, exemplified the Ford and AlliedSignal effort would change from interactions on individual component design to how the component performs within the vehicle and infrastructure system.

A new discipline will be formed from observing these interactions. The discipline was described by Tom Miree, the Ford Motor Company representative to the Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle, in a novel way.

Today we have doctors treating half a patient—either vehicles or highways. SVID treats the whole patient. 3

We will hopefully learn how to assess and treat the needs of the system, the whole patient, through the experience gained from SVID implementation.

The historically separate relationship between the work of vehicle design and infrastructure design has formed separate cultures. There is work to be done in understanding how the cultures can effectively come together. Tom Larson, transportation consultant and Federal Highway Administrator under the Bush Administration, remarked on the challenge of establishing initial SVID projects.

It is important that the SVID process be carefully documented. This documentation may prove as important as the initial products. The proof of the principle of SVID will be in the products. The effective development of tools to support full development of SVID will require attention to the way in which the designers work together.

Robert Malpas addressed the importance of the process used in integrating science and technology in products. The problem is important, whether within a company or in collaborative partnerships.

Malpas proceeded to examine the importance of appropriate roles in the process among businesspersons, engineers and scientists. Roles of SVID participants will be defined as the practice begins. The roles adopted should enable each participant to contribute their expertise to the design and development of a useful product. As Malpas points out, this may not require spending more money; but rather, spending current design funds more effectively through selected, cooperative projects. If successful in initial product development, SVID may well call forth additional funds to develop analytical tools and extend the SVID capability and its effect.

Advances in information technology offer opportunities to open the SVID process. Advances in teleconferencing and concurrent engineering permit asynchronous, geographically dispersed collaboration. Some, if not all, initial projects should be undertaken in shared facilities. Tom Larson observed that the SVID process must in some way acknowledge and address cultural differences among vehicle and infrastructure designers. Face-to-face effort may help overcome these differences, and help build a shared history of cooperation. It should be anticipated that at least some initial projects will employ a process in which the work is undertaken in shared space and time. The benefit of new information technology may be more effectively realized in subsequent projects.

The SVID process must respect the propriety interests of all participants. To some extent, in the domestic and international marketplace, the advantage gained by introducing timely, quality products may be more valuable than securing intellectual property rights. In The Economist publication entitled, "A Survey of Cities: Turn Up the Lights," this evolving aspect of economic competition was described.

This quote also reinforces the value of gathering people together. Initial SVID projects will be concerned with more than "quick and easy" exchange of ideas. They will be concerned with bridging different cultures in which the only shared history is one of separation.

The SVID concept will be refined in practice. Initial project selection will be important to demonstrate the product potential of this approach. The projects should also be amenable to comparison, and help to inform the general SVID concept.

There are three criteria which may be considered in selecting initial SVID projects. These criteria may change as a result of the initial projects and further development of the concept. The suggested criteria for initial projects are common design, interest, potential for mutual economic benefit, and value to individuals.

An SVID project should have a clearly defined vehicle and infrastructure product. The product must be of potential importance to both vehicle and infrastructure designers. A common design interest is based on improving component quality in the context of system performance. It is important that neither vehicle nor infrastructure designers have the dominant role and motivation as the SVID process begins.

Common design interests may be identified which have relatively little potential for providing a return on investment. In addition to common design interest, there should be the potential for direct economic benefit. If the vehicle and infrastructure design is successful, manufacturers must realize what they consider a significant return on private investment. Public infrastructure organizations must also realize what they consider a significant value from the use of public funds. What is or is not significant will be defined by the entities involved.

With innovative infrastructure financing, private as well as public funds may be used to design, construct, and maintain the infrastructure. The second criterion remains important. Whatever the source of funding. initial SVID projects should be selected so the potential return is significant to both vehicle and infrastructure investments.

Design issues selected for initial SVID projects should be held in common, have the potential to show a mutual return on investment, and have value to individuals. The individuals participating in simultaneous design should perceive the value of the selected projects. The individual value would preferably be both in their individual professional development as well as in social contribution. The initially selected projects should have the potential to make a difference, both in the profession and in the community.

