• ICM Analysis, Modeling and Simulation Pioneer Sites
• ICM Demonstration Pioneer Sites
• Dynamic Integrated Corridor Management: Transportation Research Board Workshop
• Knowledgebase Updates
• Recent and Upcoming Events 

ICM Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation Pioneer Sites

The Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) analysis, modeling and simulation (AMS) Pioneer Sites (Dallas, TX; Minneapolis, MN; and San Diego, CA) have been actively modeling their ICM strategies under different operational conditions (e.g., high demand with a minor incident, high demand with a major incident) to accomplish the following goals:

ICM AMS Goals:

• Validate that the tools and approach meet the analysis needs for ICM—calibrated and validated models, and confidence in model results.
• Reduce U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) investment risk in Demonstration Sites—AMS will illustrate potential ICM benefit and show that AMS will enable Sites to refine their ICM strategies.
• Continue to foster the development of ICM through collaboration with all the Pioneer Sites’ public agency and private sector champions.

Preliminary results across the three AMS sites indicate that ICM helps improve the reliability of travel time, increases productivity of the corridors, and improves mobility (both travel time and delay are improved after ICM implementation).  These improvements will result in reduced emissions and fuel consumption.  ICM strategies produce more benefits at higher levels of travel demand and during non-recurrent congestion.  Comprehensive results will be available by this fall.

Minneapolis, MN: I-394 ICM Corridor

The Interstate 394 (I-394) corridor is an east-west commuter route.  It is the primary connector between the Minneapolis central business district and the western suburbs.  Weekday traffic volumes reach 151,000 vehicles near the central business district.  The corridor currently has two reversible high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes and experiences both recurring and non-recurring congestion especially during incidents and special events.

The Minneapolis Pioneer Site identified the following goals for their ICM corridor: improved coordination and traffic management during incidents; improved travel time; and increased modal shifts.  Using the AMS methodology, the Minneapolis Pioneer Site is conducting an assessment on the following ICM strategies and scenarios:

ICM Strategies Modeled:

• Earlier Dissemination of Traveler Information
• Comparative Travel Times
• Parking Availability at Park-and-Ride
• Incident Signal Retiming Plans
• Predefined Freeway Closure Points
• HOT Lanes
• Dynamic Rerouting
• Transit Signal Priority

ICM Scenarios Modeled:

• Daily Operations – No Incident
• Major Incident Freeway
• Minor Incident Freeway
• Major Incident Arterial

ICM Pioneer Site Contact Information

Brian Kary
Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT)
brian.kary@dot.state.mn.us

For more information on this ICM Pioneer Site, visit: http://www.its.dot.gov/icms/pioneer_minn.htm

Dallas, TX: US-75 ICM Corridor

US-75 is a north-south radial corridor that serves commuter, commercial, and regional trips and is the primary connector between downtown Dallas and the cities to the north.  Weekday mainline traffic volumes reach 250,000 vehicles, with another 30,000 vehicles on the frontage roads.  The corridor has 167 miles of arterial roadways. The corridor currently has two concurrent flow managed high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, light rail transit (LRT), bus service, and park-and-ride lots.  US-75 experiences a number of transportation issues including recurring congestion, a significant number of freeway incidents, reduced capacity for the red line light rail (currently running at 75 percent capacity) arterial streets that are near capacity during peak periods, and two choke points (US 75/LBJ Interchange and US 75/PBGT Interchange) that impact travel conditions.

The Dallas Pioneer Site’s goal is to operate the US-75 Corridor in a true multimodal, integrated, efficient, and safe fashion where the focus is on the transportation customer.  Using the AMS methodology, the Dallas Pioneer Site is conducting an assessment on the following ICM strategies and scenarios:

ICM Strategies Modeled:

• Comparative Travel Time Information (e.g., freeway, frontage road, arterials, LRT)
• Incident Signal Retiming Plans for Arterials
• Incident Signal Retiming Plans for Frontage Roads
• HOT Lane with HOV 2+ free (congestion pricing)
• HOV Express Lane (HOV 2+ one-half price with congestion pricing)
• LRT Smart Parking System (real-time parking availability)
• Red Line LRT Capacity Increase
• LRT station parking expansion - Private Parking
• LRT station parking expansion - Valet Parking

