Cross-cutting Issues

The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program1 is a joint government-industry research
effort focused on developing standardized wireless vehicular communications for two primary
purposes:

• Among vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle) – mostly as a means of enabling advanced crash avoidance applications

• Between vehicles and various entities that notionally reside within the broader infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure) – mostly as a means of collecting enhanced roadway condition information and broadcasting various alerts and related traveler information back to vehicles.

Under the VII concept (see Figure 1), vehicles will be equipped with a dedicated short-range
communications (DSRC) radio; a highly accurate on-board positioning system; and an appropriately configured on-board computer to facilitate communications, support various applications, and provide an interface to the driver (collectively, this equipment is called the on-board equipment—OBE). Vehicles would communicate with each other and
with roadside transponders (or roadside equipment—RSE), which would be linked to a specialized VII network. RSEs would be positioned at major signalized intersections and along
interstates and major arterials.

Booz Allen Hamilton

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

In June 2005 a major law enforcement action occurred on Interstate 10 west of Palm Springs, CA that resulted in a total freeway closure for nearly 13 hours. The resulting lack of communications with the public and failure to notify Riverside County’s Office of Emergency Services exacerbated an already major incident and led to the establishment of a multi-agency Freeway Closure Task Force to address extended freeway closures resulting from any cause. In conjunction with this action, the Southern California Association of Governments, working together with the Coachella Valley Association of Governments and Delcan Corporation, commissioned a study to develop an Emergency Response Plan for Freeway Closures. The study area encompassed some 75 miles of freeway and adjacent arterials and frontage roads in the Coachella Valley region east of Los Angeles. Objectives of the Emergency Response Plan included developing traffic diversion strategies using freeway ramps and local arterials, a comprehensive public communications plan to keep additional vehicles from entering the area from Phoenix AZ and Los Angeles and the provision of essential services to motorists unable to evacuate and stranded on the freeway. The need for the Emergency Response Plan resulted in the development of algorithms and graphical aids to help Incident Commanders for both the incident location and the broader impacted area to make timely decisions to request resources and take aggressive action to mitigate the impact of an extended freeway closure. The result was closer cooperation between emergency management and transportation officials and an increased awareness by all agencies involved of the impact of an extended freeway closure and its effect on surrounding local communities.

Delcan Corporation

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

The Transportation Committee of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Task Force, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, is in the process of developing an Emergency Transportation Plan. The plan’s focus is the management of the transportation system during an emergency evacuation within the greater metropolitan Philadelphia region, including roadway, pedestrian and public transportation operations. The plan addresses regional coordination, notification, and communication procedures. Additionally, it includes the identification of evacuation routes, staging areas, and areas of special concern. The region hosts a relatively complex political system with a great deal of decision-making powers granted to local municipalities. To allow for input and acceptance from stakeholders, Jacobs is undertaking an essential and extensive outreach and coordination effort.

Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.

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

New ideas such as virtual exclusive busways, truck only toll lanes, Flexible and Efficient Express (FEE) lanes and Flexible Fast and Intertwined Regular (FAIR) lanes could address financial feasibility and equity issues relating to priced lanes while preserving toll-free travel choices. The Flexible and Efficient Express (FEE) highway concept may address the public resistance to new tolls on all lanes by providing additional flexible capacity during rush hours in return for the new rush hour tolls. In the longer-term future, a FEE highway network, with peak-period pricing of freeways in combination with VMT charges during off-peak times and on arterials, could be used to address broader funding concerns resulting from dwindling fuel tax revenues. Public resistance to paying tolls on existing highways could be addressed using a credit-based approach called FAST Miles.

Federal Highway Administration

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

This technical paper discusses the application of a new ITS tool for air quality and congestion
management. This tool called TRACE (TRansportation Air quality & Congestion Evaluation)
will provide roadside air quality and congestion measurement and reporting capability. It also
will be used to improve transportation management decisions in support of improving air quality
through efficient traffic management and control of the traffic signals and other ITS devices.
Additionally, TRACE will provide a forecasting model for planning purposes and an expert
system to select appropriate strategies to respond to scenarios representing various combinations
of network congestion and air quality condition. The inputs to the forecasting model are traffic
data from existing vehicular detectors and weather data for the subject network. The first
prototype will be field tested at an existing site, where a traffic management platform with
adaptive traffic signal control system is managing the arterial traffic.

Telvent

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