Regional Traffic Operators Committee

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Regional Traffic Operators Committee
February 23rd ITE/IMSA Joint Conference
Stephanie Rossi, Puget Sound Regional
Council Aileen McManus, King County Traffic
Engineering Jill MacKay, IBI Group
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Presentation Outline

• RTOC Background Stephanie Rossi
• Regional Concept of Operations Jill MacKay
• Regional ITS Implantation Plan Aileen McManus
• Next Steps
• Questions

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Puget SoundRegional Traffic Operators
CommitteeStephanie Rossi, PSRC
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Demand for the transportation will continue to
grow.
Region expects to add 1.4 million people and 1.1
million jobs by 2040

• Smaller household sizes
• Fewer households with children
• More racially ethnically diverse

• Older population
• Different travel needs preferences
• Different housing needs preferences

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Land Use MattersandArterial congestion
continues to growForecast of change from 2000
to 2040
Increase in Average Seconds of Delay, per
Vehicle, per Mile, compared to year 2000
Source PSRC, VISION 2040 EIS Growth Targets
Extended Alternative
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Evolution of Operations within Central Puget
Sound Region
1992 Incident Response Funding
(WSDOT) 1994-2001 North Seattle Advanced
Traffic Management Traffic Signal Data
Sharing 2002 Regional Transportation Operations
Workshop 2006 FHWA Regional Traffic Signal
Assessment 2006 Traffic Busters 2007 Regional
Traffic Operations Committee (RTOC)
was formed
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Moving towards Regional Operations

• Regional transportation financial constraints
  publics frustration
• 2006 NTOC Traffic Signal Report Card D- grade
  for entire USA
• Spurred local, FHWA interest, led to regional
  assessment completed 11/06

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Puget Sound Regional Signal Review
Build stronger regional leadership

• Also need Regional
• Funding
• Information Sharing
• Training
• Performance Monitoring
• Uniformity Guidance

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Regional Traffic Operations Committee (RTOC)

• Puget Sound Regional Council Committee
• Promoting a collaborative approach to regional
  traffic operations with emphasis on
• Traffic signal coordination
• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
• Regional traffic operations (arterial freeway)

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RTOC Membership Summary

• Participants include King, Pierce, Snohomish, and
  Kitsap County, WSDOT, FHWA and over 30 local
  jurisdictions.
• Liaisons from transit, freight and emergency
  management
• Reports to the Puget Sound Regional Council
  Transportation Policy Board

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Why Regional Coordination?

• Facts
• Arterials cross jurisdictional boundaries
• Arterials carry approximately 50 of the
  regions Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
• Most jurisdictions maintain and operate their
  own signals on these arterials.
• Revising signal timing in one jurisdiction
  affects traffic flow in the next.

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Regional Coordination Issues

• Jurisdictions have varying
• Operational Standards
• Maintenance standards
• Operational budgets
• Signal controllers(equipment and software
  varies)
• Staffing levels
• Staffing Expertise

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Regional Coordination Issues

• Operating expenses can be lacking for
• Signal timing plans
• Timing plan implementation
• Real time Monitoring
• Timing plan updates

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RTOC Projects Underway

• Regional Concept of Transportation Operations
  Primary focus is on regional coordination of
  signal operations.
• Outcomes
• Strategies for developing a regional signal
  coordination program administration, funding,
  operations and maintenance,
• Memorandum of Agreement template to streamline
  future projects.

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RTOC Projects Underway

• Regional Intelligent Transportation Systems
  Implementation Plan (RITSIP) Joint vision for
  investments across jurisdictional and
  institutional boundary lines.
• Outcomes
• Multijurisdictional, corridor-based approach,
• Agreement on key arterial corridors,
• Regional high-priority project list,
• Cooperation in pursuing funding, project
  implementation, and operations

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Regional Concept of OperationsJill McKay, IBI
Group
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What is an RCTO?

• Regional Concept of
• Transportation Operations
• A management tool to assist in
• planning and implementing management
• and operations strategies in a
• collaborative and sustained manner

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What are characteristics of an RCTO?

• Program based, not project based
• Strategies, not technologies
• Emphasis on performance measures
• Geographical scope may vary
• Specific to a given functional area

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What other jurisdictions have implemented an RCTO?

