Information about the Virtual Workshop on Dualmode Transportation

This workshop was held on September 16, 2005 and involved 20 participants from around the U.S., one from Denmark and one from Japan.. It was hosted by the Center for Energy, Environment and Transportation Innovation (CEETI) located at Texas A&M University. Jerry Schneider and Christine Economides were co-managers and the discussion leaders were Steve Shladover, J.Richard Bishop, Jr. and Rodney K. Lay.  The material that was prepared to guide the discussions in this workshop is as follows:

 First hour - System Level Design and Concepts of Operation, Steve Shladover, discussion leader

1. In what ways would the system operating characteristics be the same as an automated highway system and in what ways would they be different?

Attribute	AHS	Dualmode ?
Automated on dedicated lane, manual driving on roads	X
Physically separate roadway	X
Check-in and check-out at access and egress ramps	X
Driver specifies destination at check-in	X
User by cars, buses and trucks	X

2. How closely coupled are the issues of vehicle control, propulsion technology and infrastructure (guideway) design and to what extent can they be decoupled?

• Is it better to minimize or maximize coupling among these systems designs?
• Which design couplings are essential?
• Which design couplings over-constrain system design solutions?

3. What are the respective opportunities and constraints associated with deployments for high -density intra-urban applications
versus low density inter-urban applications?

• Cost per mile vs. traffic density?
• Ease of ROW acquisition vs. need for transportation improvements
• Trip length vs. trip frequency?
• Which transportation problems to solve?

4. What minimum threshold level of deployment (percentage of vehicle fleet or regional VMT) needs to be reached in order
for benefits to exceed costs?

• Should be as small as possible to encourage investment?
• Applies to each investor as  well as society?
• Includes amortizing development costs?
• What percent of vehicle fleet or VMT?
• How many miles of guideway?

5. What mixture of vehicle types should be targeted for deployment (buses, cars, trucks)?

Second hour - System Evolution, J. Richard Bishop, Jr., discussion leader

1. How do the transport benefits of infrastructure intensive dualmode systems compare to dedicated lanes
within the highway/road system?

2. What arguments justify the investments required by dualmode systems?

3. What are the envisioned modes in which vehicle evolve to dualmode? Radically new designs versus today's
vehicle envelopes with additional intelligences?

4. How do opportunities and challenges vary across vehicle types (cars, trucks, buses)?

5. What are triggers that would make dualmode arguments compelling to policy makers?

Third hour - Open Discussion, Rodney Lay, discussion leader

 1. What has to happen for dualmode to be deployed?

• Business plan
• Vehicles
• Infrastructure

2. Base Case

• Benefit/Cost Evaluation, including Safety, Productivity and Mobility
• Public, Private or Public/Private Partnerships
• Vehicles: OEM's, Ownership, Evolution, Life-Cycle
• Infrastructure: Dual operations - passive or active, integration with host system;
  maintenance; growth; reliability; liabilities and responsibilities

The Workshop was recorded and some parts of it will be posted at the CEETI website in the near
future: www.ceeti.org. The discussion was robust and contained many interesting and useful comments.
Nine more virtual workshops like this one are being planned and if interested, check the CEETI workshop
for details as to topics and schedule.

---

---

Last modified: September 16, 2005