Traveler Information Applications: How Can VII Improve the Quality of Travel

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Traveler Information Applications How Can VII
Improve the Quality of Travel?

• TRB Session 644 Using VII Data, Part 1
• Ben McKeever, US DOT, ITS Joint Program Office
• January 16, 2008

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The Critical Need for VII

• In 2006 for the United States
• 2.6 million traffic crashes
• 42,000 fatalities
• 4.2 billion hours of travel delay
• 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel
• 80 billion cost of urban congestion
• Texas Transportation Institute, 2007

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Agenda

• Current state of traveler information
• What VII provides and enables
• Current VII activities related to traveler
  information
• Conclusion/next steps

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Traveler Information Today The Good

• Public sector progress
• 511 widely deployed
• 38 of freeway miles have detection (USDOT, 2006)
• 56 of fixed route buses with AVL (USDOT, 2006)
• Private sector progress
• New technologies for collection and dissemination
• Real time traffic and navigation more prominent
• Consumer interest is growing and prices are
  dropping
• Public-Private Partnerships are emerging

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Traveler Information Today The Bad

• Most metro areas still lacking quality traffic
  data
• High OM costs effect reliability of public
  sector data
• As a result, data is not trusted
• Inadequate funding for OM
• Real time data on arterials is almost
  non-existent
• New technologies are slow to be deployed
• Limited data/applications for other modes (e.g.
  transit, parking)

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VII Can Revolutionize Traveler Information

• Complete network visibility (all roads, all
  modes)
• Data Collection
• low latency/real time
• high granularity and reliability
• Data Dissemination
• Brings data into the vehicle
• Can impact driver behavior en-route
• Can optimize network performance

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Types of Data VII Can Provide

• Anonymous probe messages from vehicle to
  infrastructure
• Location, heading, speed, stop events, hard
  breaking events, weather conditions, vehicle
  diagnostics
• 2-5 penetration rate needed for accurate data
• Transit vehicles
• VII Advisory messages from infrastructure to
  vehicles
• En-route alerts, travel times, dynamic routing,
  hazard warnings (e.g. icy road), parking info,
  transit arrival times or delays

Weather Sensing
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Types of Applications VII Can Enable

• Pre trip planning/routing for all modes
• En-route routing around incidents
• Transit arrival times, advisories and connection
  information
• Killer Apps from the private sector
• Off-board navigation using real time data on all
  roads
• Door-to-door driving times
• Real time map updates
• Parking availability/reservations

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Current VII Activities for Traveler Information

• Michigan Development and Test Environment (DTE)
  and Data Use Analysis and Processing (DUAP)
• VII California Testbed
• New York ITS World Congress VII Demonstration

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Michigan DTE and DUAP

• Michigan DTE supports testing of public and
  private sector traveler information applications
• DUAP project demonstrates public sector uses of
  VII data
• Incident detection
• Travel advisories
• Road and weather conditions
• Winter maintenance
• Asset management

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VII California Testbed

• Leverages real world existing ITS for VII
  demonstrations
• Integration of existing data sources with VII
  probe data
• Complimentary uses of existing 511 system and VII
• VII tolling applications
• Congestion Initiative project will demonstrate
  additional VII applications
• Dynamic pricing
• Parking Information
• Transit information to buses (tentative)

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New York ITS World Congress Demonstration and
After

• Demonstrate numerous VII applications (including
  probe data collection, travel advisories, travel
  times, tolling, etc.) in Manhattan and Long
  Island
• Support for subsequent development of
  congestion-mitigation and road pricing related
  applications (post-World Congress)

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Conclusion

• Current Traveler Information Systems are not
  adequately addressing the need for accurate, real
  time data on all roads and all modes
• VII provides a wealth of data that could
  revolutionize the traveler information industry
• VII enables numerous traveler information
  applications not currently available or mature
• Dynamic routing around incidents in real time
• Off-board navigation based on real time traffic
  conditions
• Door-to-door driving times with best alternative
• Multi-modal traveler information (transit arrival
  times and delays, parking availability/reservation
  s)

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Next Steps

• SafeTrip-21 and ITS World Congress Demonstration
  in 2008
• Monitor results of POC testing of traveler
  information applications
• Look for pre-VII early winners (e.g. I-95
  Corridor Coalition probe data project)
• Leverage Congestion Initiative projects in New
  York and San Francisco
• Monitor cutting edge technology for VII and
  Traveler Information