ICM Scenarios Modeled:

• Daily Operations - No Incident
• Major Incident Freeway
• Minor Incident Freeway

ICM Pioneer Site Contact Information

Koorosh Olyai
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
olyai@dart.org

Christopher Poe
Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)
cpoe@tamu.edu
972-994-0433

For more information on this ICM Pioneer Site, visit: http://www.its.dot.gov/icms/pioneer_dallas.htm

San Diego, CA: I-15 ICM Corridor

The Interstate 15 (I-15) Corridor is a north-south corridor that runs from SR-78 in the north to the SR-163 Interchange in the south.  It is a primary artery for the movement of commuters, goods, and services from inland northern San Diego County to downtown San Diego.  Weekday traffic volumes range from 170,000 to 290,000 vehicles on the general purpose lanes.  The corridor currently has two reversible HOT lanes.  Approximately 20,000 vehicles use the I‑15 Express Lanes during weekdays.

The San Diego Pioneer Site identified the following goals for their ICM corridor: the corridor will give travelers the opportunity to make seamless and convenient shifts among modes; the corridor will provide enhanced mobility for people, goods, and services; the corridor will enhance current levels of existing interoperability between field elements and functional environments or systems; and the focus of the corridor will be on improving throughput, productivity, connectivity, safety, and accessibility.  Using the analysis, modeling and simulation (AMS) methodology, the Dallas Pioneer Site is conducting an assessment on the following ICM strategies and scenarios:

ICM Strategies Modeled:

• Multimodal, Corridor-Wide En-Route Traveler Information
• Multimodal, Corridor-Wide Pre-Trip Traveler Information
• Signal Priority for Transit
• Freeway Coordinated Ramp Metering (more adaptive to non-recurrent congestion)
• Signal Coordination on Arterials with Freeway Ramp Metering
• Congestion Pricing on Managed Lanes
• Physical Bus Priority on Arterials
• Increased HOV Occupancy Requirements

ICM Scenarios Modeled:

• Daily Operations - No Incident
• Major Freeway Incident
• Major Arterial Incident

ICM Pioneer Site Contact Information

Alex Estrella
San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)
aes@sandag.org

For more information on this ICM Pioneer Site, visit: http://www.its.dot.gov/icms/pioneer_sdiego.htm

ICM Demonstration Pioneer Sites

Two of the ICM AMS sites; Dallas, TX and San Diego, CA have been selected as demonstration sites and will serve as “living laboratories” in the fight against congestion.  The demonstrations will build on past findings about ICM to provide a first-hand evaluation of the real-world impact.
"These communities are leading the way by using state-of-the-art technologies to create a commute that is safer, less congested and more convenient." said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "America can't simply build our way to a more modern and efficient transportation infrastructure. These projects will show the rest of the nation that bumper-to-bumper traffic doesn't have to be the status quo."

USDOT selected Dallas and San Diego based on a competitive application process and their ability to demonstrate the impact of ICM against the USDOT’s four key hypotheses that ICM will:

• Improve Situational Awareness
• Enhance Response and Control
• Better Inform Travelers
• Improve Corridor Performance

Dallas, TX: US-75 ICM Corridor

The US-75 ICM Demonstration is a collaborative effort led by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) in collaboration with the USDOT, City of Dallas, Town of Highland Park, North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), City of Plano, City of Richardson, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and the City of University Park.

DART will contribute $3 million, combined with $5.3 of federal funding for a total of $8.3 million for their ICM demonstration effort.  DART will use a transportation management model to predict travel conditions 30 minutes into the future, allowing diversion of travelers to other routes and transit during freeway incidents and special events along US-75.

Travelers will have access to real-time information about traffic, public transit and expected travel times, through wireless and web-based alerts as well as message signs on the roads with drive times, parking availability, and transit times to help them plan their routes.

