Personal Mobility

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission recently conducted a study to inventory and review transit-related ITS projects in the region, evaluate the performance measurement approaches, research the benefits associated with these projects, and establish an ongoing performance monitoring process.  The project included interviews with transit managers and vendors, and an intercept/mailback survey of Northern Virginia transit riders.   
This paper summarizes the results of the survey conducted in April 2003.  Surveys were distributed to over 14,000 Northern Virginia transit riders at a number of large transit stations over the course of several weekdays.  Approximately 16% of the transit riders who received the questionnaire responded.  Specifically, the survey instrument addressed the following:

•  Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics;
•  Use of computers and the Internet;
•  Attitudes towards the current use of technology on transit;
•  Importance of various uses of technology;
•  Behavior changes as a result of transit ITS;
•  Familiarity with and frequency of use of various ITS applications in Northern Virginia; and
•  Usefulness and ease of use of ITS applications.

Overall, the survey respondents were widely supportive of the current use of technology on transit services in the region and to a large extent of expanded use of technology.  The currently offered transit ITS applications have generally been viewed as useful and there is widespread feeling that they are easy to use. This is an important accomplishment for the region.

TranSystems Corporation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

Transportation engineers and planners worldwide are faced with the challenge of improving transit services in urban areas using low cost means. Transit signal priority is considered to be an effective way to improve transit service reliability and efficiency. In light of the interest in testing and deploying transit signal priority on a major arterial in Northern Virginia, this research focuses on the impacts of transit signal priority along the U.S.1 corridor in Fairfax County, in terms of benefits to transit and impacts on other traffic. Using a simulation tool, VISSIM, these impacts were assessed considering a ten second green extension priority strategy. Also, this assessment is being supported by a field study giving researchers an opportunity to compare simulation and field study results. The results of the simulation analysis indicated that the Fairfax Connector buses benefit from the green extension strategy with little to no impact on the other non-transit traffic. Overall, improvements of 3.61% were found for bus service reliability and 2.64% for bus efficiency, while negative impacts were found in the form of increases in queue lengths on side streets by a maximum value of approximately one vehicle.Preliminary field results show a comparable improvement in bus efficiency of 2.38%. While evaluating the impacts of provision of priority to transit buses this research emphasizes that ‘green extension’ strategy provides constant benefits with little to no disbenefit to other traffic. This research tries to provide a comparative depiction of results consistent with past studies showing ‘green extension’ as aviable option, even in most congested corridors without disrupting non-transit traffic.

Wilbur Smith Associates

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) and Ford Motor
Company are planning a project to demonstrate how vehicles can be used as sensors.  
The project will evaluate the effectiveness of using probe vehicles to collect a variety of
real-time information on the roadway network.  Of specific interest is the collection of
travel time and roadway surface conditions.  This information will be used to provide
traffic operations staff and motorists with better, real-time information with the aim to
improve travelers’ route choices, to assist traffic operations staff in better identifying
control strategies, and to improve maintenance response to poor roadway surface
conditions.  The envisioned system will augment roadway infrastructure-based data
collection methods such as in-pavement loop detectors, as well as provide information
on roadways where the cost of permanent sensors is prohibitive.

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Ford Research and Advanced Engineering

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

In the winter of 2002, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT)
began pilot testing a Mobile Data Acquisition and Reporting System (MDARS) as an
expanded module of its Condition Acquisition and Reporting System (CARS).  Seventy-
five plow operators in southwestern Minnesota used web-enabled cell phones to enter
road condition information through MDARS.  Over 500 situations were entered during
the pilot.  Based on the success of this pilot a second phase is planned, during which
other forms of mobile and potentially automated reporting will be explored.

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

VIA in San Antonio, Texas is completing the conceptual design process for a comprehensive upgrade of their revenue management system. This paper provides an overview of the decision process VIA used to select a conceptual design alternative, which involved the following fundamental decisions:

• Whether to introduce smart cards or rely solely on magnetic stripe farecards; and

• If using smart cards, whether to complement these with magnetic stripe farecards.

Based on an assessment of VIA operational and maintenance issues, a set of screening criteria and weights were developed and used to evaluate alternative revenue management technologies. As a result of this assessment, a shortlist of alternative conceptual designs was defined. These alternatives were distinguished primarily on the basis of the mix of advanced technology fare media involved. A smart card only alternative was selected as the basis for the more detailed conceptual design development

.TranSystems Corporation

VIA Metropolitan Transit

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas