Completed

Transportation agencies at the state, provincial, and local levels receive many requests to display non-urgent messages on Dynamic Message Signs (DMS) regarding advertising, safety messages, and special events, for example. Agencies must decide how to respond to these requests. In addition to state, provincial, and local level policies and preferences about the use of DMS, federal design standards such as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) must also be considered when deciding which requests to approve.

This project conducted an online search to gather state, provincial, local, and federal policies and guidelines for DMS messaging. The search also included documenting related DMS studies or efforts. Transportation agencies were also contacted to provide additional details on information gathered through the online search. In addition, ENTERPRISE members provided input throughout the duration of the project to enhance the search for DMS messaging related documents and guidelines. A survey was distributed to state, local, and provincial transportation agencies to gather additional details on the DMS message requests received by transportation agencies as well as the policy or process for handling DMS message requests. The project also researched the potential for public-private partnerships for DMS deployment and operations and documented a few potential future scenarios for connected and automated vehicle implications on DMS.

Several ENTERPRISE member agencies have transportation networks within their jurisdictions that intersect with international borders: Michigan DOT, Minnesota DOT, Texas DOT, and Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

Management and coordination of traffic operations at borders often requires agency resources. In addition, it is important to provide accurate and timely traveler information, such as border wait times, alerts, and construction notices, to the traveling public.

ITS technologies and systems used at borders often serve a critical purpose in assisting agencies with traffic management and traveler information. Enhanced knowledge of available technologies, uses, and benefits will equip ENTERPRISE members with potential solutions to improve agency coordination and management.

The project documented issues, challenges, practices, coordination approaches, and technologies for managing traffic at highway border crossings.

Project Webinars

As one component of this project, two project webinars were held to share information on a variety of topics.

• Webinar 1 – Data Collection and Uses at International Border Crossings
  July 26, 2016 
  This webinar featured a panel of experts that shared information about data collection and uses at international border crossings.
  • Webinar Recording
  • Webinar Presentations
    • Welcome and Project Overview – Bill Legg, Washington State DOT
    • Traffic Data Collection Technologies to Estimate Wait Times
      • Technology Options – Juan Villa, Texas A&M Transportation Institute
      • Arizona DOT Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi Penetration Rate Study – Yung Koprowski, Lee Engineering
    • Data Uses, Tools and Trends
      • Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition (NITTEC) – Athena Hutchins, NITTEC
      • Texas DOT – Juan Villa, Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Webinar 2 – Agency Coordination Practices at International Borders
  September 26, 2016 
  This webinar featured a panel of experts on agency coordination at international border crossings.
  • Webinar Recording
  • Webinar Presentations
    • Welcome and Project Overview – Bill Legg, Washington State DOT
    • Whatcom Council of Governments Border Coordination – Hugh Conroy, Whatcom Council of Governments
    • Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition (NITTEC) – Athena Hutchins, NITTEC
    • Buffalo-Niagara Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Project – Keir Opie, Cambridge Systematics, Inc.

This project began with a focus on ITS and was revised to explore ITS as enabling technology for the broader applications of Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) in planning and operations. This reflects a more comprehensive view of ITS which allows agencies to collaborate in active management of the transportation system according to regional operations objectives.

New TSMO strategies are continually being developed and technology continues to rapidly evolve. This makes it challenging for transportation planning and operations staff to stay abreast of the latest information and factor it into their processes. ENTERPRISE recognized that planning and operations staff may not have adequate tools to support their decision making regarding which TSMO strategies may be appropriate to address certain transportation challenges. For example, a planner in a regional office may be reviewing a growing freeway congestion issue and may not know how best to determine if the most appropriate TSMO strategy is managed lanes or ramp metering.

This project identified resources that are currently available to support the consideration of TSMO operations objectives and strategies. With input from the USDOT Planning for Operations Program, it was determined that a decision support tool  based on Advancing Metropolitan Planning for Operations: The Building Blocks of a Model Transportation Plan Incorporating Operations – A Desk Reference would further support the consideration of TSMO strategies to solve transportation challenges. Additional selection criteria, strategies and reference resources were incorporated into the tool along with existing material from the Desk Reference. The decision support tool developed for one TSMO area – Traveler Information – to allow for evaluation before developing other TSMO areas. The final report presents feedback on the preliminary tool and recommendations for consideration if a decision support tool is further developed.