An example of these criteria may be helpful. The example is intended as illustrative rather than descriptive of an initial SVID project. Indication of specific projects is presented later in this paper. Some vehicle manufacturing companies use finite element analysis to simulate the performance of alternative structural designs. Some public entitles use finite element analysis to examine the performance of roadside barrier designs. SVID suggests the need for an interactive capability, integrating vehicle and barrier analyses to increase understanding and improve performance and safety. The example project meets the SVID criterion of common design interest: the performance of vehicles and barriers during impact.

The example addresses the criterion of mutual economic benefit. It leverages prior separate investments while potentially improving vehicle and infrastructure performance. There is, therefore, the potential for a mutual return on investment. Whether or not the potential returns were significant would have to be assessed by individual entities; but prior investment in separate analyses suggest the possibility of acceptable return.

The project is of individual professional interest because it would offer the opportunity to better understand and improve system performance. As new tools would be developed, new skills could be acquired. The project is also responsive to individuals as customers, on the basis of improved personal safety. This type of SVID project would potentially reduce accident severity, and therefore reduce the social cost of highway accidents.

Using these or other criteria, selected projects will have an opportunity to motivate cooperation beyond the conflicts which will arise. Conflicts may be anticipated because of past separation of design activities, and the errors accompanying new major ventures.

Initial projects can stimulate development of SVID tools. Attention should be given to observing the initial projects and identifying the type of tools needed to better assess design alternatives. In addition to alternative assessment tools, there will be a need to develop new capabilities in concurrent engineering, rapid prototyping, and flexible manufacturing. There are challenges in successfully developing and delivering these tools.

To implement SVID beyond the initial projects, the science and technology base of the nation must support both specific projects and the general concept. To develop the general concept, a technical challenge is integration of SVID processes and products developed in separate projects and for diverse markets.

All markets will begin SVID at the same point. This point is existing vehicle and infrastructure investment as well as current designs and design processes. There is conceptually the same beginning point whether the initial condition is primarily personal automobiles or bicycles, paved or unpaved roads. The simultaneous design process will move from the current condition to potential vehicle and infrastructure alternatives.

Separate designs will move toward one another and elements of the system will eventually converge in response to individual interests in a national and global transportation system. But, the initial designs will differ because they begin from different points.

Initial designs will also differ because the process will be used to address different needs. Demand for specific products, along with pressing transportation problems, will affect the SVID projects in which different entities participate. For some, rather than barriers, a dominant SVID issue may be freight vehicle suspension, load distribution, and load material performance. For other entities, a dominant concern may be noise control in vehicles as they travel along the roadway and noise abatement in neighborhoods along the roadways traveled. SVID projects can be expected to vary based on real or perceived need. The SVID process will result in different products.

Different initial system states, and different interests in SVID projects, will present challenges in the development of coherent, common SVID tools. One challenge is to learn from separate SVID project processes and products. Another is to begin to develop a common SVID process in alternative design assessment, whatever the initial state and range of alternatives.

Other tools will be needed. The capability must be developed to assess the transfer of SVID project results to entities not directly involved in specific project collaboration. The capability will also need to be developed to assess the performance, and ensure the quality of SVID products in other applications and diverse markets.

SVID will require innovative analytical tools. Beyond the persons who develop the tools, and the individuals who initially employ them, there is a need to ensure the tools are appropriately used. Professional use of SVID tools raises the role of education in SVID implementation. Universities are needed to train persons in the SVID concept, the collaborative vehicle and , infrastructure process, and use of new analytical tools. This would seem to introduce new academic requirements. With simultaneous design, it is not enough to certify that one engineer can design a highway or that another engineer can design a vehicle. It is required that persons understand and can cooperatively engineer system performance.

The position of this paper is that the present generation of engineers can and should begin to work together in simultaneous design. The next generation of engineers must have the tools, knowledge, and formative experience to design transportation as a system. SVID tools can be developed and initially demonstrated without active involvement of the education system. Ongoing implementation of SVID and appropriate use of SVID tools will require active involvement of the educational system.

From this simple concept of simultaneous design, related changes and additional value can occur. These changes can be identified in approach to the environment; the role of regulation; value to other modes; defense applications, and introduction of advanced transportation technology. Each of these areas of change will be briefly described.