Demonstration Goals:

• Improve incident management through interagency communication and coordinated response
• Enable intermodal travel decisions
• Increase corridor throughput
• Improve travel time reliability

Description of the US-75 ICM Project
The US-75 ICMS will be a multi-agency, de-centralized operation which will utilize a set of regional systems to integrate the operations of the corridor. Currently, the agencies within the corridor have some cooperation and integration.  At the DalTrans Transportation Management Center (TMC) there will be dedicated operators for the corridor, who will insure the corridor agencies are responding to requests, and will monitor the overall performance of the corridor.  The proposed ICM System will consist of several new subsystems and expanded functionality.

The new practices for transportation operations include:

• Providing comparative travel time to the public and operating agencies for the freeway, HOV lane, frontage roads, arterial streets, and light-rail transit line,
• Using simulation to predict travel conditions for improved incident response,
• Implementing interdependent response plans among agencies,
• Diverting traffic to strategic arterials with adaptive control, and
• Shifting travelers to the light-rail system for major incidents on the freeway.

With ICM, detectors will collect information on the current travel conditions on freeways, frontage roads, arterial streets, light-rail transit line (Red line), park-and-ride lots, and HOV lane.  Operating agencies share incident, construction, and special event information among each other through a common web interface. When traffic conditions change due to heavy traffic demand, incidents, or inclement weather, transportation agencies change traffic signal timing on arterials and frontage roads as well as direct travelers to faster roadways or transit facilities. The traffic conditions are analyzed at the regional transportation management center. Dedicated staff members monitor the corridor operations and review potential changes. A decision support system (DSS) allows transportation professionals to evaluate the best operational strategies and determine when to implement them.

Dallas’ DSS will assist agencies with respect to responding to incidents in a coordinated manner.  For example, the DSS will assist agencies in selecting the appropriate combination of ICM strategies for different operational conditions.  The Dallas DSS will be rolled out in several stages. The first stage is determining the manual interaction between each of the systems in the corridor using developed response plans. The second stage involves integrating the information from the systems in the corridor. The third stage involves developing the real-time integration of the systems, and the final stage involves implementing the predictive modeling integration, enabling the Dallas Pioneer Site team to predict traffic conditions up to 30 minutes in the future). Dallas is also integrating their DSS with their SmartNET/SmartFusion inter-agency information exchange network to ensure that the most up to date information is in both systems.

San Diego, CA: I-15 ICM Corridor

The I-15 ICM Demonstration is a collaborative effort led by the SANDAG in collaboration with the USDOT, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Metropolitan Transit System, the North County Transit District, and the cities of San Diego, Poway, and Escondido in addition to private sector support to augment technical management, software/systems development, and cutting-edge innovation.

SANDAG and its partnering agencies will contribute $2.2 million, combined with $8.7 million of federal funding for a total of $10.9 million for their ICM demonstration effort. San Diego will use ITS investments along I-15 to enable a "smart" transportation management system that combines road sensors, video and traveler information to take steps to reduce congestion. It will deliver real-time information to commuters via the internet and message signs about drive times, parking availability, and transit times to help them plan their routes.  This information will also enable managers to adjust traffic signals and ramp meters to direct travelers to HOV lanes, HOT lanes, bus rapid transit and other options.

Demonstration Goals

• Improve operational awareness of corridor performance.
• Enhance response and control capability of system managers.
• Better inform travelers of status and choices.
• Through this combination of tactics, improve the performance of the corridor.

Description of the I-15 ICM Project
San Diego’s proposed demonstration system is based on the need to proactively manage and maximize transportation system performance and to provide travelers with the opportunity to make seamless and convenient shifts among modes and networks. The delivered system will address this need through two components. The first is by delivering a DSS, which provides real-time simulation, predictive algorithms and analysis modeling, along with an integrated workflow engine to enhance control. Second, the region will expand its advanced traveler information system to include real-time transit information, parking availability, toll rates, and door-to-door routing travel times. This information will be expanded beyond the existing phone, Web, and television broadcast dissemination tools to include mobile devices such as the iPhone and in-vehicle navigation systems.  To achieve this vision, the San Diego ICM Pioneer site will leverage a number of existing and operational transportation management system.

