Completed

Wireless communication has changed dramatically since the late 1800s when the first wireless communication began via the photophone and radio transmissions. Significant progress has been made over the past decade in improving the breadth and quality of cellular coverage yet challenges still remain with using such communication in rural areas to support ITS devices. Satellite service can be an alternative with greater potential coverage but also greater cost than cellular communication. Radio communication is yet another alternative but with limitations such as line of sight.

In addition to not having a clear understanding of which communication to use with ITS devices in rural areas, ENTERPRISE members expressed concerns about high costs and low reliability. These issues can be even more challenging during disaster situations when information needs to be exchanged across rural areas and traditional networks may be unavailable.

The ENTERPRISE FY2014 Work Plan included a project “Demonstrate and Evaluate Rural Communications to Support Rural ITS” that outlined an initiative to identify, demonstrate, and evaluate one or more emerging communication technologies that could be used by transportation agencies to communicate
with ITS devices in rural areas. Per direction from the ENTERPRISE Board, the project was separated into two phases in order to properly assess issues and potential solutions before coordinating a deployment and evaluation.

• Phase 1: Gather information about issues and potential solutions for communications to ITS devices in rural areas and develop a scope of work for Phase 2.
• Phase 2: Conduct the agreed upon scope developed in Phase 1, such as coordinating a demonstration of rural communications mechanisms and conducting an evaluation.

Phase 1, documented in this project, first gathered information about issues and potential solutions for communications to ITS devices in rural areas. A literature scan was conducted to determine whether adequate published literature exists to support transportation agencies in their selection of wireless communication for ITS devices, particularly in rural areas. This scan of published resources did not yield a substantive set of resources that could provide adequate guidance for understanding which communication to use with ITS devices in rural areas. Therefore, interviews were conducted with personnel from selected ENTERPRISE member agencies to gather information about challenges, as well as solutions implemented, for rural communications. The interviews yielded valuable information about a number of rural communications options and solutions, key issues, including potential options for the Phase 2 scope of work. At the April 2015 in-person ENTERPRISE Board meeting, three options for the Phase 2 demonstration/evaluation were identified. A survey of ENTERPRISE board members was then conducted to rate the options and to guide the Board’s decision. The Phase 2 scope of work reflects priorities determined by the ENTERPRISE Board to be accomplished during the remainder of the “Demonstrate and Evaluate Rural Communications to Support Rural ITS” project.

Related Links:

• Communications to Support Rural ITS – Phase 2

Outreach and communications efforts that are designed to disseminate new information and exchange experiences are critical to advancing the state of practice in transportation. The ENTERPRISE pooled fund program, with the collective experience of its agency members and the wealth of information produced by its project findings, is a key source of expertise for the development, application, and deployment of ITS.

It is possible that ENTERPRISE project results may not reach individuals who could benefit from the findings. This project explored the potential for ENTERPRISE project results to be disseminated more broadly (e.g. ITS professional organizations, catalogued in transportation libraries and databases so they are more easily accessed via search engines). These steps will attempt to reach a wider audience, increase the impact of ENTERPRISE’s work, more effectively contribute to the state of practice in ITS, help reduce duplication of effort on ITS-related investigations/research, and increase the likelihood that products and findings will be utilized by the transportation community.

After collecting information about each of the distribution options (submittal requirements and processes, audiences served, associated costs), the ENTERPRISE Executive Board reviewed the findings, discussed costs and benefits, and determined a future course of action. A full summary of the decisions for future distribution of project information, including an action plan and costs are included in the Project Summary Report.

The traveling public has many options for traveler information, including 511 phone systems, traveler information websites, and applications that can be downloaded for a variety of popular mobile devices (mobile apps).  In an effort to understand the role that mobile apps play in the industry, the ENTERPRISE Pooled Fund Study researched traffic safety and traveler information apps published by private and public sector agencies.

This ENTERPRISE project “Traffic Safety and Traveler Information Apps” focused on understanding two specific types of mobile device apps: traveler information apps that disseminate real-time information to help improve the mobility and safety of users; and safety apps that are intended to deter unsafe actions, such as inattentive driving. 

This final summary report for this project documents the features and functions of mobile device apps operated by many state and provincial Departments of Transportation (DOTs), as well as those operated by private companies.  It is important to note that the functions and features of mobile apps are constantly changing and even as the report was developed additional features may have been added to the apps. In addition interviews were conducted with personnel from DOTs to help understand the motivation behind the development and operation of the traveler information mobile apps, and to understand the unique role these apps play in each DOT’s traveler information system.