SVID advances the environment as a defining part of the transportation infrastructure. The tools for environmental assessment at the design phase may take time to develop and integrate in assessing alternative vehicle and infrastructure designs. However, from a systems perspective, this is a direction which should be taken in transportation design. The environment is both nature and culture, in addition to air quality and hazardous materials transport, the impact of infrastructure development on land use, and the quality of community may in time also be assessed through this process.

The role of regulation can also change with SVM implementation. Regulation would certainly cease to be the primary form of vehicle and infrastructure interface. There is the potential for regulation to become the documentation of performance measures derived from simultaneous design. As such, regulation would have the potential to stimulate productivity and competitiveness.

The concept of simultaneous design is extensible to other transportation modes and the connections among modes. The first, critical application must be in highway transportation because of the dominance of this mode. The tools developed for highways, however, should be examined for use in simultaneous design of other modes. There is a need for such a capability in aviation, for example, changes in plane design have caused ripples of effect in runway length, noise, and skid. The ripples could have been avoided with simultaneous design.

The SVID application described in this paper addresses civilian transportation. There may also be defense benefits from simultaneous design. Defense logistics utilize the civilian transportation system. At a minimum,

SVID improvement to civilian transportation will enhance movement of military materiel. As initial SVID projects are initiated, there may be more direct benefit in defense-related design and development.

A defense-related review and assessment of initial SVID projects would help ensure dual use is explored and the maximum public benefit is realized. The tools required for SVID, from alternative assessment to concurrent engineering and flexible manufacturing, may have dual application. Some vehicle survivability assessments utilize notional barriers or limited test environments. SVID may offer an opportunity to improve upon assessment of vehicle performance in the context of the dynamic changes to both the vehicle and infrastructure.

Advanced transportation systems, such as efforts under the Intelligent Transportation System initiative, can also benefit from SVID. Hank Dittmar, Executive Director, Surface Transportation Policy Project, noted the importance of the SVID process to current projects associated with advanced technology.

SVID provides a process to move from current to future technologies and practices.

SVID presents opportunities to integrate other computer-based tools. There is an interest within the United States Department of Transportation to incorporate biomechanics in computer-aided design, or bio-CADD. The bio-CADD would potentially represent the human factor in transportation design. Such a computer-based capability would simulate individual response to an incident, as well as ability to avoid an incident. A bio-CADD could provide human element interface to SVID computer support tools SVM offers the ability to integrate biomechanics; and other advanced tools, into a system analysis. SVID provides a process to support initiatives such as ITS, and serves as a platform to integrate initiatives such as bio-CADD.

There are examples of systems thinking and acting in transportation that provide an indication that SVID can be undertaken. There is an appreciation of the relationship between highway vehicles and the infrastructure. The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute surveyed highway characteristics for an American automobile manufacturer. 4 There is an awareness of the need to associate vehicle design with the real world environment. There are many similar examples of attempts to understand the relationship between vehicles and infrastructure, both to this and other nations. Bob Selden, while Chief Scientist for the United States Air Force, observed the efforts of a Japanese vehicle manufacturer to similarly consider the relationship between vehicle design and the highway infrastructure. 8 Proprietary, static processes can gain incremental improvement in vehicle product performance. There is a need to build on this interest and experience to develop infrastructure and vehicle products resulting from simultaneous design.

Technical achievements also suggest that it may be the right time to proceed from separate, static assumptions to collaborative, dynamic vehicle infrastructure design. Large systems capability suggests this may be the right time to initiate changes in traditional design processes. There are technical capabilities available today on which SVID can build, many of which are at an early stage of development. The example described above of Ford Motor Company working with AlliedSignal indicates that part of the SVID capability has been developed. Work in TRANSIMS and Geographic Information Systems for Transportation (GIS-T) are tools being developed which can create a simulation environment to assess innovation in simultaneous design.

Some successful products also serve as precedents for SVID. In civil aviation, the new Boeing 777 was the first airplane built using electronic design capabilities with no hard copy paper generated in the design phase. it is a good example of concurrent engineering. In highway transportation, there are operating examples of vehicle-roadside communications. These operations collect freight information from trucks as they pass along specific "borderless" corridors. People are thinking and acting in new ways about how the vehicle interacts with the infrastructure.

There are examples from other sectors which suggest SVID can be addressed. In the military, the stealth bomber was the result of innovative effort to integrate advanced aviation technology and materials science to meet a specific mission.

