Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA)

American Public Transportation Association 2004 Annual Meeting

Slide 1. Transit and the Evolving Intelligent Transportation System: ITS Joint Program Office Perspective

Yehuda Gross
ITS Transit Program Manager
ITS Joint Program Office (JPO)
U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT)
October 13, 2004

Slide 2. Overview

• New ITS Research & Development Programming Framework
• Tier I Initiatives
• Tier II Activities
• Crosscutting Programs

Slide 3. New ITS Research & Development Programming Framework

• In FY 2004 the ITS Program refocused to address key transportation problem areas
  • Mobility
  • Safety
  • Productivity

Notes

• Mobility problem areas:
  • Recurring congestion: arterials, freeways, travel demand management, fare payment
  • Non-recurring congestion: incidents, work zones, adverse weather, special events
  • Information: data collection, analysis, dissemination
• Safety problem areas:
  • Adverse Response and Injury Care
  • Injury Mitigation
  • Older Drivers
  • Speed
  • Driver Impairment and Fatigue
  • Driver Distraction and Workload
  • Transit Vehicle Crashes
  • Motorcycles
  • Heavy Vehicle Collisions
  • Pedestrian Collisions
  • Collisions
  • Intersection Collisions
  • Road Departure Collisions
  • Rear-end Collisions
• Productivity problem areas:
  • Freight Arrival Information
  • Administrative Delay
  • Cargo Security
  • Supply Chain Delay
  • International Gateway Delays

Slide 4. New ITS Research & Development Programming Framework (continued)

• New Program Structure
  • Tier I Initiatives
  • Tier II Activities
  • Crosscutting Programs

Notes

• Significant effort is placed on core programs that:
  • Have a high potential for major returns-on-investment,
  • Allow us to partner with the private sector, and
  • Address one of three core problem areas
• The program is being categorized into Tier 1, Tier II, and Cross-cutting activities

Slide 5. Tier I Initiatives Description

• Major Initiatives that are approved by the ITS Management Council (IMC) (scope and budget)
• Are problem, data, and product driven
• Directly support the goals of safety, mobility, or productivity
• Provide a "bridge" between existing and envisioned conditions
• Are typically higher risk, higher payoff efforts

Slide 6. Tier I Initiatives Description (continued)

• Are multi-modal or multi-agency in nature
• Involve a high degree of integration and interagency integration
• Are ready for a major investment
• Consider full costs of the initiative (e.g., architecture, standards, evaluation, training, support)
• Are roughly 2/3 of program budget after Cross-cutting projects are funded (FY04)

Slide 7. New Tier I Initiatives

• Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII)
• Mobility
  • Mobility Services for All Americans
  • Integrated Corridor Management Systems
  • National Surface Transportation Weather Observing System

Notes

• There are 9 New Tier 1 initiatives approved by the ITS Management Council (IMC) for FY04 funding, some of which are listed on the next slide. FTA is the lead agency for the initiative in red, Mobility Services for All Americans. FTA also plays a role in the initiatives that are in blue (more on next slide). I am going to provide a brief overview of each of these initiatives.
• Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII):
  • This is a high risk effort that applies to all 3 goal areas (i.e., Safety, Mobility, Productivity).
  • Background/Purpose: Communication services and ITS technologies in vehicles offer opportunities to significantly improve traffic flow as well as safety.
  • Initiative Overview: Assess the feasibility and potential benefits of vehicle-infrastructure communication and cooperation to increase performance of passenger cars, trucks, and buses.
• Mobility Services for All Americans:
  • Background/Purpose: The delivery of human services transportation is uncoordinated and inefficient; 62 federal programs fund transportation services for the transportation disadvantaged, and billions of dollars were spent on these services in FY 2001.
  • Initiative Overview: Increase mobility and accessibility for the transportation disadvantaged and general public, and achieve more efficient use of federal transportation funding resources. Will culminate in the demonstration and evaluation of a replicable, scaleable traveler management coordination center.
• Integrated Corridor Management Systems:
  • Background/Purpose: Traffic congestion is a serious and growing problem. Management of modal networks (e.g., freeways, arterials, transit) is typically uncoordinated, and unused corridor capacity often exists on parallel routes/networks.
  • Initiative Overview: Develop a suite of ITS tools and strategies to support integrated proactive corridor management. The initiative is a coordinated multi modal effort, of which transit and the FTA is a significant part.
• National Surface Transportation Weather Observing System:
  • Background/Purpose: Designs of current Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) make it difficult to share collected data, and limit the expansion of these systems to support the needs of other users and operators.
  • Initiative Overview: Design and deploy a nationwide, integrated road weather observational network and data management system that reduces the impact of adverse weather for road users and operators.