The ENTERPRISE Pooled Fund Program conducted this project to help increase members’ understanding of current practices for wrong-way driving countermeasures on freeways, including those that utilize Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies. The goal of this project was to create a repository for wrong-way countermeasure deployments to help ENTERPRISE agencies increase their understanding of countermeasure types, evaluation efforts and results as available, agency coordination efforts, feedback on the deployments from local motorists, and lessons learned.

A webinar was held on November 21, 2016 to share the results of this project documented in the Project Summary Report, including key findings and details on selected DOT deployments from agency representatives. Presentations provided as well as the webinar recording are included below.

• Webinar Recording
• Webinar Presentations
  • Project Approach and Key Findings – Linda Preisen, Athey Creek Consultants
  • Agency Deployments
    • Iowa DOT: Wrong-Way Driving Testbed – Willy Sorenson, Iowa DOT
    • Florida DOT: Statewide Efforts and Countermeasures – Raj Ponnaluri, Florida DOT
    • Arizona DOT: Pilot Deployment of an Integrated Detection and Warning System – Jim Windsor, Arizona DOT

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), enacted in July 2012, has created a surface transportation program with additional emphasis on performance-based measures. MAP-21 calls for U.S. states to establish performance goals and then report to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on progress towards meeting these performance measures. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued several notices of proposed rulemaking that will eventually lead to specific requirements for agencies to measure and report on their performance in the national goals areas of safety, infrastructure condition, congestion reduction, system reliability, freight movement and economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and project delivery.

Although notices of proposed rulemaking have not yet been issued as of April 2016 for system performance and freight movement, these national goal areas may have implications for performance at international border crossings. In addition to security and safety interests, border crossing wait times are a strong focal point for commercial, passenger, and pedestrian traffic. 

There are several international borders shared among the ENTERPRISE members (Washington State Department of Transportation, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Michigan Department of Transportation, Ministry of Transportation Ontario, and Texas Department of Transportation).  These agencies had a shared interest in learning the roles, practices, and technologies for managing traffic in relation to performance measures at international border crossings.

The objectives of this project were to:

• Identify the current aspects of the transportation performance that are monitored at border crossings;
• Determine what and how wait time measurement technologies are used to support performance management at border crossings; and
• Investigate opportunities for ENTERPRISE to share information about this project’s findings with other entities to enhance future interactions.

Transportation agencies typically use an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) for activities such as monitoring conditions (e.g. through detectors, cameras, and third-party data) and managing traffic (e.g. through dynamic message signs (DMS), lane use signs, ramp metering).  As technology changes and systems age, agencies may purchase or upgrade their ATMS.  The process of procuring a new or upgraded ATMS typically involves a systems engineering approach of defining needs, developing a concept of operations, then developing detailed requirements that can be used in procurement.

Agencies generally share a common, core set of similar needs, operational concepts, and requirements for ATMS software solutions.  The purpose of this project was for members to collaboratively develop a set of common needs, concepts, and requirements to serve as model systems engineering documents. The resulting document was not intended to be inclusive of all possible ATMS capabilities, but rather a baseline of common capabilities to be used by the member agencies to support their systems engineering process and ATMS procurement. 

The project developed a Model ATMS Concept of Operations (ConOps) that provides a user-oriented view of the ATMS. It describes the ATMS operation in relation to how different stakeholders will use and experience the system. The ConOps is a key element of the Systems Engineering process. The ConOps is a direct input into the development of system requirements also included in the document, which define the required high-level functionality of the ATMS. The ConOps is also used to validate that the deployed ATMS performs the expected operations and meets the needs of the ATMS stakeholders, while the system requirements are used to verify the deployed ATMS meets the required specifications.