There is a basis on which to move forward. SVID provides an opportunity to improve our current ability to address transportation as a system. While these examples are helpful in suggesting the timeliness of SVID, they also present a concern.

The simplicity of SVID is both its strength and weakness. It is a strength in persons’ ability to quickly apprehend the concept and its potential value. It is a weakness because simplicity may conceal the complexity of challenge in achieving SVID. There can be a sense among persons from outside the transportation sector that simultaneous design is so clear, it must be done now and people just don't talk about it. Or if persons outside the transportation sector accept it is not yet done, there is a tendency to believe it must be a relatively simple task to implement simultaneous design.

One risk in SVID is over-estimating the challenge and backing away from applying the notion's science and technology base. Precedent is helpful in developing a sense that the challenge can be accepted. The other risk in SVID is under-estimating the challenge, and not thoughtfully integrating and learning from initial efforts and building the required analytical support tools. SVID is not now in practice. There are precedents which suggest it can be realized; but it will be a challenge to do so.

Initial projects will build upon precedents, and will be selected on the basis of the criteria detailed above or other criteria. There are other actions that may be taken to define and then refine this preliminary understanding of SVID.

The first action is to help define the transportation market in terms of the right problem. The right problem is not now automobile technology, it is not now infrastructure development. The right problem is the performance of the vehicle and infrastructure together, from design through deployment and assessment. This paper is part of the action to redefine the design problem as a systems issue.

The second action is to begin work on individual projects involving vehicle and infrastructure. Designers will provide insight into the cultural challenges and changes which must be addressed. The initial SVID projects must be selected to begin developing an understanding of the team required to simultaneously design the vehicle and infrastructure.

The conceptual basis for SVID is simple: the transportation system should be designed as a system. The implementation of SVID represents significant interpersonal, institutional, and technical challenges. Our understanding of the extent of the challenge and need for analytical tools will change and improve as specific projects are undertaken.

There is some indication of the way in which the projects will begin to take shape. Carl Miller, Manager, Technology Assessment, General Motors/Delphi expressed a keen interest in learning about SVID through application.

SVID is very promising, both in domestic and international markets. We would like to begin with a specific project on a small scale to see how it will work in practice. 2

An initial project now under discussion with General Motors/Delphi is noise abatement. It would involve Los Alamos National Laboratory, General Motors/Delphi, and infrastructure designers. This general subject is attractive because a project can be structured which addresses the several criteria for initial project selection. It also builds on precedent, an existing Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between General Motors and the Laboratory.

This is the type of project which will be important to begin, and from which we can begin to learn. It may also be helpful to convene a workshop among interested public and private organizations to discuss how individual projects can be selected and developed in such a way as to build useful products and support the general understanding of SVID implementation.

The global transportation system can be enhanced through SVID. This is an important, aspect of SVID, enabling nations to work cooperatively to work toward a sustainable transportation system. There are energy and environmental issues associated with the global transportation system. SVID provides a path to the future.

Today, there are no SVID projects in the global marketplace. To develop a market pull, it is important to share the concept with other nations.

There is an opportunity to build SVID in relatively less developed nations to avoid some of the problems realized by more developed nations. This is not to suggest that there is a blank sheet in some nations and a carefully written text in other nations. In each nation, the current investment in vehicles and infrastructure must be respected as the beginning point for SVID development. In one nation, there may be minor current highway development, while in another nation them may be extensive development. In both cases, SVID would begin with the present, and would provide a process of moving toward a sustainable system.

If these capabilities are developed, relatively less developed nations with available resources may have an opportunity to lead in SVID applications. There may be a wider range of potential alternatives as a result of lower investment in past processes and technologies. Nations building new vehicle plants and major highways may be positioned to build an integrated vehicle infrastructure system.

There are some activities in other nations which suggest that transportation can be addressed as a system. In developing nations, proposed major highway projects include a broader definition of infrastructure. The infrastructure is extended beyond the pavement to include property development, restaurants, gasoline and vehicle maintenance stations.¹⁰ If, as part of building a new highway, gasoline stations will be built, other energy sources can be examined through SVID. The design and deployment implication of hydrogen fuel vehicles and infrastructure, for example, can be compared with gasoline fuel.

We should be clear in communication with other nations. We and they are part of a connected transportation system, and must surely work together in developing the future transportation system. We should also be clear about the importance of competition, and hopefully, our intent to play an important role in the global marketplace.

