VEHICLE INTELLIGENCE & TRANSPORTATION ANALYSIS LABORATORY
    University of California, Santa Barbara

ITS Glossary

Links to other glossaries can be found at the bottom of this page
 
AASHTO American Association of State Highway & Transporation Officials   http://www.aashto.org/main/
AHS Automated Highway System http://ahs.volpe.dot.gov/  Program of the US-DOT.  Towards the autopilot.  See NAHSC.
APTS Advanced Public Transportation System
ARTS Advanced Rural Transporation System
ATIS Advanced Traveler Information System 
ATMS Advanced Traffic Management System
ATMIS Advanced Transportation Management and Information System
AVCSS Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety System
BCD Binary Coded Decimal
BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics.  An arm of the US-DOT created pursuant to ISTEA in 1992. http://www.bts.gov/
CVISN Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks
CVO Commercial Vehicle Operations. ITS application to expedite border clearance, tag acquisition and installation, safety checking and fleet management for commercial vehicles
Demand Management Operations This service provides real-time ride matching information and reservations to users in their homes, offices or other locations, and assist transportation providers, as well as van/carpoolers, with vehicle assignments and scheduling.
Driver Advisories This service provides real-time ride matching information and reservations to users in their homes, offices or other locations, and assist transportation providers, as well as van/carpoolers, with vehicle assignments and scheduling.
DSRC Dedicated Short Range Communications
EDIFACT Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport.   European standarized message format using ISO 9735 syntax, based on ASCII character strings, originally developed for passing data between unrelated computer systems. http://aseb.keb.or.kr/sub_1/sub1_menu.htmhttp://www.blueprint-ec.co.uk/edifact.htm   For other European efforts see ERTICO, EVIDENCE.
EIA Electronic Industries Association
Emissions Testing
and Mitigation
This service uses advanced vehicle emissions testing systems to provide information to identify environmental "hot spots" and implement strategies to reroute traffic around sensitive air quality areas, or control access to such areas.
En-Route Driver
Information
This service provides driver advisories and in-vehicle signing for convenience and safety.
ERTICO ITS Europe  http://www.ertico.com/index.htm  Also see VERTIS (ITS Japan)
ETC Electronic Toll Collection
EVIDENCE Extensive Validation of IDENtification Concepts in Europe.  European ITS location referencing project, overseen by ERTICO subcommittee on location referencing, and based on GDF.
FHWA Federal Highway Administration, US DOT.   http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
GDF Geographic Data Files.  European standard to describe and transfer road networks and road related data. It is much more than a generic GIS standard, because GDF specifies how to capture the data, how the features, attributes and relations have been defined. http://www.ertico.com/gdf/index.htm
ILOC Intersection Location.  Intersection object in the European EVIDENCE location referencing model.
Incident Management This service enhances existing capabilities for detecting and verifying incidents, in both urban and rural areas, and then taking the appropriate actions in response.
In-Vehicle Signing This second component of en-route driver information provides the same types of information found on physical road signs today, directly in the vehicle. The service could be extended to include warnings of road conditions and safe speeds for specific types of vehicles (e.g., autos, buses, large trucks), but potential users include drivers of all types of vehicles.
ISO International Organization of Standards http://www.iso.ch/
ISO 15046 Family of standards established by ISO related to geographic information.
ISO/TC 204 ISO Technical Committee 204: Transport Information And Control Systems http://www.jhk.com/tc204/
ISO/TC 211 ISO Technical Committee 211: Geographic Information and Informatics http://www.statkart.no/isotc211/
ISO/TR 14825:1996 ISO standard number for GDF.
ISTEA Inter-modal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (1991).  Followed by TEA21.
ISP Information Service Provider
ITI Intelligent Transportation Infrastructure
ITS Intelligent Transportation Systems. Formerly Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems.
ITS America Public/private organization mandated by Congress to coordinate public/private efforts at developing ITS nationally.  Also see National ITS Architecture, ERTICO (ITS Europe), VERTIS (ITS Japan)
IVHS Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems. Now known as ITS.
J1746 SAE standard — ITS message set: “Navigation and Advanced Traveler Information Systems Message Set.” Includes information related to public transit, rail, traffic and the like as well as providing for the end user, the media and the end device used 
J2256 SAE standard — ITS message set: “In-vehicle Navigation System Communications Message Set.”  Includes navigation and other travel related information.
J2313 SAE standard — ITS message set: “On-board Land Vehicle MAYDAY Reporting Interface” for roadside and emergency services.
J2369 SAE standard — ITS message set: “ATIS Message Structure for High Speed FM Subcarrier Transmission”
J2374 SAE standard — Surface Vehicle Information Report (the LRMS by another name).
