Cross-cutting Issues

This paper presents an evaluation of the speed harmonization control of Active Traffic
Management (ATM), one of the strategies of Managed Use Lanes (MUL) study team
proposed for the Long Island Expressway (I-495) for the New York State Department of
Transportation (NYSDOT). The evaluation is conducted by the comparisons of before
and after-implementation of the speed harmonization strategy under recurrent traffic
congestion on a section of the Long Island Expressway (I-495), the Measures of
Effectiveness (MOEs) for operations and safety, extracted from the micro-simulation
software VISSIM and the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM). The operations
MOEs include throughput, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), vehicle hours traveled (VHT),
vehicle hours of delay (VHD) and average travel speed. Speed variance, number of lane
change and collision severity are selected as safety MOEs. Initial results are encouraging.
This approach should be easily applied to the evaluation of other MUL strategies such as
ramp metering, queue warning, junction control, HOV lane and HOT lane etc.

Author: Zifeng Jiang

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

Funding cutbacks and reduced budgets are the new normal for government organizations and private industry, necessitating creative approaches to educating the public about ITS products and services. In order to make the most of available marketing dollars, it is imperative to develop strategic partnerships with the news media, government agencies, large employers, commercial vehicle operators, commuter services organizations and others to leverage their resources to tell your story.

Global-5 Communications

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

Speed limits are generally created for ideal road conditions. When road conditions deteriorate, speed limits tend to become unreasonable, and enforcement of safe driving becomes difficult. Variable speed limit (VSL) systems are used to adjust speeds in accordance with the changing conditions in an attempt to reduce the variation of speeds among all vehicles. This research highlights the findings from the variable speed limit system in place along the Elk Mountain Corridor of I-80 in Southeastern Wyoming during the first full winter season of VSL implementation.

Authors: Emily C. Layton, Dr. Rhonda K. Young

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

This paper details an interactive traffic simulator that draws on real-time traffic inputs. We introduce the system framework and three individual modules: the online traffic estimation and forecast system for the Salt Lake City region, the virtual ATMIS testbed and modeling of the countermeasures including ramp meters and VMS, and the web-based user interface for traffic monitoring and control decision commands. The design of one training scenario for freeway incident management is illustrated and a typical training session introduced. We conclude with a feature summary and discussions of how we can accommodate more decision support needs for real time traffic management.

Mygistics, Inc.

University of Utah

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

This paper presents the new Variable Advisory Speed Limit (VASL) system being operated in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and its preliminary field assessment results. The new system has been designed to prevent the rapid propagation of the shock waves, emanated from fixed or moving bottlenecks, by gradually reducing the speed levels of the incoming flow. Using the traffic data collected from the loop detectors every 30 seconds, the system examines the deceleration patterns of the traffic flow in a given corridor and determines the locations and of the VASL control zones, whose lengths can vary depending on the current deceleration and speed levels at each zone. The VASL values of the available speed limit signs in each zone are calculated such a way that the effects of the speed control on travel times could be minimized. The preliminary analysis results with the before and after field data indicate that the average maximum deceleration in the VASL corridor during a peak period has been significantly decreased, while the increases in travel time have been moderate. Further, the peak-hour volume at a bottleneck in the VASL corridor has shown a slight, but significant increase compared to that of the before VASL period.

Authors: Eil Kwon, Chongmyung Park, Doug Lau, Brian Kary

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