Cross-cutting Issues

This paper provides an overview of the Virginia/Google Transit Initiative, which successfully
launched nineteen of Virginia’s 25 fixed-route transit operators on Google Transit by
December 2008. The initiative was spearheaded by the Virginia Department of Rail and
Public Transportation (DRPT), which provided coordination and technical support to transit
operators throughout the process. The vision behind the Virginia/Google Transit Initiative
was to provide comprehensive trip itinerary information via the internet for transit customers
throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

AECOM Transportation

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation

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

Wireless communication technology shows great promise as an alternative to traditional fiber
optics and telephony communications solutions in traffic management applications. This paper
presents a field performance evaluation of wireless communication between two adjacent nodes
that represent communications between traffic sensors or traffic sensors and controllers. This
paper also provides insights into the performance evaluation of wireless sensor network in a
highway environment. This insight will contribute to a better understanding of network design
and deployment issues of wireless sensor network for use in future traffic management
applications. The experimental setup included two wireless access points (wireless routers)
connected to two laptops placed at different locations along a highway section in Clemson, South
Carolina. The roadside was covered with high density vegetation with no clear line of sight
between these two sensor nodes. The IPERF network testing tool was used to measure the
throughput of wireless communication between these two adjacent nodes under different
communication protocols and wireless transmission powers. Results indicated a distinct
relationship between the wireless connection performances and the communications transmission
power in both Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

Clemson University

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

Video Detection has evolved from its infancy to a mature technology. Primary uses are to
provide stop bar presence detection, and speed and volume detection on freeways as input to
traveler information and freeway management systems. Video detection logic has
traditionally operated with dedicated processor hardware and dedicated video cameras.
Newer developments place the processing logic into the cameras, and CCTV cameras can be
used to analyze video images in dedicated computers. This paper analyzes current trends in
video detection, looking at new developments – providing an outlook to the future, where
video detection plays a key role for infrastructure performance measurement.

Iteris, Inc.

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

Turning Movement Counts (TMC) are certainly the most common studies done at
intersections. Turning movement counts are used for coverage counts, warrant studies, and
for input for signal timing software. The traditional method to perform Turning Movement
Counts is manual use of a Jamar count board. This results in a relatively large variability in
the traffic counts at a given intersection from day to day, week to week etc. In addition, the
cost of performing manual counts prohibits extensive and frequent counts. This paper
describes different methods to automate turning movement counts using modern video
detection technology. Whereas one method is evolutionary, using video detection equipment
that may have been deployed for stop bar presence detection, a more revolutionary approach
makes use of recent developments in video processing to use regular CCTV feeds from an
intersection without the need of any additional field hardware.

Iteris, Inc.

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 3-5, 2010, Houston, Texas

The Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) Standards provide for open architecture hardware and software platforms for a wide variety of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) including intersection control, ramp metering, data collection, safety, security and other applications. The ATC standards are continuing to be enhanced as user needs are identified. There are three active projects in the ATC family of standards: 1) the ITS Cabinet Standard Version 2 Project; 2) the Application Programming Interface (API) Standard Version 2 Project; and 3) the API Validation Suite Project. This paper provides a brief background of the ATC standards and then highlights the current projects presenting the purpose, the new features, project status and the impact of the projects on the user community.

Pillar Consulting, Inc.

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 3-5, 2010, Houston, Texas