LRMS Location Reference Messaging Specification.  Developed by Viggen Corporation and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a set of 7 methods or “profiles” for exchanging location information for ITS, e.g. coordinates, grid references, cross streets, addresses.  In process of being adopted by SAE as standard J2374.
NAB National Association of Broadcasters http://www.nab.org/
NAHSC National Automated Highway Systems Consortium  http://nahsc.volpe.dot.gov/  The group behind the autonomous vehicle platooning demonstration (Demo 97) in San Diego, August 1997, now defunct.
National ITS
Architecture
Initiative of the US-DOT to ensure that local efforts in ITS development followed a national standard for the sake of interoperability.  The Architecture defines the functions associated with ITS user services, the physical entities or subsystems within which such functions reside, the data interfaces and information flows between physical subsystems, and the communications requirements associated with information flows.  Architecture document
NCHRP National Cooperative Highway Research Program.   http://www2.nas.edu/trbcrp/  An initiative of TRB to sponsor highway research in conjunction with AASHTO and FHWA.
NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US-DOThttp://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
NRSC National Radio Systems Committee. A standards development group dedicated to the advancement of commercial broadcasting technologies.  Sponsored by EIA and NAB.
NSDI National Spatial Data Infrastructure.  “The technologies, policies and people necessary to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic community”  http://www.fgdc.gov/NSDI/Nsdi.html
NTCIP National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol. http://www.ntcip.org/
OSI Open System Interconnect.
Pre-Trip Travel
Information
Pre-trip travel information allows travelers to access a complete range of inter-modal transportation information at home, work, and other major sites where trips originate for selecting the best transportation mode, departure time, and route.
RBDS Radio Broadcast Data Standard.  US standard published in 1993 by the NRSC.  Modeled on European RDS with slight modifications, specifically including AM.
RDS Radio Data System, uses the SCA component of a FM signal to broadcast, for example, the name of the radio station (e.g. “KCLU”), radio stations in neighboring areas, GPS/D-GPS data and digitally encoded traffic advisories.  Specified by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1984, and adopted as a standard in 1990 by European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC, EN 50067).  Precursor to the USA's RBDS.
RDS-TMC Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel.  One of 16 channels in the RDS.  http://www.ertico.com/ch2/ch2-3-1.htm#2
RF Radio Frequency
Ride Matching and Reservation This service provides real-time ride matching information and reservations to users in their homes, offices or other locations, and assist transportation providers as well as van/carpoolers, with vehicle assignments and scheduling. This will make ride sharing easier and more convenient.
Route Guidance The route guidance service provides a suggested route to reach a specified destination. Early route guidance systems will be based on static information about the roadway network, transit schedules, etc. When fully deployed, route guidance systems will provide travelers with directions to their destinations based on real-time information about the transportation system.
SAE Society of Automotive Engineers http://www.sae.org/
SDO Standards Developing Organizations, e.g. ISO, SAE
TCIP Transit Communications Interface Profiles: subset of NTCIP, a standards effort to provide interfaces among transit applications that will allow data to be shared among transit departments, emergency response services and regional traffic management centers.  http://www.tcip.org/
TEA21 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.  http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tea21/index.htm.  Sequel to ISTEA, was also dubbed NEXTEA.
TICS Transport Information and Control Systems
TRB Transportation Research Board http://www.nas.edu/trb/, part of National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences
Traffic Control This service will provide for the integration and adaptive control of the freeway and surface street systems to improve the flow of traffic, give preference to public safety, transit or other high occupancy vehicles, and minimize congestion while maximizing the movement of people and goods.
Traveler Services
Information
Traveler services information provides a business directory, or "yellow pages," of service information. Examples of information that might be included are the location, operating hours, and availability of food, parking, auto repair, hospitals, and police facilities.
USDoT US Department of Transportation http://www.dot.gov/, which includes among its operating administrations BTS, FAA, FHWA, NHTSA.
UTMS Universal Traffic Management Society, Japanese ITS organization  http://www.utms.or.jp/
VERTIS Vehicle, Road and Traffic Intelligence Society, or ITS Japan. http://www.iijnet.or.jp/vertis/   Also see ERTICO (ITS Europe)
VICS Vehicle Information and Communication System, Japanese standardization effort.  See Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Road Division: http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/ITS/index.html
Originally compiled by Jonathan Gottsegen, June 1997
 

Other sources of Transportation glossaries

BTS — Transportation Acronym Guide
BTS — Transportation Expressions
 

Update 1998-07-09


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