The term sustainable applied to any activity has been used to imply the need to preserve the quality of life while not depleting natural resources for future generations or harming the environment. Indeed, the need to attain sustainable transportation systems is one of the greatest challenges to engineers today. In the United States, transportations systems account for approximately twenty-seven percent of the usage of energy, derived primarily from petroleum. Similar usage is found in other developed countries, and the usage is growing rapidly in developing countries such as China and India. The issues facing sustainable transportation systems are compounded by the fact that the global population is rapidly increasing, and affordable transportation is among one of the most important factors in increasing the standard of living in developing countries.

In this talk, the speaker will talk about some of the issues in congestion, such as diamond lanes, metering lights, and congestion pricing; public transit, such as high speed rail; energy, such as electric vehicles, ethanol, natural gas, and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards; and the impact of transportation on the environment.

About the speaker

The speaker is Dr. Charles J. Herget. During his working career, Dr. Herget worked in industry (Hughes Aircraft Company), academia (Iowa State University), and a major research laboratory (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). He is now retired but still remains active in IEEE. He served as president of the IEEE Control Systems Society, president of the IEEE Council on Intelligent Transportation Systems, and president of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. He served as General Chair of the IEEE Forum on Integrated and Sustainable Transportation Systems, held in Vienna in June 2011. He is currently the chair of the Oakland/East Bay Life Members Affinity Group.