There are economic benefits which can be realized from improving system performance within and among nations. SVID is a process by which system performance can be improved. The ability to respond to SVID, and to answer the right transportation design problem, may help define economic competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Simultaneous Vehicle Infrastructure Design (SVID) has the potential to provide near-term and longer-term return on investment for vehicle manufacturers. It has the potential to provide similar return on public and private infrastructure investment.

Vehicle examples of shorter-term benefit from SVID include anti-lock brakes; shock absorbers; tire performance; noise abatement. and vehicle safety. Anti-lock braking systems initially experienced problems when encountering pavement washboard effect at intersections. The costs associated with this problem could have been avoided through SVID. Vehicle performance can be profitably assessed in relation to existing infrastructure conditions, and introduction of new designs.

Infrastructure examples of shorter-term SVID benefits include dynamic load assessment in design, highway barrier design, sight-distance assessment, and improved geometric design. Addressing these needs would provide better service to the public. The better public entities understand the needs of their customers, the people they serve, the better their selection of SVID projects which have public value. Meeting customer needs can be a public as well as private benefit from SVID. SVID has the potential for longer-term return on private and public investment. Infrastructure examples of longer-term benefits from SVID include assessment of non-disruptive procedures and non-invasive technologies. Non-disruptive procedures are those which introduce improvements to the system with minor or no disruption of service. Noninvasive technologies are those which assess performance without affecting the integrity of the component being assessed. SVID could utilize the data from non-invasive technologies and identify the minimally disruptive procedure to ensure quality performance.

SVID provides a process by which vehicle and infrastructure designers can evaluate alternative transportation services and energy sources, on the basis of implications to the vehicle and the infrastructure. The issue is not what technology will work within a vehicle, the issue is what technology will work within a vehicle and the infrastructure supporting the technology, developing and recycling its materials and waste. For example, a hydrogen fueled vehicle is an interesting and hopeful technology. A hydrogen vehicle in operation, combined with refueling capability, parts supply, maintenance and repair, emissions assessment and life-cycle costing is a hydrogen vehicle designed and developed in the context of the infrastructure requirements for successful deployment.

Building a hydrogen vehicle is a different technical challenge than building a vehicle and infrastructure for successful operation. As a longer-term benefit. SVID provides a means to address this type of vehicle and infrastructure design and the cost-effective introduction of innovation.

I appreciate the opportunity to share these preliminary thoughts about Simultaneous Vehicle Infrastructure Design. After the first simultaneous design project, each of you will know more about this subject than the limited thoughts expressed today.

It is a powerful and potentially important concept. However, its value will be determined in practice. Simultaneous design does not ensure the effective integration of advanced technology to provide more safe, efficient, equitable and environmentally responsible transportation. It does provide a means to achieve this purpose in this nation and in the community of nations. Thank you.

References

1) Deen, Tom, "Transportation and a Sustainable Environment: An Opportunity for Transportation Engineers." Theodore Matson Award Paper, Institute of Transportation Engineers, August 1995

2) Kelsey, James, Sandia National Laboratories, conversation with ATR on SVID, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 1995

3) Miree, Tom, Ford Motor Company, conversation with ATR on SVID, Dearborn, Michigan, August 2. 1995

4) Larson, Tom. transportation consultant, conversation with ATR on SVID, State College, Pennsylvania. August 31, 1995

5) Malpas, Robert "Technology and Wealth Creation." in The Bridge, Spring, 1994

6) "A Survey of Cities: Turn Up the lights," The Economist, The Economist Newspaper Group, New York, July 29. 1995

7) Dittmar, Hank, Surface Transportation Policy Project, conversation with ATR on SVID, Washington, DC. July 31,1995

8) Selden, Bob, Los Alamos National Laboratory, conversation with ATR on SVID, Los Alamos, New Mexico. 1992

9) Miller, Carl, conversation with ATR on SVID, General Motors/Delphi, Flint, Michigan, August 1, 1995

10) Wallace, Charles, P., "The Asia Boom" and Jameson, Sam, "China Sets the Pace as Cash, Concrete Pour Into World's Hottest Economic Region." Los Angeles Times. World Report. The Times Mirror Company, November 29, 1994