The U.S. Embassy will hold ITS Japan '99, a trade seminar for promoting intelligent transportation systems, at the U.S. Trade Center in Ikebukuro in Tokyo's Toshima Ward today and Thursday.

ITS integrates automotive and telecommunications technologies to help ease road congestion, reduce accident rates and improve mass transit. Examples of ITS include automated highways, electronic toll collection and collision avoidance systems.

The two-day exhibition will feature 24 American companies, including 3M Intelligent Transportation Systems, Intel Corp., and the Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group. The firms will display their products and services, including car navigation equipment, signal priority control systems and the latest semiconductors for automobiles.

Seminars by 13 firms are scheduled, and two keynote speeches by American experts on ITS will be also presented.

Meanwhile, the National Police Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation plan to sign a formal agreement today to jointly develop a system to facilitate the flow of emergency vehicles on roads, according to Rose McMurray, associate administrator for the traffic safety program at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The system, known as the Fast Emergency Vehicle Preemptive System (FAST), helps ambulances and police vehicles get to accident sites quickly and easily by controlling traffic lights on roads and at intersections and guides them to the closest medical facility.

"Our data analysis of motor vehicle crashes reveals that the earlier emergency responders arrive on a scene of an accident, the more likely injuries are medicated," McMurray said.

For more information about the ITS exhibition, call the U.S. Embassy Commercial Service at (03) 3224-5076 or fax (03) 3589-4235.