Cross-cutting Issues

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is providing wireless Internet access for
travelers using WiFi and satellite services installed at four Welcome Centers and aboard a
mobile trailer. The mobile WiFi trailer was originally developed to evaluate traveler interest
in the FDOT providing wireless internet access at rest areas. The system went online in mid-
2008 and the indications are that it is popular with travelers, having supported nearly 100,000
log-ins as of mid 2011. The mobile WiFi trailer has seen its usefulness expand beyond
providing WiFi at rest areas with the onboard additions of remote access surveillance
cameras, a weather station, and voice radio systems. Since installing those features, the
mobile WiFi trailer has become a powerful emergency management tool that has supported a
public safety training exercise and the FDOT response to the declared state of emergency
during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Authors: Randy Pierce, Brian Kopp, Ph.D.

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

The necessity to be able to „see‟ what is happening, makes video an essential component of any ITS system. As such, bandwidth and video format requirements along with distribution methods have long been a critical component in the design of a traffic management system. As traffic management systems have become more evolved and key to not only DOT operations, but also partner agencies, emergency responders, and the public, and even in commercial applications, the ability to collect, transport, and distribute video across a range of networks and systems, is now even more necessary. In the past, the need to provide and share video across multiple platforms both internal and external often resulted in deciding either to limit or not share video. In To overcome these, the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) has turned to the use of Media Servers combined with the latest compression technology (H.264), eliminating the need for a complex multicast network while allowing for ultimate sharing and a significant reduction in both the systems‟ physical and carbon footprint. This paper will focus on this recent video distribution implementation at MDOT that has made distributing video across networks, systems, and multiple platforms easier, cheaper, and more efficient.

Authors: Ranzy Whiticker, Tim Bean, Laura Evans

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

Over the past two years, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) engaged in a comprehensive assessment of its overall Intelligent Transportation System Program. This assessment included its existing ITS deployment and operations in the Gauteng Province as well as plans and systems for its recently commissioned deployments in the provinces of Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The assessment resulted in the identification of several areas for which SANRAL could enhance the level of benefit it was delivering to the travelling public. These included modifications to their institutional environment as well as enhancement and expansion of their operations and systems. To implement the operations and systems changes, SANRAL assessed several approaches and elected to go out on Tender to acquire the services of a DBOM contractor. The DBOM contractor is to operate SANRAL’s three Transportation Management Centers, expand the deployments in each region in accordance with the Agency’s strategic deployment plan and concept of operations, and provide and implement new systems software. This paper describes the procurement and evaluation process, the procurement vehicle and some lessons learned.

South African National Roads Agency Ltd

Techso

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

Priority control systems, whether vehicle, central control or intersection based, are all composed of hardware devices running software programs. These devices may include, but are not limited to, signaling emitters, signal detectors, intersection communications devices, and assorted associated supporting devices.

The traditional use of priority control has been to implement emergency vehicle preemption (EVP). Emergency vehicle priority preemption of normal traffic signal operation provides safe, rapid progress for authorized emergency vehicles through priority control equipped intersections. If an EVP request is forwarded to, and granted by the intersection controller, a green light is applied to the phase requested by the requesting vehicle or agency. Since this detection occurs in real-time, and by the nature of the request priority, there is little chance that emergency vehicles will be denied a green light.

Global Traffic Technologies

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida

Microscopic simulation can provide significant support to traffic management center (TMC) operations.  However, traffic simulation applications require data that are expensive and time-consuming to collect.  Data collected by TMCs can be used as a primary source for the provision of the required data.  The goal of this study is to explore the development of methods and tools for the use of microscopic traffic simulation models to support the TMC software implementation, operation, and testing on one hand, and the use of ITS data to support the development and calibration of simulation models on the other. 

The study developments include methods and software utilities that use the existing TMC databases and other available information for the preparation and calibration of microscopic simulation tools.  In addition, the development includes methods and utilities to support testing of the TMC software modules and data archiving processes. The use cases of this study demonstrate the capabilities of the developed simulation environment, which can provide a powerful support for the evaluation of TMC software.  In addition, the environment can provide an effective mechanism for operator training with the TMC software.

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Florida DOT

Presented at the 18th World Congress on ITS, October 2011, Orlando, Florida