Institutional Issues Related to the Application of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems Technologies to Commercial Vehicle Operations in Indiana

The study focused on potential barriers and opportunities to implementing Intelligent Vehicle-Highway System (IVHS) technologies to Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) in Indiana. Specific concepts included: (1) Automatic payment of tolls while driving at mainline speeds; (2) Pre-Clearance of vehicles and drivers past weigh stations; (3) One-Stop-Shopping for licenses, registrations, and permits; and (4) Transparent state borders. The study reviewed existing laws and policies applying to commercial vehicles operating in Indiana; prepared an inventory of the agencies responsible, their existing procedures, their physical facilities, and their human resources used to implement these regulations; itemized present impediments preventing the implementation of IVHS-CVO under current Indiana State Laws; and suggested future phased-in modifications to the present systems for effective IVHS-CVO implementation. The study also included a comprehensive statewide survey examining IVHS-CVO perceptions, needs, and concerns from the perspective of interstate motor carriers based in Indiana. Specific survey issues included how motor carriers perceive IVHS-CVO concepts would affect their current operations; what data items motor carriers are willing to have electronically stored within automatic vehicle identification (AVI) transponders; what type of weigh-station pre-clearance information storage do motor carriers prefer (i.e. centralized database or data stored within a transponder); how willing motor carriers are to participating in a Gold Card pre-certification process for weigh-station pre-clearance; what type of automatic toll collection system do motor carriers prefer (i.e. debit system or credit system); how willing motor carriers are to paying additional tolls to help cover costs of building bypass lanes next to existing toll plazas for AVI-equipped vehicles to automatically pay tolls while driving at mainline speeds; and the degree to which motor carriers feel IVHS-CVO implementation will lead to a more or less level playing field between motor carriers. Finally, recommendations were made for near-term, mid-term, and long-term courses of actio