Commercial Operations

Buffalo County has an ITS project implementation underway encompassing a brokered public transportation system in South Central Nebraska. As a part of this project discussions with FHWA led the project partners to want to develop a project ITS architecture that would meet federal guidelines established in the rule for conformity with the National ITS Architecture that went into effect on April 8, 2001. The Division Office of FHWA requested support in this effort from the Midwestern Resource Center of FHWA and several meetings were planned to aid the local partners in their efforts. In the first of these meetings a need to address the more regional issues of a regional ITS architecture were identified. The stakeholders decided to move forward with the development of a regional architecture that would include the project architecture for the ITS project that was already underway.

This paper will outline the partners in the ITS project, the project itself, and discuss the development of the project and regional architectures. The architecture development is still underway at the time of this writing. The schedule calls for completion during the year of 2002.

Federal Highway Administration

R.Y.D.E Transit

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 29 –May 2, 2002 Long Beach, California

Outline of Presentation

• Background of Houston METRO

• Introduction to IVOMS

• What Makes IVOMS Special?

• METRO’s Existing System

• Project Approach

• Challenges

• Next Steps

Chris Bausher, Dena Jackson, Mike Burns

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 29 –May 2, 2002 Long Beach, California

In May, 1997 the Strategic Plan for Early Deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems on Interstate 40 Corridor was completed. In that report there were short-term (1997 – 1999), mid-term (2000 – 2005), and long-term (2006 – 2010) time frames set to deploy the ITS-I40 market packages. Success has been limited in terms of what was proposed for deployment due to several factors. This paper focuses on not only what has actually been done in terms of the plan, but is a report on some of the obstacles that were not initially recognized and subsequently impacted the original deployment plan. The short-term market packages that were identified generally focused on traveler and traffic information. The mid-term market packages expanded the short-term deployment packages with a focus on incident management and traveler safety. The long-term market packages included the preceding packages and vehicle – roadway interactive packages. The short-term successes include the installation of VMS (Variable Message Signs), RWIS (Remote Weather Information Systems), implementation of HCRS (Highway Closure and Restriction System), the deployment of the VRAS (Voice Remote Access System), and entering into a Traveler Information Partnership. The areas where there has been no success is the interface with the public media, deployment of kiosks, performance monitoring and evaluation, real time coordination in CVO (Commercial Vehicle Operations), and the deployment of FM Travel Advisory Radio. The first limiting factor and probably the one with the most impact is that of funding. The Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman Districts have funded some of the VMS and RWIS projects with their own funding and there is now funding in the capital improvement program for VMS over the next five plus years, but many of the other items are having to be funded through maintenance and other sources. Another funding issue is that of operations and maintenance which is estimated to cost $41 million over 15 years. Other factors include lack of buy in from the critical stakeholders on what needed to be done and how it would be accomplished; lack of coordination between Districts regarding capital improvements and projects along with an infrastructure to share information; and, line personnel have been slow to use available information to make tactical decisions. Other obstacles include the change in the stakeholders. Approximately half the ITS-I40 coalition has changed in some way and there has been very little effort to continue to have the coalition help educate and inform others as to the advantages of the planned deployment. The lack of continuing feedback to the stakeholders has limited the success of the deployment plan. Another factor is information dissemination to the users in the corridor. We gather a lot of information but have not found a way to get information in a form for others to use. The ITS-I40 deployment plan is not dead. The factors affecting deployment are being addressed along with the reactivation of the coalition to help guide the effort. To make the deployment plan work there will be a need for a concentrated effort to seek out and address all obstacles.

Arizona Department of Transportation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

Throughout North America, selected public agencies have been assigned the responsibility for monitoring commercial vehicle traffic to make sure the commercial vehicles operating on public roadways are in safe operating condition, have proper registration and operating authority, are within legal size and weight limits, and have paid all appropriate fees and taxes. To accomplish this goal, all 50 States have established roadside monitoring and enforcement programs.

In recent years, technologies have developed which offer the potential for automated roadside identification of commercial vehicles. Two of these technologies, radio frequency identification (RFID) and optical character recognition (OCR), have already been deployed for commercial vehicle screening purposes.

The Roadside Identification Feasibility Study was undertaken to identify methods of unique identification of commercial vehicles at the roadside for slow and high-speed electronic screening purposes. It was designed to be a comprehensive look at the technologies, focused on the needs of the Federal Highway Administrations Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety (FHWA/OMCHS) and the States.

University of Kentucky - Kentucky Transportation Center

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

The development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has changed the transportation industry significantly. As ITS infrastructure is planned and implemented in the field, integration with other systems is critical to realizing the full benefits and potential. Components of ITS implementations have impacted a number of functional areas including Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO). ITS is being mainstreamed into many urban and rural area planning processes. The inclusion of a diverse set of motorists including trucking industry representatives is key to end user acceptance and successful utilization of the transportation system.

This paper takes the reader through the ITS/CVO planning process, from the development and prioritization of CVO projects through a brief introduction to and Commercial Vehicle Information Systems Networks (CVISN). The CVO area of ITS is unique and requires additional end user consideration due to the nature of the trucking industry. The trucking industry has much to offer the strategic planning process and deployment of ITS infrastructure.

ITS infrastructure for Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS), and Advanced Rural Transportation Systems (ARTS) are all ingredients in the holistic approach to transportation system development. Each of these ITS areas impacts the commercial vehicle industry and can serve as valuable tools for maneuvering through congested metropolitan cities and provide advanced notification of restricted conditions in rural areas. Outreach to include commercial vehicle professionals in every ITS functional area is necessary to meet the needs of all motorists. The trucking industry is an important partner in the successful deployment of ITS, they can offer insights that other modal users may not consider.

Overall, ITS impacts to CVO and CVISN is positive. A high level of coordination is needed to ensure that ATIS products being produced by public and private agencies for mass consumption benefit the trucking industry. The trucking industry has a great deal to offer ITS strategists given that commercial vehicles have been utilizing the transportation infrastructure efficiently in a forprofit business model for hundreds of years.

BRW Inc.

Arizona Department of Transportation

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA