RCOC’s Real-Time Traffic Web Site Enhancements Ahmad Jawad Road Commission of Oakland County Qingyan (Ken) Yang, Preeti Agarwal, Jeff Manring Iteris Inc San Antonio, Texas April 26-29, 2004

Faster And Safer Travel - Through Routing & Advanced Controls

Introduction Road Commission for Oakland County’s FAST-TRAC ITS project Enhancement of RCOC real-time traffic web Lessons learnt and future efforts

FAST-TRAC Components TIMS SCATS RWIS MITSC (MDOT) CATV SMART (AVL EQUIPPED) VTIMS USERS WORLD-WIDE WEB USERS AUTOSCOPE CCTV SYSTEM

FAST-TRAC Fact Sheet First local unit of government to initiate an ITS project of this magnitude in US. First suburban adaptive traffic control system in US. First test of video detection for adaptive traffic control in the world. Largest adaptive signal system in North America. Largest video vehicle detection system in the world.

RCOC Real-Time Traffic Web First Internet-based real-time arterial traffic congestion map On-line more than four years Provides comprehensive traffic information to general public Gradual enhancement by taking advantage of new Internet technologies, such as XML

Traffic Data Presentation From MITSC – Freeway Data – Freeway speeds – Roadwork events – Incident events – Changeable Message Sign (CMS) messages – Video snapshots From RCOC – Arterial Data – Signal congestion data – Road Weather Information System (RWIS) data, Roadwork events – Video snapshots

RCOC Real-time Traffic Web

Data Presentation on RCOC Real-time Traffic Web

RCOC Real-time Traffic Web

First two years the usual feed back was – complex to use – extremely slow via low speed phone line – overwhelming information for general public – more of an experts web site then an average commuter. RCOC Real-time Traffic Web

Enhancements of Web Page 1. Improvement of Web Page Access Speed - Response time improvement - Enhancing the content of real-time traffic information 2. Developed XML based data storage and distribution mechanism 3. Better presentation of arterial congestion information - Instant announcement message - Colored roadway segment 4. Support a data feed (FTP) to outside agencies.

Improvement of Web Page Access Improve the user interface – More user friendly accessing Improve web page response time – Efficient web map generation Enhance the content of real-time traffic information – Freeway & arterial traffic information integration

XML Based Data Format eXtensible Markup Language – Designed for data exchange – License free, well supported by W3C – Platform independent Support XML based data format – TIMS internal data definition – TMDD based data definition

XML Example for Roadwork Grand River Road 1 Beck Road east to CSX Rail Road /15/ /30/ City of Novi is widening this road to five lanes. Open to local traffic but closed at CSX bridge. RCOC (248)

Presentation of Arterial Congestion Information Before – Congestion color at SCATS critical intersection – Detailed congestion approach for SCATS critical intersection After – Congestion segment color for SCATS subsystem (intersection group) by taking advantage of GIS software

Arterial Congestion – Before

Arterial Congestion – After

Instant Announcement Message

Traffic Data Distribution Traffic information distribution – FTP XML data files periodically – Capability of sending all kinds of traffic information – Current feed users Tele Atlas General Motor Research Center

Traffic Web Yearly Access Count

Web Monthly Counts (January 2003 vs January 2004)

Lessons Learnt Balance of perspective between technology and needs – Cutting edge technology – Simplicity pays off Flexibility in integrating / distribution traffic data – Real time data requires constant updates, data intensive – Flexibility in data configuration Open architecture and gradual migration – Start small and grow with enhancements

Future Efforts – Persistence is the key Constantly on the watch for improvements Enhancements escalate public interests – Enhancing the data sharing capability more video snapshots /live video on-line Integrate with developing web-based data collection system (Virtual TIMS) Real time data sharing with OEMs – Providing the further research opportunities Data archives for future studies

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