[Editors] MIT Professor offers new 'Perspectives' on traffic

[Patti Richards]

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
Phone: 617-253-2700
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www

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MIT Professor offers new 'Perspectives' on traffic
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For Immediate Release
MONDAY, AUG. 1, 2005
Contact: Patti Richards
Phone: 617-253-8923
Email: prichards at mit.edu

MIT Professor Joseph M. Sussman has made the study of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) his life's work. In his new book, "Perspectives on Intelligent Transportation Systems" (Springer Science & Media Inc.), he examines how ITS has changed the world of transportation and shares his optimism about the potential of IT systems to improve urban and regional traffic.

ITS combines high technology and improvements in information systems, communication, sensors, and advanced mathematical methods with the conventional world of surface transportation infrastructure. In commuters' terms, this means electronic toll collection systems (like Fast Lane and E-Z Pass), high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and higher-speed traffic lanes that charge higher fees. Sussman said that information technology adds efficiency to a regional traffic pattern by those means and by providing data on congestion to drivers inside their cars.

But for such systems to be effective, "We need to go beyond the technology and understand ITS on political, social, institutional, organizational and economic dimensions as well," he writes.

His book offers local insights--into the workings of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel project, for example, or the challenges New York City has faced since 9/11--as well as ITS views of such "mega-cities" in the fast-developing world as Beijing; Mexico City; and Bangkok, Thailand.

"The management of the developing-country mega-city is one of our most important urban transportation and environmental issues," Sussman writes. "ITS can help to deal with the problems those mega-cities face."

Sussman predicts "transitions" in transportation planning from urban to regional scale and from economic development to sustainable development, among many others.

"ITS is a hard sell for many transportation professionals. It means changing the way they do what they do, from building and maintaining highways to operating systems and managing and communicating information," Sussman said, while noting that ITS is but another example of the marriage of transportation and technology as a phenomenon that has existed throughout human history.


Dr. Joseph M. Sussman is the JR East (East Japan Railway Company) Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he currently serves as a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Engineering Systems Division. He has taught at MIT for 37 years. In 2001, ITS Massachusetts established the Joseph M. Sussman Leadership Award in recognition of his contributions.


To arrange for interviews with Professor Sussman about his new book or other transportation topics, contact Patti Richards, MIT News Office, 617.253.8923 or prichards at mit.edu

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