Asset management   Download a copy of the recently completed report. (PDF)

Dr. Jonathan Gifford

The deployment of ITS may be facilitated by the emerging field of transportation asset management, which includes a variety of practices, ranging from bridge and pavement management systems to the use of general economic theory and private sector financial management practices. Practitioners of asset management include the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the Federal Highway Administration, and the
American Public Works Association.

This paper shows that ITS and asset management share a focus on management and operations, and a dependency on cross-jurisdictional and cross-organizational cooperation. The paper concludes that there are two areas where asset management can help promote the spread of ITS: through demanding large data bases which only ITS can provide, and by helping insure that ITS investment are being utilized at full capacity.

CapWIN

Dr. Roger Stough

Law enforcement, transportation and safety agencies, fire departments, and emergency medical response teams in the National Capital region have embarked on the development and deployment of a wireless integrated network (CapWIN) that will permit vehicle-to-vehicle communication during emergencies. The TPOL Center is supporting this project in two ways.

First, we have led in the development of an institutional framework whereby the some 40 jurisdictions, from two states and the federal district of Washington, D.C., can work together. Our approach has been to adapt to CapWIN the principles of interstate compacts.

TPOL's second contribution is an evaluation of CapWIN's institutions, including procurement practices, management systems, standards-setting, data privacy practices, and liability problems, among other issues. This is a "within-the-family" evaluation, meant to help CapWIN continually refines its institutional practices.

Evaluation of emergency call boxes  Download a copy of the recently completed report. (PDF)

Dr. Kenneth Button

This evaluation of roadside call boxes recently installed along the Dulles
toll road in Northern Virginia found that, although 60% of toll road motorists surveyed said they would be "somewhat likely" to use the call boxes, actual utilization has been very limited. As a result, the cost per call has been over $60. This low utilization rate is probably due to the fact that three-quarters of toll road motorists have cellphones in their own cars and therefore do not need a roadside call box.

As a result of this study, the Virginia Department of Transportation decided to sunset this pilot deployment. VDOT will donate unused call boxes to other jurisdictions and will remove rather than repaid damaged call boxes. Project results were published in the January 2002 issue of Traffic Engineering and Control.

Logistics issues in Washington: Potential for ITS

Dr. Kenneth Button

Freight transport is a major contributor to congestion in the National Capital Region, and also a major victim of congestion in the region. While the region is not a major manufacturing center there are substantial flows of freight destined for office and residential use. These flows go both to central distribution centers, and to hundreds of thousands of individual offices and residences.

Using official planning agency projections of traffic development over the next decade, this research seeks to isolate the key problems that will confront suppliers of freight services, and to suggest possible ITS responses to minimize these problems. It will also consider the institutional difficulties of implementing such policies.

The study will pay particular attention to security issues. For example, consolidation of depots, permitting economies of scale in providing security, might be warranted by concerns over homeland security.

Road pricing

Dr. Kenneth Button

This project examines the politics of road pricing, and, in particular, the conditions under which it is politically feasible to institute road pricing. There is at present widespread political resistance to road pricing, which is seen by many as just another kind of taxation. This study identifies examples of road pricing around the world and examines what factors made such systems political feasible. The study will conclude with recommendations as to how road pricing might be made more politically feasible in the United States, and how it might be applied to a long-distance toll road, running from Fredericksburg, Virginia to Delaware.

Signal prioritization   Download a copy of the recently completed report. (PDF)

Dr. Jonathan Gifford

Signal prioritization is normally used to help transit vehicles running behind schedule: typically, a green light is extended to accommodate the late-running vehicle.

This study found that elected officials, while they support in principle improving transit's on-time performance, are concerned about the added costs of installing and maintaining signal prioritization systems, and also about possible voter resentment of special privileges for transit. The study found that traffic managers are concerned about disruption to traffic flow produced by signal prioritization. And transit officials, while of course supportive of improving transit on-time performance, are apprehensive about possible difficulties in operation, incompatibility with existing systems, and high costs.

Signal prioritization for transit, by the way, should not be confused with signal pre-emption for emergency vehicles, in which the emergency vehicle receives absolute priority, and a red light may be converted to green.

Survey: Attitudes of elected officials in Northern Virginia towards ITS evaluation

Dr. Brien Benson

This project examines how local elected officials in Northern Virginia evaluate intelligent transportation systems. Such officials are often the decision-makers as to whether ITS technologies will be deployed, yet anecdotal evidence suggests that these decision-makers often do not find useful the evaluation information developed by professional transportation analysts and by the ITS community.

To take just one example, current ITS evaluation methodology tends to judge a technology's cost-effectiveness by national standards, yet local officials may consider the out-of-state experiences to be of very little value. This research will employ an "expert interview" methodology, with in-depth interviews of some 50 elected and appointed officials from Northern Virginia.