Intersection crashes continue to represent a significant share of transportation fatalities and serious injuries throughout the country. In addition to intersection lighting, signing and geometric improvements, organizations have turned to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) as another tool for improving safety. Over the past several years, a variety of mainline and cross street oriented intersection conflict warning systems (ICWS) have been developed and tested in many states across the country. Some systems have been developed using local expertise, while others have been supported by the USDOT Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance Systems program. No specific guidance has been available for these systems in regard to placement, size, messaging, failsafe, etc. This has resulted in a fairly broad range of approaches and with the states’ growing experience there is now an opportunity to work together in moving toward standardization.

The purpose of the project was to continue coordination with national standards groups, industry associations and other pooled fund programs that have been engaged through the ENTERPRISE ICWS work. Phase 3 also continued to provide ICWS deployment support to ENTERPRISE members.

Webinar Series

A series of webinars were hosted by ENTERPRISE throughout 2015. They were designed to facilitate peer exchange on both introductory and advanced topics. For more information about the webinars contact Ginny Crowson at crowson@acconsultants.org.

Webinar 4 – ICWS Advice from the Experts
November 17, 2015 
This final webinar featured a panel of experts from Design Electric, WSB, Iowa Department of Transportation, North Carolina Department of Transportation and St. Louis County Minnesota. Panelists offered expert advice about ICWS regarding design, construction, operation and maintenance.
Webinar Presentation
Webinar Recording

Webinar 3 – Liability, Reliability and Credibility – Challenges for ICWS
June 25, 2015, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. (Central) 
Jon Jackels from SRF Consulting discussed how reliability and credibility can be engineered into ICWS to responsibly address concerns over liability while reaping the benefits of safety.
Webinar Presentation
Webinar Recording

Webinar 2 –FHWA Development of Crash Modification Factors (DCMF) Safety Evaluation of ICWS
April 23, 2015, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. (Central)Scott Himes from VHB presented the results of a national safety evaluation of ICWS sponsored by the Evaluation of Low Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund Study.
Webinar Presentation
Webinar Recording 

Webinar 1 – ICWS 101: An Overview of the System
February 26, 2015, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. (Central) 
Ken Hansen from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) introduced the concept of ICWS as an ITS safety solution and describe the current state of ICWS resources and use. Ken is a senior engineer with MnDOT and is the project manager for the department’s Rural ICWS deployment project.
Webinar Presentation
Webinar Recording

Related Documents/Links

For a listing of related documents and links to this intersection conflict warning systems ENTERPRISE project click here. For more information about the other phases of ENTERPRISE work with intersection conflict warning systems go to:

• Phase 1 – Developing Consistency in ITS Safety Solutions – Intersection Conflict Warning Systems (ICWS): The purpose of this project was to develop a consistent approach for accelerated, uniform deployment and further evaluation of intersection conflict warning systems (ICWS), and to recommend preliminary standards for MUTCD consideration. This work was initiated through a webinar and two in-person workshops. Participants included ENTERPRISE pooled fund states, other states that have deployed systems, FHWA, NCUTCD, AASHTO and NACE.
• Phase 2 – ICWS Coordination and Systems Engineering: This project furthered supported the standardization of ICWS by coordinating among the various national standards and association groups, and by developing a concept of operations and system requirements for the four types of ICWS identified in the Design and Evaluation Guidance for Intersection Conflict Warning Systems developed in Phase 1. 
• Phase 4 – Roadmap for Next Generation Intersection Conflict Warning Systems (ICWS): This project identified and documented issues related to the development and deployment of next-generation approaches to ICWS. This information was utilized to develop a roadmap of prioritized next steps to help guide future ICWS deployment efforts.

The ENTERPRISE Pooled Fund completed a project in 2012 called the Assessing the Impacts of Travel Times on the Overall Network to understand the impacts that travel time message displays (web and roadside) have on the network.  The outcome of the project concluded that travel time displays have an impact on traffic diversions as travelers react to the increased information presented to them.  However the project did not go into a next phase to understand what locations are conducive to travel time displays being the most effective at diverting traffic.

This Phase 1 ENTERPRISE Portable Travel Time Display (PTTD) and ICM with Parallel Routes project was initiated in 2016 with the intent of exploring the feasibility of a system that would enable Departments of Transportation to temporarily locate and test travel time displays at additional locations in order to assess the anticipated impacts on the network without a permanent deployment. Phase 1 completed the initial systems engineering analysis that is included in the Project Summary Report and created a plan for identifying Phase 2 locations that is included in the Corridor Selection Worksheet.  

