Cross-cutting Issues

Transit Signal Priority (TSP) systems have largely been deployed using localized communications between the vehicle and the intersection for which priority treatment is desired.  This has been accomplished using a wide variety of short range, wireless communications technologies requiring an infrastructure at the intersection and equipment on the vehicles.  Such an infrastructure can be costly and in a City such as New York, with the density of intersections (there are over 12,400 intersections connected to the central system) deployment of TSP is cost prohibitive. 

TransCore ITS

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has begun a pilot project to monitor wind
speeds on bridges during severe weather events and provide the information to the public
safety community in real-time. Currently, during severe weather events, law enforcement
personnel are stationed at bridges and use handheld anemometers to measure wind speeds
and help determine when to close bridges. The FDOT intends to assist the public safety
community by providing a safe, cost effective, and accurate alternative for measuring wind
speeds and disseminating the information to stakeholders. The project will use an existing
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite-based data collection system to
relay the wind speed threshold alarm information from bridges to an FDOT satellite ground
station. This approach will save money by avoiding recurring telephone or cell phone costs
that would typically be needed to communicate with field devices such as wind speed
monitors. Data dissemination to traffic management centers will be provided by using the
internal FDOT state-wide intelligent transportation system network thus also avoiding the
use of the public telecommunications infrastructure that may be compromised precisely when
needed during a severe weather event such as a hurricane.

Authors: Randy Pierce, Brian Kopp Ph.D.

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

The City of Pasadena’s traffic management center currently monitors and operates over two

hundred and fifty signals throughout the City. The operation and maintenance of existing

traffic signals and traffic communication network is facilitated from the Traffic Management

Center (TMC) through use of three different traffic management systems: Series2000,

QuickNet Pro, and Siemens i2. The City is transitioning to newer traffic signal controllers,

standard traffic signal firmware, and a more centralized advanced traffic management system

(ATMS). The purpose of the conversion is to provide a more technologically advanced and

specialized traffic signal control means to address the most challenging traffic conditions.

This paper will describe the thorough process of converting the base timing parameters for

over one hundred and twenty signals to a new firmware, inputting and uploading the

converted firmware into the existing central system software (i2), preparing intersection

graphics, and re-allocating data channels of the existing links to accommodate the maximum

number of controllers per channel. The paper will also describe the limitations brought on by

this transition, and the difficulty of deploying and implementing new firmware and software

using older communication infrastructure.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Traffic Management Center, City of Pasadena

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

This paper brings technical light and an innovative approach to a specific application that can utilize the existing infrastructure of RWIS data and Adaptive Traffic Signal Control (ATSC) to create more efficient signal phasing and safer intersection conditions during inclement weather.  It defines in general adaptive signal control applications and current atmospheric and pavement condition data assets. The paper then presents ideas on how to combine those two to create system applications that adapt to current traffic conditions and the associated changes in driver behavior, with the goal of creating safer, more efficient weather based adaptive signal phasing systems.  For example, if a sensor senses that the friction coefficient of the pavement at an intersection is significantly reduced so that the stopping distance of  a vehicle is increased by 50%,  the signal controller can take that data and modify the signal timing to increase yellow lights or increase the delay between red and green light phasing.  This will allow vehicles more time to clear the intersection, reducing collisions caused by vehicles unable to stop in their normal time because of reduced friction.  This is just one example of the many applications that could be developed by integrating these two existing ITS systems.

The paper concludes that by utilizing existing ITS infrastructure to develop new advanced applications without significant increase in costs, we can increase the return on investment and effectiveness of Intelligent Transportation Systems. It also demonstrates that by developing systems that have multiple applications we can increase the resolution of data derived from these systems, thus increasing the overall effectiveness of Intelligent Transportation Systems throughout the world.

 Author: Antony C. Coventry

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

During the 2008-2009 winter season, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)
conducted a state-wide deployment of a Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) into
their winter operations strategy. Similar to other agencies, INDOT was looking for the
opportunity to bring a research project into operations and provide tangible cost savings for their winter maintenance budgets. MDSS was poised to fill this need; so, with the support from upper management, the state embarked on a full deployment of the MDSS technology as a cost saving package and a cornerstone of their winter maintenance philosophy.

Large amounts of road and weather data are collected for the MDSS to perform optimally and
the resulting answers from MDSS could be used in an agency’s TMC as well. The information in
MDSS would provide known areas where weather is impacting the roads, current status of an
agency’s snow fighting vehicles, and forecasted locations of where hazardous road conditions
may be encountered by the traveling public. This information could and should be used to inform the travelling public of: locations of snow fighting equipment (including a specific lane and direction), locations where weather (especially winter weather) may be impacting traffic, and actual road conditions (icy, wet, dry, etc.).

This paper will address the lessons learned during the Indiana MDSS Implementation, and how
those lessons can be applied to other system implementations within an agency. The paper also addresses the possible uses of data within MDSS for the ITS arena, including suggestions on how to integrate the information available from MDSS into TMC operations.

Authors: Anthony McClellan, Benjamin Hershey

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida