Personal Mobility

The City of Austin Traffic Control System is one of the newest and most advanced traffic management systems in the country. The design of the system is highly scaleable and uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. The system was designed to meet the needs of the users, which was to provide real-time video and data information for the timely response to the traffic management requirements of the urban surface roadway network in the City of Austin.

This paper presents a discussion of the design criteria and system architecture of the project followed by a description of some of the equipment that makes up the system and concludes with a discussion of the benefits seen as a result of the implementation of the system. As a result of the implementation of this system, the City of Austin has seen a noticeable reduction in the time it takes to respond to traffic signal trouble calls. In addition, the system has provided a means to implement or improve traffic signal synchronization on the City’s arterial corridors.

Siemens ITS

Gardner Consulting Group (Gardner Transportation Systems)

City of Austin, Texas

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

Although there has been considerable research on in-vehicle navigation systems, many safety and usability problems re-occur in system after system, even in systems that have been subjected to some sort of safety or human factors evaluation. This paper describes those problems and a test protocol to identify them.

The test protocol, developed as part of the process of evaluating the four systems, consists of two parts. The first part concentrates on the control layout, destination entry, and other tasks performed while the vehicle is parked. The second part concentrates on the route guidance while the vehicle is in motion. Both parts of the protocol rely on verifying compliance with human factors principles as determined by experts (heuristic evaluation) as well as data from carefully chosen test subjects using the system.

University of California, Berkeley

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)

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

The objective of this paper is to define a performance measure(s) that can be used to show congestion levels on critical corridors throughout Virginia and develop a general methodology to select and calculate performance measures in order to quantify congestion in a transportation system. These measures can be interpreted to provide benchmarks or base values of congestion to provide a means for measuring change in the performance of the highway system.

University of Virginia

Driver-Information-Systems (DIS), telematics hardware, telecommunication and IT devices become more and more part of modern vehicles. Both, technology and users, press new devices into the cockpits. Driving still remains the main task, so the design of the human machine interface (HMI) has to be done carefully to avoid loss in safety due to driver distraction.

A cross cultural usability study with existing automotive DIS supported any hypothesis on differences between users. A software tool used to produce application ready software for DIS directly out of the simulation was developed. The HMI components can easily be adapted to local market needs, without changing the major (functional) part of the program.

CAA AG

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

This white paper, DMS Message Effectiveness Tool—Signs of Intelligence for Successful Communities, offers practical advice, case studies, and the Skyline Products DMS Message Effectiveness Tool to help agencies develop their policies regarding effective Dynamic Message Sign (DMS) usage. A key to effective advisories is displaying messages that are clear, concise, credible, and actionable—such advisories help the agency achieve the greatest results for its Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)environment.

Specifically, the goal of this white paper is to be a reference tool for any DOT agency developing or tuning its policy on the use of DMS messages. Such a policy would provide guidelines for DMS managers and operators to relay clear, informative, and relevant messages. This is an important consideration, since motorists must be able to quickly comprehend the DMS advisory, filter the information as it relates to their situation, and take appropriate action. Of course, this all happens in a matter of seconds, while drivers speed along in complex traffic conditions and often in less-than-ideal weather conditions.

Skyline Products

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