Safety

Maintaining a safe, efficient surface transportation network is the goal of transportation
authorities throughout the world. Technological advancements in Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS) have led to numerous devices and applications that have the capacity to
facilitate enhanced monitoring, management and control of the transportation network. In
addition, these advancements have resulted in novel strategies for communicating essential
information to the traveling public. While ITS solutions have brought about tangible
improvements in network planning, assessment and management, many solutions are limited
by their lack of a single salient element – weather. There has been some discussion of
weather within the ITS community, but relatively little has been done to truly realize the full
benefits of integrating weather data and information into ITS. This paper attempts to shed
light on how the use of weather-based ITS solutions can help to mitigate the impacts of
adverse road weather conditions. It also describes different levels of deployment in terms of
complexity, along with some present day examples.

Vaisala Inc.

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

A discussion of electrical power, its origins, distribution, problems, and applicable consequences including a review of their effects created by Mother Nature as well as man made systems. The direct effect on various types of traffic controllers, conflict monitors, cameras and other devices will be covered. Additional subjects will include the costs associated with downtime and repair of traffic equipment directly related to power problems, how to analyze power problems and determine effects and steps that must be taken to eliminate the problems and power quality analysis and testing equipment applications. A review of the different types of equipment utilized to correct various problems including surge suppression, voltage regulation, current regulation, battery backup, and uninterruptible power systems.

Clary Corporation

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

The existing Ramp metering systems have been extremely successful in reducing congestion and increasing safety. Most application of Ramp metering resulted in higher mainline throughput with lower congestion, significant travel time savings, and higher travel time reliability. However, effects on fuel consumption and emissions have been mixed. The reduced congestion on the freeway allows for greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions once on the mainline, but vehicles queued at ramp meters have increased rates of fuel consumption and emissions. Ramp metering algorithms have some limitations, which researchers are working to eliminate. One problem is that existing algorithms react to rather than prevent bottlenecks. The proposed Gap Phase Opportunistic Ramp Metering Algorithm involves integrating traffic predictive capabilities  into the metering logic. The metering rate is opportunistically set to stabilize a maximum freeway flow and minimize the queue length on the ramp. Actual results were achieved.

William Yeung, Anush Badii and Alaa El Abed

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

With the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) leading the way in declaring
“reduced traffic fatalities” as its #1 goal, there were plenty of vehicle safety demonstrations at
the 2008 World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in New York City. Among
the many demonstrations was Raytheon’s video analytics-enabled Cooperative Pedestrian
Warning System (CPWS). While the positive potential for these types of safety application is
apparent, liability concerns have many in the industry wondering how to bridge the gap
between “neat demonstrations” and real world deployments certified for Safety of Life.
This paper reveals how Raytheon, in cooperation with DSRC device certification authority
OmniAir, will develop a Vehicular Safety Application Certification Framework (VSACF) in
2009, based on methods proven in certifying the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)
for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for sole-source Safety of Life air navigation.

Raytheon Co.

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

There have been a number of applications developed under proof-of-concept for the
Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Infrastructure -to-Vehicle (I2V)
architecture. Of these, pedestrian safety seems to be most controversial due to the many
policy, legal, and design challenges to overcome. This paper discusses the design challenges
and decisions of leveraging the DSRC in a prototype real-time safety system. The prototype
system is the Cooperative Pedestrian Warning System (CPWS) built by Raytheon and
Toyota, and successfully demonstrated at the 2008 ITS World Congress in New York. Four
design hurdles are discussed herein as they pertain to the CPWS: 1) platform, 2) protocol, 3)
interoperability, and 4) security.

Raytheon Corporation

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