Cross-cutting Issues

The communication design and technology selections are very important factors in an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). Once the communication design is deployed, these communication networks tend to be in place for many years therefore these items need to be well understood. This paper highlights the technical & cost options that were evaluated and presented to Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) District 8.

Iteris

Illinois Department of Transportation

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

Outline of Presentation

Overview of TDOT Nashville Region

• ITS Deployment

- CCTV Project, I-65 North Corridor ITS

• Cost Comparison – Leasing vs. Fiber
• Planning & Design Issues for Leased Communications

- Planning Process

- Defining Communication Requirements

- Design Issues

- Post Design Interaction

Tennessee Department of Transportation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 29 –May 2, 2002 Long Beach, California

Designers at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) have developed the Advanced Law Enforcement & Response Technology (ALERT) system for use in police cruisers. The interface for this system is a large touch-screen display along with a keyboard for text entry. The interface was developed using an intuitive usability approach rather than a formal human factors approach. Since this technology is likely to be deployed rapidly if it finds acceptance in those agencies currently testing it, the Federal Highway Administration contracted with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to perform baseline and human factors evaluations of the ALERT system. The rationale for this study was that a thorough evaluation might result in opportunities for improvement of the ALERT interface before it was widely deployed.

The results of the baseline study showed that the ALERT system generally required more frequent and longer glances to the interface in order to perform the same functions than was the case for the other two vehicle types. There were some tasks for which ALERT outperformed the other vehicles types, and these improvements could be generally credited to the larger screen size and more favorable positioning of the ALERT screen. For Code 3 calls (high priority responses), a less cluttered work area was found to reduce visual demand. The human factors evaluation uncovered several usability and error problems with ALERT, including problems with reliability/trust, time delays, user expectations, and human error; suggestions for correcting these problems are provided. Finally, the future of in-vehicle information systems for law enforcement is discussed, with the conclusion that greater standardization of forms and databases nationwide would enhance the commercial viability of systems such as ALERT.

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Federal Highway Administration

Science Application International Corporation

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

Transit agencies have increasingly developed internet sites to provide information on their services, sell fare media, and encourage increased ridership. Previous research has indicated a number of desirable features for these transit web sites. This paper summarizes the results of a review of over 600 transit web sites for prevalence of these features. It describes the features reviewed, and summarizes the demographics of the agencies with web sites. It includes the results of the review for all agencies, grouped by type of federal funding, and by type of service area. The review shows that there is wide variation across web sites in content and presentation, overall and within groups. Fare and schedule information is common, but advanced capabilities such as itinerary planning and real time information provision are rare. Web sites for tourist areas tend to have more features than most other rural transit web sites. A high proportion of transit web sites have links to other sites, but the links frequently include sites that are irrelevant and sometimes imply transportation options that are not available. Quality of transit web sites could be improved by identifying appropriate content based on the desired audience and purpose, improving user interfaces to make it easier for users to access the information, and developing appropriate linkages among transit and other transportation web sites.

USDOT/Volpe Center

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

ITS investments can be “profit centers” for DOTs -- that not only pay for themselves but for other DOT needs. We must start managing our systems. Once we accept this philosophy, ITS investments become even more important, not only as management tools, but also as “profit centers.”

I propose that “equity partnerships” between the public and private sectors can yield better transportation systems for and a profit to the public. The “E-Zpass” system offers an opportunity for an “equity partnership”. However, it was approached in a typical landlord way, in that we went and contracted out the clearinghouse services for a period of time.

Besides the “equity partnerships” the ITS infrastructure can also be used to yield returns. There is the opportunity to use overhead variable message signs as a platform for commercial advertisements. These potential revenues would permit a state to finance those operation centers without having to increase taxes or other transportation costs. I do recognize, however, that this approach is not without controversy.

Rhode Island Department of Transportation

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