San Diego’s DSS provides data fusion and decisionmaking based on the increased sharing of data among corridor agencies, integrating these multiple sources of data into one picture of what is going on in the corridor. The DSS will function through a combination of either human operators, hardware, and/or software applications. Once the DSS is functional, its results will help coordinate incident response and activate response plans for predetermined scenarios. Through the DSS, San Diego hopes to minimize the overall impact of incidents on the entire corridor.

Looking Ahead: Next Steps for ICM Initiative

The ICM demonstration will have two phases: 1) design and deployment, and 2) operations and maintenance and will be completed in 2013.  Dallas will go live with ICM in January 2012 and San Diego will launch in September 2011.  In parallel to the ICM demonstration, USDOT will be conducting an independent evaluation of the ICM system to determine if the ICM system will do what it is intended to do (improve situational awareness, enhance response and control, better inform travelers, and improve corridor performance).  The evaluation will be completed by the end of 2013. 

The end goal for the ICM initiative is to demonstrate the value of ICM as a key tool in the congestion management toolbox, and to equip transportation professionals across the country to successfully implement ICM in their corridors through knowledge and technology transfer.

AMS implementation guidance, as well as Pioneer Site AMS plans and results, will be made available through the ICM Knowledgebase to help other corridors interested in conducting AMS.  The Knowledgebase is an online repository designed to help equip corridor managers to implement ICM.  It contains leading-edge knowledge and resources developed through the ICM Initiative including fact sheets, Pioneer Site Concepts of Operations and System Requirements documents and more.

For more information on the ICM Initiative and to sign up for the optional RSS feed to be notified when updates about ICM are posted to the website at http://www.its.dot.gov/icms/index.htm. To obtain copies of ICM knowledge and technology transfer resources as they become available, please visit the ICM Knowledgebase at http://www.its.dot.gov/icms/knowledgebase.htm.     

Dynamic Integrated Corridor Management TRB Workshop

The ICM team participated in the Advancing Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) and Active Traffic Management (ATM) Workshop at the 89th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting held on January 10, 2010.

The workshop was sponsored by the following four TRB committees:

• Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations (AHB10)
• Intelligent Transportation Systems (AHB15)
• Freeway Operations (AHB20)
• Traffic Signal Systems (AHB25)

The purpose of the workshop was to:

• Clarify the relationship between ICM and ATM and encourage implementation of ICM and ATM.
• Obtain input/feedback on ICM Deployment Coalition and Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) resources.
• Discuss Active Traffic Management.
• Stimulate identification of potential research needs to facilitate implementation of ATM.

Dale Thompson and Steven Mortensen from the ICM team provided an overview of ICM, the status of the initiative, major findings to date, lessons learned, deployment vision and expectations, and discussed the development of an ICM deployment coalition.  In addition, to the Federal perspective, participants heard from Walter Kraft, Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition (NITTEC) and Lee Nederveld, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) on their experiences as early adopters of ICM including their region’s goals and vision for ICM; approach for achieving this visions; challenges to implementation; and lessons learned.

Challenges to Implementation for Early Adopters:

• Aligning ICM with the intelligent transportation system (ITS) regional architecture can lead to technical, operational, and institutional issues.  Need to develop an institutional framework in order to implement ICM.
• Maintaining focus on the global aspects of ICM concepts.
• Maintaining participation from stakeholders in the ICM process.
• Gathering and warehousing performance data can require significant resources that can delay the implementation process.

Lessons Learned from Early Adopters:

• NITTEC built upon success of their regional concept for transportation operations work which had a pre-existing group of agencies working together and helped to increase stakeholder participation and buy-in in the ICM process.
• Without a champion, it is hard to move steps forward.
• Bringing all stakeholders to the table early on in the process is helpful in keeping everyone engaged.
• Implementation timeline has to match with available resources – implementing in 5 to 7 years should be left to those regions with dedicated funding and those without dedicated funding can evolve over a longer time as systems develop and evolve.

Knowledgebase Updates

The ICM Knowledgebase is a fully, searchable, browseable, web-based tool to help transportation practitioners successfully implement ICM in their corridors.  The ICM Knowledgebase features new resources related to conducting Analysis, Modeling and Simulation (AMS) and how to address transit and arterial data gaps—a common challenge to many ICM sites!