Slide 8. New Tier I Initiatives (continued)

• Safety
  • Integrated Vehicle Based Safety Systems
  • Emergency Transportation Operations
  • Next Generation 911
  • Cooperative Intersection Collision Warning
• Productivity
  • Universal Electronic Freight Manifest

Notes

• Integrated Vehicle Base Safety Systems:
  • Background/Purpose: There are about 2.6 million rear-end, road departure, or lane change crashes each year.
  • Initiative Overview: Accelerate the introduction and commercialization of integrated vehicle-based safety systems into the U.S. vehicle fleet (including transit vehicles) that effectively reduce the number and severity of rear-end, road departure, and lane change crashes.
• Emergency Transportation Operations:
  • Background/Purpose: Major natural and man-made incidents/disasters cause considerable disruption to the transportation system (e.g., there are over 15,000 highway hazmat incidents each year; many states experience severe winter weather and natural disasters; high travel speeds and dense travel conditions produce complex multi-vehicle crashes).
  • Initiative Overview: Develop a comprehensive set of tools and strategies for improved response and recovery to major incidents.
• Next Generation 911:
  • Background/Purpose: The current 9-1-1 system, based on 30-year old technology, is not capable of supporting the text, data, images, and video that are essential for future transportation safety and security services.
  • Initiative Overview: Develop a System Design and Implementation Plan for a Next Generation 911 Center. Establish the foundation for public emergency services in a wireless mobile society and enable E-911 with any communication device.
• Cooperative Intersection Collision Warning:
  • Background/Purpose: More than 9,000 Americans lost their lives and roughly 1.5 million Americans were injured in intersection related crashed last year.
  • Initiative Overview: Build upon the approaches laid out in the IVI intersection crash prevention work, leading to an optimized combination of autonomous-vehicle, autonomous-infrastructure, and cooperative communications systems. Support the development of commercially deployable intersection collision avoidance systems.
• Universal Electronic Freight Manifest:
  • Background/Purpose: It is projected that freight volumes will increase 70% from 1998 to 2020. Finding ways to improve the efficiency of moving freight throughout our nation is critical to our economic vitality.
  • Initiative Overview: Develop an architecture for a Universal Electronic Freight Manifest that improves operational efficiency and productivity of the transportation system.

Slide 9. Continuing Tier 1 Initiatives

• Intelligent Vehicle Initiative
• 511
• Architecture Consistency
• Wireless E-9-1-1
• CVISN Deployment

Image Details

Notes

• In addition to the 9 new Tier I initiatives, there are 5 Tier I initiatives that have been identified by the IMC for completion. The FTA is involved in the first 3 initiatives. The last 2 initiatives do not include transit.
• Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI):
  • The transit element of the IVI program started in 1998 with a goal of having commercially available systems in the transit market by 2005. JPO and FTA are working with early adopters of the side object detection system to validate benefits.
• 511:
  • FHWA and FTA are the two main U.S. DOT administrations that support the 511 Deployment Coalition activities. The U.S. DOT will develop and disseminate guidance materials to help increase the number of 511 deployments in metropolitan areas. It will also continue to monitor and evaluate 511 implementations.
• Architecture Consistency:
  • Provides funds for training and technical assistance on consistency with the National ITS Architecture. Emphasis is placed on using and maintaining the regional ITS architectures that have been developed.
• Wireless E-9-1-1:
  • Promotes the deployment of location-capable wireless emergency services.
• CVISN:
  • The Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) initiative deploys core capabilities in the areas of safety information exchange, interstate credentials administration, and roadside electronic screening.

