Technical background

Vehicles tend to be more energy efficient and produce less emissions and noise when moving forward at uniform speed. Continuous braking and accelerating contributes strongly to fuel consumption and undesirable emissions. Compact driving further improves the overall efficiency of the vehicle population as compact driving reduces the overall resistance (slip stream effect). Moreover the road capacity (defined as the number of vehicles per hour that pass a road section) is favourably affected by compact driving or platooning. Uniform speed and compact driving thus have positive effects on energy efficiency, emissions as well as economic advantages caused by a reduction of traffic jams. A third category is levelling the pressure on roads by various systems - including pricing of mobility. By discouraging traffic on peak hours and hot spots a more even distribution of vehicles over the day is achieved. This again facilitates a more energy efficient and cleaner use of the road infrastructure.

Against this background it is clear that intelligent traffic guidance systems will contribute to a more sustainable mobility, specifically affecting the HiGrids issue of cleaner use of roads. A rich variety of concepts is developed or is in the phase of development : navigation systems, interactive (adaptive) cruise control, driver support systems (warning devices, semi-automatic driving), traffic information systems, traffic management tools, systems for pricing of mobility as well as various combinations of these options.