What’s New in the Knowledgebase?

Addressing Data Gaps:

• ICMS Surveillance and Detection Needs Analysis for the Transit Data Gap.  Analyzes the need for transit data within an Integrated Corridor Management System (ICMS), identifies data that is currently available and potential sources of additional data which could be used to fulfill the needs.
• ICMS Surveillance and Detection Requirements for Arterial and Transit Networks.  Provides data flows, needs, and concepts for readers to learn about how to monitor arterial and transit aspects of an ICMS and documents surveillance and detection requirements for arterial streets and transit networks to support an ICMS. 
• ICMS Surveillance and Detection Needs Analysis for the Arterial Data Gap. Analyzes the need for arterial data within an ICMS, identifies data that is currently available and potential sources of additional data which could be used to fulfill the needs.    

Coming Soon to the Knowledgebase:

• Integrated Corridor Management - U.S. 75 Dallas, Texas - Model Validation and Calibration Report
• Integrated Corridor Management - U.S. 75 Dallas, Texas - Analysis Plan
• Integrated Corridor Management - I-394 Minneapolis, Minnesota - Model Validation and Calibration Report
• Integrated Corridor Management - I-394 Minneapolis, Minnesota - Analysis Plan
• Integrated Corridor Management - I-15 San Diego, California - Model Validation and Calibration Report
• Integrated Corridor Management - I-15 San Diego, California - Analysis Plan

If you have comments, questions, or suggestions for materials that you think would help equip partner agencies implement ICM please let us know at ICM@dot.gov.

Recent and Upcoming Events

Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition
May 3-5, 2010, Houston, TX. Brian Cronin, Steven Mortensen, Koorosh Olyai (Dallas ICM Pioneer Site), Alex Estrella (San Diego ICM Pioneer Site), and Ray Starr (Minneapolis ICM Pioneer Site) presented on the ICM AMS, deployments, lessons learned, and upcoming KTT materials. More information on this event can be found at
http://www.itsa.org/annualmeeting.html.

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) 2010 Rail Conference
June 6-10, 2010, Vancouver British Columbia. Koorosh Olyai of DART and the ICM Dallas Pioneer Site will provide a presentation on the proposed Dallas ICM demonstration, which will include a number of strategies and enabling ITS technologies to better balance demand and capacity in the corridor by promoting mode, route, and temporal shifts, among other things, during recurring congestion, incidents, construction, special events, and adverse weather.  More information on this event can be found at http://www.apta.com/mc/conferences/90days/2010rail/Pages/default.aspx.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Dynamic Route Guidance and Coordinated Traffic Control Workshop
June 7-8, Piscataway, NJ.  Bob Sheehan, FHWA, will represent the USDOT’s ICM and Active Traffic Management (ATM) programs at this National Science Foundation Workshop.  More information on this event can be found at http://www.ritslab.rutgers.edu/index.html

Mississippi Valley Conference
July 7-9, 2010, Des Moines, IA. More information on this event can be found at http://www.mvc2010.com/index.htm.

American Public Works Association (APWA) 2010 International Public Works Congress & Exposition
August 15-18, 2010, Boston, MA.  Bob Sheehan, FHWA will provide a presentation on “The Future of Transportation—Smart Cars/Smart Roads”.  ICM, ATM, and IntelliDrive^SM will be referenced to describe what the transportation system will be like from 5 to 25 years from now.  More information on this event can be found at http://sites.apwa.net/congress/2010/home.aspx

To learn more about the USDOT ICM Initiative:

Brian Cronin
USDOT/Research and Innovative Technology Administration
202-366-8841
brian.cronin@dot.gov

Steve Mortensen
USDOT/Federal Transit Administration
202-493-0459
steven.mortensen@dot.gov

Bob Sheehan
USDOT/Federal Highway Administration
202-366-6817
robert.sheehan@dot.gov

Dale Thompson
USDOT/Federal Highway Administration
202-493-3420
dale.thompson@dot.gov

Visit the ICM web site to learn more about the USDOT's ICM Initiative and sign up for the optional RSS feed to be notified when updates about ICM are posted to the web site!