It's a sunny morning in the spring of 2013. As you ride a commuter train, an information panel on the wall announces a 30-minute delay caused by an accident. With your cellular phone, you search for an alternative route and make a reservation to get to your destination.

At the next station, you leave the train and hop into an electric car you ordered through a car-sharing service. As you pass a tollgate and enter a traffic-controlled lane, the fare is automatically charged to your IC card via an on-board device. The air around you is cool and clean. This is not science fiction, but rather a glimpse of transportation systems that government officials and other experts believe are just around the corner.

Information technology is the key to making it all happen, and a series of experiments are now under way to make the dream reality within just a few decades.

"On the surface, traffic systems over the next 20 years may look similar to those we have today," said Fumihiko Nakamura, an assistant professor of traffic engineering at Yokohama National University. "But we'll eventually have a whole new mechanism and information technology will be playing a key role."

When information on traffic at sea, on land and in the air -- including schedules, routes and possible congestion for each option -- is put together and made accessible, travelers will spend less time traveling, freight traffic will be far more efficient and the air will be cleaner, he reckoned.

Information technology can help network different traffic systems, contributing to the mitigation of environmental problems stemming from transportation, Nakamura said.

In the 20th century, technological development has provided the general public with quick and convenient transportation means, such as express trains, automobiles and airplanes. At the same time, however, they have caused serious environmental problems such as noise, air pollution and the greenhouse effect.

Roughly 20 percent of Japan's total carbon dioxide emissions -- a major cause of global warming -- comes from its transportation systems, with automobiles accounting for nearly 90 percent of the traffic emissions, according to the Transport Ministry.

If no measures are taken, the agency warns, emissions from vehicles will increase 40 percent by 2010, compared to the 1990 level, making it almost impossible for Japan to fulfill its required cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

A landmark agreement reached in December 1997 at a U.N. global warming conference in Kyoto calls for industrialized nations to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent by 2012 from the 1990 level. Japan is specifically obliged to achieve a 6 percent cut.

The agreement has served as a turning point in government transportation policies, reinforcing measures to speed up emissions cuts rather than counting on a less aggressive strategy of gradual energy-saving efforts, a Transport Ministry official said.

A number of projects have been carried out to see how and to what extent they can help alleviate environment problems caused by traffic.

As a next-generation road system, the government has been promoting the so-called Intellectual Transportation Systems since 1995, with the eventual goal of introducing safe and smooth automatic driving supported by advanced traffic information services.

Last month, an automatic fare charging system called Electronic Toll Collection, one of nine ITS projects, was experimentally introduced on expressways in Chiba Prefecture, with some 30,000 monitor drivers participating.

Under the system, antennas at tollgates detect vehicles carrying an IC card-equipped device, with records stored on the card every time the card passes such a tollgate.

The system, which enables drivers to pass through tollgates without stopping, is expected to ease traffic jams and help minimize pollution. Currently, 11 percent of fuel that automobiles consume is wasted idling in traffic jams, according to the Construction Ministry.

Masafumi Mori, director of the ITS division of the Construction Ministry's Public Works Research Institute, predicts that some 70 percent of existing tollgates will be replaced by ETC gates by the end of 2002.

And if all tollgates are replaced by the high-tech ones, he said, "About 30 percent of traffic jams on the nation's expressways will vanish."

The car navigation system, another ITS project introduced in 1992, has already become commonly used.

Utilizing the global positioning system, vehicles equipped with a GPS receiver can receive up-to-minute traffic information so drivers can find the most efficient route to their destination.

More than 4.5 million drivers now have cars equipped with a navigation device and that number is expected to increase 10 times by 2015, according to the Construction Ministry.

Likewise, taking advantage of advanced information technology, conventional transportation systems, including infrastructure, can offer greater efficiency, said Shuichi Yamanouchi, chairman of East Japan Railway Co.

To achieve that, he said, more detailed traffic information and greater convenience must to be made available.

In a move intended to bring greater convenience to its customers, JR East plans to introduce IC cards that can store a large amount of information, he said.

Although such a card would simply be a substitute for a ticket in the initial stage, the carrier hopes to eventually turn it into a multifunctional card, he said.

