Personal Mobility

The growth  in motorization and changes  in  traveling behavior of  the population  lead  to ever
increasing  traffic  volumes  on  existing  road  system,  which  mean  the  traffic  conditions  are
aggravating. The  lack of  the space  in urban environment makes expanding  the existing  road
system very difficult,  if not  impossible. On  the other hand we witness  the ongoing  technical
development of our  society  (everyday use of  internet,  speed of data  transfer, possibilities of
informing  drivers  over  variable  message  signs).  This  means  the  development  of  complex
model for traffic information could be a solution designed for a wide range of road users.

Visualization that the end user will benefit the most from includes filtered data about traffic
conditions on traffic network, where the most important thing is to display data in a clear and
simple way, so  the  information can not be misinterpreted. Possible ways of displaying  traffic
conditions and other useful  information are  through variable message signs, auto navigation,
on the internet and through mobile phone.

University of Ljubljana

PTI

Traffic design

PNZ

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

More than five years ago, Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) launched its Real-time Traffic web site and since then, the focus has been on providing comprehensive real-time traffic information to Oakland County travelers in the most effective manner. Advanced Internet technology features have been used to present real-time data on the traffic web page, and have made the web site more user-friendly, efficient, and accessible. This web site (http://www2.rcocweb.org) is one of the first in the nation that integrates freeway and arterial traffic information on one web page. The real-time traffic web pages include a freeway and arterial street map overlaid with traffic information:
Freeway data such as speeds, roadwork events, incident events, Changeable Message Sign messages, and video snapshots collected from Michigan Department of Transportation’s  Michigan ITS Center, and
Arterial data such as signal congestion data, Road Weather Information System data, roadwork events, and video snapshots provided by RCOC. This paper presents different technologies that were used in enhancing the Real-time Traffic web site and focuses on the enhancements and lessons learned during its development.  Latest technology such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) was used to improve the system performance and enhance the traffic information distribution capability.  Geographic Information System (GIS) was used in the presentation of congestion information on the roads.   All these enhancement efforts are responsible for making the RCOC’s Real-time Traffic web site as one of the most integrated and advanced arterial ATIS (Advanced Traveler Information Systems) web site in the nation. This paper also discusses the future opportunities that exist for providing real-time and archived traffic data through the web for research and other purposes.

Road Commission for Oakland County

Iteris, Inc.

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

Ramp meters in the Twin Cities have been the subject of a recent test of their effectiveness, involving turning them off for 8 weeks. This paper analyzes the results with and without ramp metering for several representative freeways during the afternoon peak period. Seven performance measures: mobility, equity, productivity, consumers’ surplus, accessibility, travel time variation and travel demand responses are compared. It is found that ramp meters are particularly helpful for long trips relative to short trips. Ramp metering, while generally beneficial to freeway segments, may not improve trip travel times (including ramp delays). The reduction in travel time variation comprises another benefit from ramp meters. Non-work trips and work trips respond differently to ramp meters. The results are mixed, suggesting a more refined ramp control algorithm, which explicitly considers ramp delay, is in order.

University of Minnesota

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

In April 2006 the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) completed its 511 strategic
plan, which encompasses both phone and web services. In this strategic plan, MTC highlights its
commitment to determining whether further investment is warranted in comparison to other
regional transportation commitments. A valuable input to this determination is having a
quantified estimate of the benefits to users of the 511 system, which is what this study provides.
Noblis and MTC worked jointly through the support of the Federal Highway Administration to
quantify the annual mobility benefits for routine users of the traveler information service through
the application of the HOWLATE (Heuristic On-line Web-Linked Arrival Time Estimator)
process.

Noblis, Inc.

511 Traffic Operations

The Public Transport Information and Priority System, PTIPS, started as a research and
development project conducted by the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) of NSW, and
culminated in the development of a prototype presented at the 8th ITS World Congress in
Sydney, Australia, 2001 (1,2). Since then, PTIPS has undergone a robust development phase
directed at delivering a mature product driven by clear requirements based on the real needs
of transit policy makers and transit operators in NSW. An interim version of the system has
been in operation in Sydney since 2006 on two strategic bus corridors.

Traffic Systems Branch, Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York