Slide 10. Tier II Activities Description

• Support the completion of existing initiatives, exploration of new areas, or one time stand alone investments
• Consistent with the direction set by the IMC
• Initiated at the direction of the ITS Program Manger, in consultation with the ITS Strategic Planning Group
• Roughly 1/3 of program budget after Cross-cutting projects are funded (FY04)
• Budget is established by the ITS Program Manager with input from the Strategic Planning Group

Slide 11. FTA Involved Tier II Activities

• Exploratory (New)
  • Vehicle Assist & Automation Systems for Transit Operations
  • Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) for Mobility
• Completion
  • Transit Operations Decision Support Systems
  • BRT and ITS Integration Analysis
  • Universal Transit Farecard Program Support

Notes

• There are several Tier II activities. The Tier II activities in which the FTA is involved are shown here. They are grouped into new (exploratory) initiatives, and projects to be completed. The FTA is the lead for those that are in red. FTA plays a role in the initiative that is in blue. Again, I am going to provide a brief overview of each of these activities.
• Vehicle Assist & Automation (VAA) Systems for Transit Operations:
  • Background/Purpose: Improve mobility by operating transit on restrictive or alternative rights-of-way, and increase efficiency and productivity of operations in controlled environments (e.g., bus maintenance yards) by employing VAA technologies.
  • Initiative Overview: Develop a program plan and route map; explore the concept and feasibility of VAA systems in various transit environments.
• Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) for Mobility:
  • Background/Purpose: Communication services and ITS technologies offer opportunities to significantly improve transit operations and safety.
  • Initiative Overview: Explore how the VII concept can improve transit operations.
• Transit Operations Decision Support Systems:
  • Provide a proof-of-concept demonstration and evaluation of recently developed core functional requirements for transit operations decision support systems (TODSS). TODSS provide support to transit dispatchers in real-time bus fleet operations management, helping dispatchers respond to incidents, special events, and changing conditions.
• BRT and ITS Integration Analysis:
  • Provides input to the Characteristics of BRT decision maker's toolkit (completed). Also provides requirements recommendations for an integrated BRT-ITS system operational test.
• Universal Transit Farecard Standardization (UTFS) Program Support:
  • Provides committee facilitation and meeting support for the UTFS program, and preparation/scoping of a potential UTFS demonstration (subject to future funding availability). The UTFS program is developing a series of documents (white papers, guidelines, and technical specifications) that provides industry guidance for the creation of an open architecture payment environment that enables integration of independent electronic payment systems, or a universal transit payment system.

Slide 12. Crosscutting Programs Description

• Provide the foundation for both Tier I initiatives and Tier II activities as well as widespread ITS deployment
• Are largely ongoing, with annual adjustment made to correspond with the overall changes in the direction of the program
• Roughly 10–15% of total program budget (FY04)
• ITS Program Manager identifies funding needed

Notes

• A partial list (examples) of Crosscutting programs is provided on the next slide.

Slide 13. Crosscutting Program Areas

• Architecture
• Standards
• Assessments
• Professional Capacity Building
• Outreach
• Deployment Support
• Program Support (JPO)
• Program Support (Modes)

Notes

• Outreach includes the Peer-to-Peer program, technical assistance to transit authorities, etc.

Slide 14. Thank You

Yehuda Gross
ITTS Transit Program Manager
ITS Joint Program Office
1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E
Washington, D.C. 20590
Phone: (202) 366-1988
E-mail: Yehuda.Gross@dot.gov