The next phase of this project would include finalizing locations for deploying PTTD for limited periods of time (1-3 months) matching the requirement identified in Phase 1 to assess the impact on the network to decide if a permanent deployment of a travel time display system is warranted, before moving the portable system to new sites for further assessment.   Additionally, if enough PTTD deployments occur in multiple states, the ENTERPRISE members could begin to understand contributing factors that can help predict the impacts of travel time displays. 

Transportation agencies that utilize fiber optic infrastructure for telecommunications, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and other applications may be in a position to leverage existing in-place infrastructure owned by other entities and/or share new agency-deployed infrastructure with other entities. In these cases, it is important for agencies to understand laws that govern the use and sharing of fiber-optics infrastructure or exchanging resources to gain access to fiber owned by other entities, and to develop internal policies that provide procedural guidance. Agencies may not have the staff, experience, processes, and/or agreements they need to enable sharing fiber infrastructure with another entity.

Some state and provincial transportation agencies have established policies that govern the use of fiber and that guide sharing arrangements. Resource availability and practices would be useful for ENTERPRISE agencies to learn from and model. 

The objective of this ENTERPRISE project “Policies, Laws, and Agreements for the Use of Fiber Communications” was to prepare a summary of resources (policies, laws, agreements) on the use of fiber communications of transportation agencies and to highlight practices for sharing fiber infrastructure.

To accomplish the project objective, policies on fiber communications, state and federal laws and/or FHWA rules that govern the use of fiber, and any agreements or partnership strategies used for sharing fiber optic infrastructure were collected and summarized. In addition, the project summarized practices for the use of these policies, laws, and agreements, especially for facilitating resource sharing. A survey was also distributed to transportation agencies to enhance the online search by collecting additional information on current sharing practices including existing policies and agreements.  The online research and survey were then used to select four agencies to contact to provide additional details on fiber sharing practices to document in the final report.

Sample fiber sharing agreements made available to the project are included in the table below.

Agreement Entities	Agreement	Description
Iowa DOT and City	Cooperative Agreement	Iowa DOT granted city access to the DOT ITS network in exchange for  electrical service to cameras, sensors, and ITS equipment and the ability for the city to install cameras and ITS devices on the DOT ITS network.
Iowa DOT and Iowa Communications Network (ICN)	ICN DOT Master Agreement for ITS Amendment 4 Amendment 8	Agreement relating to the installation, use, and maintenance of fiber optic cable and communications services. Amendment 4 provided the ICN with installation design and project oversight for ITS project along interstate corridor and established maintenance responsibilities. Amendment 8 enabled the DOT to utilize ICN’s Fiber Management Software System to design, plan, and manage fiber optic network and related infrastructure.
Iowa DOT and FiberComm	Agreement	Allowed Iowa DOT to install a fiber optic cable network for an ITS project while FiberComm maintains existing fiber optic network and provides technical support and public internet bandwidth to the Iowa DOT.
Virginia DOT and Telecom Provider or City	Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Template	MOU template to govern the terms and conditions of sharing arrangements. Each agreement is negotiated for specific requirements, terms, and conditions.
Wisconsin DOT and Other Wisconsin State Department	MOU Amendment Permit	In-state fiber resource sharing between WisDOT and the Wisconsin Department of Administration.
Wisconsin DOT and University	Lease Agreement Amendment	The University of Wisconsin – Madison leased WisDOT fiber that WisDOT obtained from a Telecom Provider.
Wisconsin DOT and Local Police Department	Permit and MOU	Local police department installed a CCTV camera and shared the video feed with the WisDOT State Traffic Operation Center.
Wisconsin DOT and Illinois Tollway	MOU	The Illinois tollway used existing private fiber for a camera and dynamic message board in Wisconsin and granted video feed access from the camera to the WisDOT State Traffic Operation Center.
Wisconsin DOT and Telecom Provider	MOU	Allowed WisDOT to swap fibers between a telecom provider facility and state-owned facility.
Wisconsin DOT and Telecom Provider	Controlled Access Highway Right-of-Way Occupancy: Template	Telecom provider agreement template.
Wisconsin DOT and Telecom Provider	Right-of-Way Occupancy Agreement	Enabled carrier to construct, operate, and maintain fiber optic communication facilities longitudinally within interstate right-of-way in exchange for dark fibers, conduit, handholes, and cash.
Wisconsin DOT and University and Telecom Provider	Controlled Access Highway ROW Occupancy Agreement	ROW agreement covering 15 counties that provided WisDOT with access to 12-strands of dark fiber on approximately 300 miles of the state highways.