Cross-cutting Issues

In November 2004, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, along with numerous
regional stakeholders approved and accepted the Schuylkill Expressway Corridor
Transportation Systems Management Strategic Deployment Plan (SECTSM). The plan laid
the framework for the implementation of ITS infrastructure as well as policies and procedures
for coordination between stakeholders. The plan’s goal was to facilitate more effective
management of one of the region’s most heavily traveled and congested corridors across
multiple municipal and disciplinary boundaries. Over the following five years, numerous
projects were undertaken to meet these goals including the largest expressway ITS project in
the Commonwealth, the implementation of ITS and signal coordination along arterial
diversion routes, standardization of ramp signage, implementation of innovative incident
management strategies, and the installation of a high speed communications network to better
facilitate traffic management and agency-to-agency coordination.

Jacobs

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

The City of Sugar Land, Texas is constructing a wireless communication network to provide
access to the City’s traffic signals and other traffic related devices. This network will allow City
employees to monitor and adjust traffic signal timing, view images from closed circuit television
(CCTV) cameras, and provide access to other City employees working remotely in the field such
as police officers, building inspectors and public works employees. This project utilizes eight
high sites to develop a wireless backbone. The high sites communicate with the traffic signal
through point-to-multipoint radios to transmit signal information, CCTV video and provide
Wireless Access Points. Fiber Optic interfaces are provided to bring the information back to the
Traffic Management Center at two locations.

Traffic Engineers, Inc.

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

The effect of internal random processing delays and absolute time synchronism errors in cooperative positioning applications is discussed. The need for and general nature of new requirements for time accuracy and synchronism are described.

Cogenia Partners, LLC

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

The City of Johnson City, Tennessee, a small urban  city located in the northeast corner of the
State, is experiencing significant growth and related increases  in traffic congestion along its
major streets.  Due to funding, environmental, physical and other constraints that limit the ability to expand the transportation infrastructure, an effort to develop integrated operating strategies is needed to effectively meet the  mobility and safety challenges  facing the City.  Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) improve transportation safety and mobility and enhance productivity through the use of advanced technologies.

The Johnson City ITS Master Plan was prepared  to guide ITS implementation in the City of
Johnson City, with the goal of improving the safety and efficiency of the surface transportation
network.  This Plan sets forth a strategic  vision for how, when and where various ITS
components can be implemented and integrated within the City to ensure  that tangible benefits are achieved for both the system and its users.

Gresham Smith and Partners

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

It is clear that the transportation industry has accepted that intelligent transportation systems
(ITS) and the associated technology are an important and necessary part of an efficient
transportation system.  The challenge now is how to deploy this technology in a cost effective
manner that produces the highest possible return on investment.  The following paper
discusses how recent developments in field hardware solutions like the Universal ITS Field
Hardware Platform can provide multiple sensor data points from one physical location,
reducing the costs of building, installing and maintaining unnecessary infrastructure.  
Additionally, by retrieving multiple data points from one physical location opportunities are
also created to reduce the power consumption and its associated costs as well as third-party
communication costs to retrieve the sensor data.  Advancements in ITS field hardware, like
the Universal ITS Platform discussed here, provide the transportation industry with cost-effective solutions that will prove to be extremely valuable today and in the future as we try to find new and efficient ways to deploy ITS technology with greater returns on investments.

Quixote Transportation Technologies Inc.

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