Cross-cutting Issues

This paper proposes that the quality of an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Innovation is ultimately about the quality of its “value proposition” to stakeholders, that is, the researchers, consultants, the Transportation Agency, the private sector and the traveller. It further proposes that to achieve quality by this definition, an ITS innovation requires much more conscious management than is customary in current engineering practice if only because ITS experience to date is not as rich and practice has not yet matured. To get to a framework of “best practices” the paper identifies seven generic components of the innovation process. The paper is theoretical in that a framework is developed rather than a synthesis of case studies. On the other hand, it is practical in that the approach to each generic component is in narrative form rather than model-building. Practitioners are invited to confirm that the suggested guidelines will help or that they are counterproductive, or that important considerations are missed altogether.

Ontario Ministry of Transportation

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

The third phase of the City’s Advanced Signal System is currently being implemented. This third phase will implement a wireless communications to remote traffic controllers via an integration of Metricom’s Wireless Ricochet Network with Econolite’s ASC/2s traffic controllers. The City’s central system will utilize this packet radio network operating under the Star Mode, a proprietary, connectionless service, via a virtual private network configuration. The modems operate in the 900 MHz range, and the network handles all routing, contention, and retransmissions.

This paper will discuss the basic technology, the versatility of this packet radio network for communications with traffic signals, the new communications protocols being developed, and the future enhancements to this technology.

City of San Leandro

DKS Associates

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

For the Web developer, the tools to build, test and deploy engaging Web sites are hopelessly inadequate. Many focus more on building attractive rather than useful Web sites. None of them address the entire software lifecycle, from design to development to deployment to maintenance, in a way that is consistent and efficient. No system today lets developers write code for the PC and deploy it to a variety of devices.

Corporate users face additional challenges. While the advent of farms of smaller servers has made the overall computing experience more reliable by eliminating single points of failure, it has made system management more complex. Performance measurement, capacity planning and operations management are challenging in today’s multi-tier, multi-function Web sites. New ecommerce systems rarely map well or interoperate with legacy business systems. And building systems that securely span the firewall, so customers and partners can intelligently engage with your business, is so difficult that many businesses resort to costly duplicate systems. Is all this really as good as it gets? Everyone believes the Web will evolve, but for that evolution to be truly empowering for developers, businesses and consumers, a radical new vision is needed. Microsoft’s goal is to provide that vision and the technology to make it a reality.

A Microsoft White Paper

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

The collection of data describing traffic conditions is a primary function of a typical traffic management system. Measurements of traffic parameters such as mean speed, volume, and occupancy are made at many locations on freeways and arterials covered by these systems. Spatially, traffic detectors are typically placed at regular intervals on freeways within these systems (e.g. every 0.5 mile). Temporally, these data are usually collected and aggregated across consistent time intervals (between 20 seconds and 5 minutes). Archiving of these data, by the provision of long-term storage in an easily accessible database, is becoming increasingly common in the upgrading and expansion of traffic management systems.

The key component of this data mining application is the use of statistical quality control techniques to detect abnormal observations. These statistical tools, developed to monitor manufacturing processes, examine quantified measures of such a process, identify observations that fall outside of a range defined as comprising normal conditions, and allow the process manager to take appropriate remedial action. These tools can be applied to a database of historical observations of traffic flow to perform the same function. Three measures of traffic flow typically collected in traffic management systems are mean speed, volume (flow rate), and occupancy.

Virginia Transportation Research Council

University of Virginia - Department of Civil Engineering

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

Microsoft is creating an advanced new generation of software that melds computing and communications in a revolutionary new way for the automotive market, offering every technology provider the tools they need to transform the Web and every other aspect of the computing experience.

Car.NET has its fundamental origins in the Microsoft® .NET initiative. The .NET initiative enables developers, businesses and consumers to harness technology on their terms. Microsoft .NET will allow the creation of truly distributed Web Services that will integrate and collaborate with a range of complementary services to serve customers in ways that today's dotcoms can only dream of. Microsoft .NET will drive the Next Generation Internet. It really will make information available any time, any place and on any device.

2000 Microsoft Corporation.

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida