Cross-cutting Issues

Providing project-level planners and engineers with the awareness and knowledge to both
perceive ITS solutions to transportation problems and support generating alternatives around
these technologies is critical for fostering the advancement of ITS. The Virginia Department
of Transportation Northern Region Operations has deployed an ITS Solutions Decision
Support Tool to aid project-level decision making. The tool centralizes and condenses ITS
data into a more readily accessible format to facilitate prescribing ITS Solutions to applicable
transportation problems. A separate administration tool is provided to manage the decision
tree and maintain the ITS Solutions database.

Open Roads Consulting, Inc.

Virginia Department of Transportation / Northern Region Operations

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

When a person learns a lesson from an experience, the lesson embeds in him/her a deeper understanding of what was done right, what one would do differently, and how one could be more effective in the future. The lessons learned from the policy and planning of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provide insights into the approaches which have led to the successful consideration of ITS products and services in transportation planning. Our detailed study of over 125 lesson-learned experiences, documented in the ITS Lessons Web site, www.itslessons.its.dot.gov, reveals that the most effective policy and planning approaches are: adopting policies that elicit buy-in from regional ITS stakeholders, developing effective planning products such as a regional ITS architecture, an ITS strategic plan, or a regional concept of operations, and carrying out a vitally important but ignored step of incorporating ITS projects in the region’s long-range transportation improvement plan.

Noblis, Inc.

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

This paper presents the development and implementation of a new adaptive control decision
support system (ACDSS) that combines real-time adaptive signal control with human
operators in the decision loop. The system employs state-of-the-practice multi-tier architecture, integrating web service-based data fusion techniques, wireless detection technology, NCTIPcompatible Advanced Solid State Traffic Controller (ASTC), high-speed on-line microsimulation/animation, and computationally efficient signal optimization algorithms.
Importantly, unlike conventional adaptive control systems, ACDSS allows control room
operators to supervise and interact with the real-time signal operations, by verifying the
algorithm-optimized signal timing plan against other available alternatives using on-line
simulation. This inclusion of human operators with on-line simulation capability is important
for achieving robust and reliable operations, yet seems not available with existing adaptive
control systems. Additionally, ACDSS also allows autonomous signal optimization without
operator interactions. It is planned that ACDSS in its full implementation would control up to
10 arterials throughout New York City, while current implementation covers two arterials, i.e.,
Route 9A with 22 intersections and Victory Boulevard with 4 intersections.

KLD Associates Inc.

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

Over the years, transportation management centers (TMCs) have evolved from focusing on a
single function (e.g., freeway management, signal system operations, transit management, etc.) to taking on several functions in managing our multimodal transportation systems. The purpose of this paper is to review the diverse range of functions that TMCs have begun to tackle in migrating towards total transportation systems management and operations.

AECOM USA, Inc.

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition

The U.S Government and the automotive industry have been developing prototype systems to
evaluate the effectiveness of using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) for
vehicle safety and non-safety (e.g., mobility) applications. The approach to date has been to
utilize On-Board Equipment (OBE) with a single radio to support both types of applications.
This paper describes the limitations of a single radio approach and shows the benefits of
using separate DSRC radios for safety and mobility applications. A proposed model for the
dual radio architecture is provided along with a description of the test platform used for
evaluation. This paper provides test results comparing the performance of a single radio and
dual radio architecture and identifies how these performance gains benefit specific safety and
mobility applications.

DENSO INTERNATIONAL AMERICA INC.

Paper submitted for publication and presentation at the ITS America’s 2009 Annual Meeting and Exposition