If a single IC card serves as a ticket for all transportation systems and enables people to get traffic information and make reservations from their computers at home, "a railway station will become just a gateway," he said, meaning that all the other functions -- such as selling tickets and reserving seats -- will be gone.

At the same time, Yamanouchi said, the existing infrastructure should be rebuilt to provide smoother links between expressways, railways, airports and seaports.

By improving "intermodality" between the various transport systems that exist today, Yamanouchi said, people will be able to enjoy greater mobility and the burden on the environment will be reduced.

"Suppose each railway station has a parking lot," he said. "Then, if you are caught in a traffic jam, you can park at the closest station and take the train."

Based on a concept similar to the park-and-ride system, the Association of Electronic Technology for Automobile Traffic and Driving, a government-affiliated institute, has been testing an electric car-sharing system.

In the six months through March, it tried out the system in Yokohama, with some 250 people from 40 companies took part.

Participants made a reservation, either by phone or through the Internet, and picked up an electric car at designated parking lots at their convenience. As they drove their rented car, a project operator would monitor their position and electric power consumption, while keeping an eye out for possible trouble.

Yukio Sugita, a participant in the experiment, said he experienced no major problems.

"I used the service twice a week to go to business meetings at Yokohama City Hall, instead of taking a taxi," he said. "This system may help a company reduce transportation costs and will contribute to preservation of the environment in this district."

Yokohama National University's Nakamura said that common modes of transportation, such as buses and bicycles, may take on new roles in the future as an alternative to cars.

By providing detailed information on bus routes and schedules on the Internet, he said, a number of urban dwellers may opt for a bus ride instead of taking a cab or driving themselves.

In coming years, he said, a hybrid vehicle that combines the functions of a bus and taxi -- such as operating on a designated route but allowing substantial deviations upon request -- will probably come into greater use with more variety, especially in suburban areas.

The Construction Ministry also plans to create 2-meter-wide bicycle lanes along some streets in Tokyo and 18 other cities. The move, in response to concerns over global warming, is intended to increase the use of bicycles.

Delivery of freight will also see massive changes, said Hirofumi Yoshimoto, a senior researcher at the Transport Ministry's Ship Research Institute.

About 90 percent of freight traffic now depends on trucks, due to cost and efficiency, but Yoshimoto believes freight trains and cargo ships can be as efficient as trucks.

"Ships can be as efficient as vehicles and they are equipped with advanced computers, navigation devices and sensors," he said. "Such high-tech ships will be able to arrive at their destinations even more quickly, taking even better routes and avoiding collisions with other ships and reefs."

To achieve this, Yoshimoto foresees an information center to control marine traffic worldwide, reduce congestion and speed up cargo information distribution.

But this futuristic vision is not without its pitfalls. For example, Hirokazu Akahane, a civil engineering professor at Chiba Institute of Technology, points to possible negative effects brought by ITS.

"ETC may erase traffic jams at tollgates on expressways, but congestion may occur at junctions where vehicles exiting from the expressways enter surface roads," he said.

Likewise, Akahane said, car navigation services may lead more cars onto narrow streets, posing a danger to pedestrians or damaging the environment in an otherwise quiet residential area.

To prevent such problems, Kunimichi Takada, a professor of transportation engineering at Nihon University, stresses the need to reduce the overall volume of traffic.

With the help of ETC, the so-called road-pricing system, which charges a fare upon entering a designated zone, may work, he said.

"ETC will work for road pricing because it enables relevant authorities to charge different fares according to who is driving what type of vehicle in what time zone," he said. "This will encourage more people to shift to other traffic modes."

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been studying the introduction of a road-pricing system, not only as a way to increase revenue but also to tackle air pollution.

Yoshimoto of the Transport Ministry, however, said changing conventional traffic systems -- whether it be introducing new technology or regulations such as a road-pricing system -- is bound to meet resistance because it often requires changing existing social systems.

"Introducing information technology to the marine industry is tantamount to abolishing current business practices and reorganizing the industry," he said.

Still, Takada insists that the current traffic situation must be changed to solve environmental problems and he urged authorities to ensure that information is disclosed and that public opinion is taken into consideration in pushing changes forward.

"Without taking any measures, we will see further problems in this automobile-addicted society," he said.