Survey: Motorist attitudes towards travel time information on I-66

Dr. Brien Benson

One application of ITS in Northern Virginia that is under consideration by the Virginia Department of Transportation is the dissemination of information about travel times along interstate highways, and, in particular, along the stretch of I-66 between Manassas and the Capital Beltway. Of most immediate interest is whether forecast travel times should be posted on variable message signs, but the project will also examine possible dissemination of travel times on the internet, radio and cable TV. The research will include focus groups and a formally survey using a scientifically selected sample population.

Survey: Traveler Attitudes towards Transportation in the National Capital Region

Dr. Roger Stough and Dr. Audrey Clarke

This project surveys user attitudes towards transportation needs in the greater Washington area, assessing what users expect from the management and operations of the region's surface transportation system. The survey asks questions that permit comparison with the findings of the year 2000 FHWA Operations and Planning/Environmental Survey and Infrastructure Survey, and the year 2001 VDOT Customer Satisfaction Survey.

The survey will pay particular attention to how ITS might support improved transportation. Questions address public attitudes towards electronically managed toll roads, advanced traffic information systems, and advanced traffic signal systems.

Telework

Dr. Roger Stough

This project examines how telework can be developed in Northern Virginia so as to promote the most efficient possible travel patterns. The potential of telework to remove workers from Northern Virginia highways, particularly during rush hours, is substantial. A recent study by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments estimates that 12% of the Washington area workforce, or 250,000 people, currently telework and that this figure could be increased threefold, to 720,000, if adequate incentives to employers were made available.

However, substantial barriers to telework exist. These include the cost of new equipment for both office and home, the need to reorganize workplace practices, and psychological resistance from some supervisors and workers. Furthermore, telework, while relieving certain types of rush-hour congestion, is likely to add to travel around telework locations. This project explores these barriers to telework, and examines how to insure that telework strategies have a positive impact on regional travel.

Traffic information: "511" Download a copy of the completed report. (PDF)

Dr. Roger Stough

This report addresses issues involved in deploying a "511" traveler information number in Virginia. Written two yeas ago, it made three recommendations, all of which have been adopted. First, the paper recommended that all 511 information centers should be required to provide current traffic information, and should be permitted to provide traveler service information, such as nearby hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Next, the paper recommended that the Virginia Department of Transportation manage the 511 program, although traditionally Virginia's Department of Information Technology has the lead in state projects involving information technology. In this case, the paper argued, the need to have an agency knowledgeable about transportation was so overwhelming that VDOT seemed the obvious choice. In the event, the State Corporation Commission assigned the lead to VDOT.

Finally, the paper surveyed the attitudes towards 511 of telephone companies, both wire line and wireless. It finds that telephone companies would prefer to deal with a single statewide government agency, both in handling business matters, and in referring callers seeking traffic information.

Traffic modeling: Application of INTEGRATION to I-66 corridor, Northern Virginia   Download a copy of the recently completed report.. (PDF)

Dr. Laurie Schintler

This report uses the INTEGRATION traffic model to evaluate the impact of ITS, and, more particularly, the SmarTraveler traveler information system, on traffic congestion along a heavily congested 15-mile portion of I-66 in Northern Virginia. The Integration model, a mesoscopic traffic simulation model, considers the movement both of individual vehicles and of general traffic flow.

INTEGRATION is ideally suited for modeling ITS, since the user can specify the location and type of various surveillance devices, including loop detectors and probe vehicles, and also of sophisticated traffic signal systems, including adaptive signals.

The study found that the average morning peak period travel time in the study area would have been nearly 25% greater without the current ITS infrastructure, which includes loop detectors, surveillance cameras, variable message signs, intersection signalization, and traveler information services. Scenarios for the future found that heavy investment in ITS during the next decade would yield considerable travel time savings for certain origin-destination trips in the corridor, but not for all.

The study also looked at SmarTraveler, which at the time of the study provided traffic information via cellphone and cable television to Northern Virginia motorists, and found that SmarTraveler lowered travel times 5% - a not very dramatic impact. In part because of the findings of this study, transportation agencies in the Washington area decided not to continue funding SmarTraveler.

Traffic modeling: Application of the "Integration" to Route 1 in Northern Virginia

Dr. Laurie Schintler

This project is constructing and calibrating a meso-scale traffic simulation model for a portion of Route 1 in Northern Virginia, using the software packages INTEGRATION and MINUTP. Because INTEGRATION can depict movement of individual vehicles, it is well suited to evaluate the effect of ITS applications, whose impacts can vary widely depending on the time of day and on traffic conditions.

The model will be used to examine different scenarios for deploying ITS within the Route 1 corridor. The model will also support VDOT evaluation efforts along the corridor, including a signal priority operational test.