Personal Mobility

The main goal of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is to improve the overall efficiency of transportation systems by using modern computers, communication, and data processing technologies without substantial capacity additions to the network (Tarko and Rouphail 1997). Surveys show that, next to safety and security, traffic information is among the services most desired by motorists (Orski 2001). Travelers have an implicit expectation that high-technology services have equally high-technology content.

University of Miami

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

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) of Chicago is investigating the feasibility of implementing real-time Parking Management Systems (PMS) for transit station applications in northeastern Illinois. This PMS study is part of a larger effort in the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee (GCM) ITS Corridor toward development of a Regional Multi-Modal Traveler Information System. The work is being performed in close coordination with the three regional transit service boards (Chicago Transit Authority [CTA], Metra commuter rail, Pace suburban bus).

The PMS study includes an implementation plan that defines initial demonstration project locations, and is establishing both a system architecture and regional standards for design and configuration of real-time parking management components. These standards would assure common types of parking information displays at transit park-and-ride facilities in the Chicago area, regardless of service provider. The uniform standards would facilitate leveraging of capital and maintenance costs between different service boards, thus reducing overall program costs.

Study activities include:

• Needs assessment from both operator and user perspectives
• Review of technologies
• Functional requirements definition
• Conceptual definition of PMS operational schemes and display types
• Implementation plan and identification of demonstration sites
• Standard specifications for system and displays

The study is being performed for the RTA by Wilbur Smith Associates, with subconsultants HNTB and TranSmart Technologies.

Wilbur Smith Associates

Regional Transportation Authority

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

Ride Solution is the Community Transportation Coordinator for Putnam County, Florida and, as such, is responsible for the coordination of all of the tax funded, human service transportation in the county. Putnam County is a rural county of 798 square miles and total population of 70,000, approximately 11,000 of which live in Palatka, the county seat. Ride Solution operates a fleet of 34 vehicles with about half being buses and half being vans. The operation has been successful in interweaving human service transport so as to form a countywide public transit system with published schedules, bus stop signs and shelters. The service operates on one hour headways in Palatka, the largest incorporated area in the county, and on about two hour headways within a 25 mile radius of Palatka. Four hour headways are maintained three days a week on a 55 mile route to Gainesville in the neighboring county of Alachua. Ride Solution provides 120,000 rides per year about 20,000 of which are general public riders who access the system at published stops. A fare of $1.00 provides the public with a one way trip anywhere in the system. Savings to agency participants includes a $300,000 per year or 33% reduction in Medicaid transportation costs since flex routing began on a large scale in 1996.

Ride Solution

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

Operating agencies and 3rd party wireless service providers in Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC), have been developing a comprehensive traffic information service system covering the urban expressways and arterial transportation facilities. These available traffic information can be used for effective traffic routing and congestion management applications. To support the advanced traveler information service, a "Traffic Data Fusion Process" (TDFP) was developed that is based on both historical and real-time link travel times. This paper describes the design and implementation of automatic computer- assisted procedures or the "Traffic Data Fusion Process," to estimate the updated link-travel-time, select proper incident responses, and construct traffic information messages. The proposed system, currently being developed, can distribute these real-time traffic informations automatically to all users.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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

This study evaluated two advanced integrated systems with navigation, communication, and entertainment capabilities in a driving simulator. One system was a Johnson Controls prototype with a joystick-type control and Hotkeys to input information; the other was a production system with a touchscreen display for the navigation and entertainment functions and a voice-operated system for the communication function. Eighteen participants used both systems while driving in the center lane of a three-lane highway with no traffic and no curves, and also participated in a baseline driving session. Dependent measures of interest included driving performance (lane position, steering angle, and speed) and task completion time. Subjective workload ratings also were obtained using the NASA-TLX. The results suggest that type of task and type of system affect task completion time and driving performance. The prototype system showed superior results in shorter task completion times for the destination entry tasks, and overall better driving performance and subjective ratings, than did the production system. Driving performance, however, was better when driving without performing any other tasks than when performing tasks. Future research is recommended to compare driving performance when using advanced in-vehicle systems and traditional systems.

Johnson Controls, Inc.

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