Cross-cutting Issues

Many technological advances have enabled new methods of collecting transportation data that can be used to plan and maintain effective roadway policies. Automated license plate reading technologies are beginning to gain acceptance because of the wide range of applications to which they can be applied. Typically, automatic license plate reading (ALPR) systems are used for enforcement type applications and data collection applications including parking lot management, origin-destination studies, traffic flow studies, high occupancy vehicle analysis, and weigh in motion systems. An ALPR system consists of three main components; a device for detecting vehicle presence, a digital video camera and an image processor. The image processor identifies the license plate according to embedded pattern recognition algorithms. The accuracy of the pattern recognition algorithms used in the image processor is an important concern when evaluating ALPR systems. The required accuracy depends on the application. For example, an enforcement application may require a high degree of accuracy while a traffic flow study may only require that an image obtained at an entry point be matched to an image obtained at an exit point. Other issues for consideration when evaluating ALPR systems are mobility and simplicity of use, range of vehicle types that can be read, necessary lighting conditions, range of states of origin that can be read, range of vehicular volumes and speeds that do not overload the image processor, and human impact/public relations.

Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Arkansas

United States Navy

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

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is preparing a three-tiered communications network strategy that is intended to be deployed throughout the state. The first tier (Tier 1) is a statewide network connecting all of the CDOT offices. The second tier (Tier 2) is a regional network connecting CDOT offices, cities, counties and other agencies. The third tier (Tier 3) is a local network that is intended to reduce fiber needs along each corridor and provide system access throughout the Tier 1 and 2 networks. The intent of this three-tiered network is to provide a statewide standard for communications for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to meet the growing demand for a statewide system. By providing this standard both new and existing ITS deployments can be designed to tie into the statewide communications network, thus providing the opportunity to share data and video throughout the state. This paper describes the concept of the Tier 3 communications network. The development of the Tier 2 network has been described in previous papers presented at ITS America in 1998 and 1999. The development of the network, including a “proof of concept” stage are occurring during late 2000 and early 2001, and will be added to the final paper.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Colorado Department of Transportation

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

The present study examined the opinions of transit agency officials and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) stakeholders regarding Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in transit. Two forms of information gathering (a questionnaire and personal interviews) were implemented. Forty-four (44) stakeholders were interviewed over the course of seventeen (17) interviews.

The questionnaire and interviews gathered opinions concerning ITS-transit technology already implemented, and the potential for ITS-transit in the future. Opinions on the potential obstacles to deployment of ITS-transit, and other numerous issues relating to ITS-transit, were also gathered. This paper outlines the various issues relating to ITS-transit that were discussed, and includes the responses to the follow-up questionnaire and the interviews. The study indicates that most transit professionals contacted think ITS-transit can potentially revolutionize transit. However a lack of funding to create ITS-transit systems and initiate deployment is stated as one of the obstacles that significantly hinder its development. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents think ITS-transit – with the proper funding – can bring the “choice rider” to transit. Despite the enthusiasm for the potential of ITS-transit, the respondents often stated a reorganization of transit was needed. Only after that occurs can ITS-transit flourish. In fact, many of those contacted for this study think there are too many areas within conventional transit operations that require improvement before ITS-transit needs to be a concern. This view – that ITS-transit in most areas is merely a decorative add-on that can only be implemented with a solid, structured, and organized transit system for it to work within – permeated throughout many  conversations with the transit professionals.

Center for Urban Transportation Research

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

The GCM Corridor was one of the four priority corridors established under the ISTEA legislation. The Gateway TIS is the core system that facilitates the integration and interoperation of many other ITS systems within this corridor. The Gateway TIS collects transportation related information from geographically widely distributed TIS data source systems, validates and fuses the information collected, and disseminates it to interested public and private entities and the general public via internet and intranet.

The implementation of the Gateway TIS involves integrating a growing number of ITS related center systems of assorted natures and various technical configurations. Apart from a myriad of institutional issues that needed to be solved, a range of Center-to-Center (C2C) technical standards were needed to define communication protocols, data formats, and application programming interfaces (API). It was realized at the beginning of the project that the adoption of and compliance with national ITS standards would considerably increase the chance of success in effectively achieving C2C interconnectivity and interoperability. However, it was soon discovered that, not only the C2C API standard was absolutely absent, but also the available national ITS C2C data standards were specified as data dictionaries, message sets, which were not in a form to support object-oriented or CORBA-based software engineering practices.

Recently, the Object Management Group (OMG), an international standard development organization, formed a Transportation Domain Task Force (DTF). This OMG Transportation DTF issued a RFI in an effort to start a process of full scale specification development of CORBA-based ITS C2C standards. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and Parsons Transportation Group (PTG) have jointly responded to this RFI by providing information on GDOM, GMOM, and our Gateway implementation experiences. We hope our pioneering efforts in CORBA-based C2C standardization in the GCM corridor could provide a proven starting ground for national CORBA-based standardization process.

Parsons Transportation Group

Illinois Department of Transportation

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

This paper describes not only the specific ITS design challenges facing the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, but also the unique ITS requirements for today’s modern airports. Institutional integration as well as system integration challenges abound. For example, it is mandatory that the Metro Airport system be linked with the Michigan ITS Center in Detroit to provide airport patrons with timely, reliable information in and around the airport. Additionally, Dingell Drive, the new access road to the McNamara Terminal, will be instrumented with safety, security, and parking management systems. The need to integrate these systems together and with the ITS systems on the highways 3 surrounding the airport is critical to ensuring the safety and convenience of airport patrons.

Iteris, Inc.

Wayne County

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota