Co-operative Vehicle Highways Systems (CVHS)

Putting the “C” into CVHS….

Co-operative Vehicle Highways (CVHS) are an area attracting huge interest. They potentially offer a new set of tools for traffic managers to improve capacity, safety and the environment, after current initiatives like ATM have delivered all they can. They also offer road users opportunities to use less fuel, have a more comfortable journey and avoid accidents. And last ,but not least, they allow the vehicle industry to add value to their products and achieve better vehicle performance. 

This is a very broad area -  from guided vehicles in California and Japan to the simple sharing of information, such as a vehicle telling other vehicles and the road operator that it is -1 degree, traction control is going mad, so watch out for black ice and get a gritter here.

The final vision of “road trains of centrally controlled vehicles” as Raymond Baxter once showed in “Tomorrow’s World” may still be far off, but first steps are happening now. Already we have systems in today’s cars for lane warning, and work is well underway on vehicle to vehicle links. These are the first steps to CVHS and technology is developing fast…

But the key to gaining the most from CVHS is co-operation between the road and the vehicle, to ensure the vehicle takes full account of the big picture and so deliver an effective tool for road operators.  There are many operational issues yet to be thought of, yet alone solved in detail. So there is a risk that technology will develop anyway without links to operators’ needs, or may be developed to meet needs in Germany, the US and Japan, but not the UK.  And there is a risk that the potential for CVHS – and the challenges to be overcome– are always seen as “too far away to worry about…” until they arrive.

Developing this co-operation is not an easy task, but as Honda are now saying, “difficult is worth doing”. And if we don’t look at the problems, who else will?

Hence ITS UK has set up a new Interest Group to address this issue, complementing existing interest groups that focus on the technology aspects to look at the package of co-operation between road and vehicle. Our specific objectives are to:

• Raise awareness of CVHS in the UK by  road operators, 
• Remove some of the myths about CVHS, the technology needed and the timescales
• Promote co-operation between vehicle makers and UK road operators
• Share developments internationally with UK practitioners
• Highlight UK specific operational / stakeholder issues and areas for research

Andy Graham, who led DfT’s research into CVHS and has strong links with the vehicle industry, and Phil Proctor, of the ITS Research Group at the HA, have volunteered to lead this group  with Derek Turner, HA Director of Network Operations as their champion.

For more information about the ITS (UK) CVHS Interest Group, email mailbox@its-uk.org.uk

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