• Framework
• Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ
• Bay Area, CA
• Pilot Cities
• Portland, OR Traveler Information Incident
  Management
• Detroit, MI Freeway Arterial Operations
• Tucson, AZ Arterial Operations, Traveler
  Information, Work Zone Management
• Hampton Roads, VA Incident Management

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What is the approach for the Puget Sound Region?

• Focus on Arterial Signal Operations
• Develop Operational Strategy for RITSIP Projects
• Emphasis on Coordination, Communication and
  Demonstrable Benefits

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Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives and
Performance Measures (oh my)

• Vision
• An efficient, safe, reliable, environmentally-sen
  sitive and seamless surface transportation
  system, brought about through inter-agency
  coordination and partnerships in the Puget Sound
  Region.
• Mission
• The RTOC seeks to collaboratively apply advanced
  technologies and transportation management
  techniques to operate, maintain and integrate a
  regionally-coordinated freeway and arterial
  network.

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How will we get there?

• Best (better) Practices
• Monroe County, NY
• Denver Region COG
• Pima COG
• Metropolitan Washington COG
• SE Michigan COG

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How will we get there?

• Regional Strategy for Arterial Corridor
  Operations
• Signal Timing Guidelines
• Overall Approach
• Timing Plan Development and Maintenance
• Relationships and Procedures
• Agreements
• Off Hours Operations
• Incidents
• Implementation, Evaluation and Updates
• Transit, Freight, Emergency Management
  Coordination

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How will we get there?

• Next Steps and Resource Arrangements
• Near term implementation plan for RITSIP projects
• Memorandum of Agreement
• MOA template to facilitate and streamline
  interagency agreements

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Regional ITS Implementation Plan

• Aileen McManus King County DOT
• Co-Chair Regional Traffic Operations Committee

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Regional ITS Implementation Plan

• Background
• RITSIP Deliverables
• RITSIP Corridors
• RITSIP Corridor Attributes
• Next Steps

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Regional ITS Implementation Plan

• Background
• Many jurisdictions are implementing ITS
  improvements within their jurisdiction
• Individual ITS Strategic or Implementation Plans
  
• Large ITS projects in the region Active Traffic
  Management (ATM), Integrated Corridor Management
  (ICM)
• Major construction projects on the freeway system
• King County received grant funding for a Regional
  ITS Implementation Plan

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Regional ITS Implementation Plan

• RITSIP Joint vision for ITS investments across
  jurisdictional and institutional boundary lines.
• Deliverables
• Key Corridors for ITS/Operational Improvements
• ITS Implementation Plan
• Corridor inventory, needs and costs
• Communication Plan
• Center to Center and Center to Field
• Regional Advanced Traveler Information and
  Conditions Reporting system
• Integrating with revised WSDOT site for a single
  location for traffic information.

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Regional ITS Corridors
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Corridor Criteria

• Freight Route
• Transit Route
• Multijurisdictional
• V/C Ratios
• Regionally Significant State Highway or Highway
  of Statewide Significance
• Arterial Classification
• Vehicle Miles Traveled
• Serving Urban Centers
• Alternate Route

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Top 25 Regional ITS Corridors
5 Snohomish County 4 Pierce County 1 Kitsap
County 15 King County
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Equipment Inventory

• Inventory of Top 25 Routes
• Fiber Optic Cable
• Cameras
• Signal Controller/Cabinet type
• Connected to Central System Control
• Coordinated System
• Type of Coordination
• Other Existing ITS Devices

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Inventory Project Map, Example
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Regional ITS Corridor Elements

• Signal Interconnect via fiber optic cable
• Multijurisdictional coordination of signals
• Incident, evacuation, and construction detour
  timing plans
• Real time traveler information (before and during
  trip)
• Remote operation of corridor from a Traffic
  Management Center(s)
• Ability to share data, video and possibly
  operation of corridor with other agencies
• Transit signal priority where applicable
• Performance measurement ability

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Signal Interconnect via Fiber Optic Cable
Communication Cabinet
Ethernet Modems
Patch Panel
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Multi-jurisdictional Coordination

• Some Controller Changeout necessary
• Traffic System Modeling
• Agreed Upon Operational standards

Traconex
Econolite ASC 2
Eagle M50
Econolite ASC 3
Naztec 2070
Quixote
Example Controllers
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Real Time Traveler Information
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Real Time Traveler Information
REAL TIME TRAVEL TIME
License Plate Readers Travel Time
Video Cameras
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Real Time Traveler Information
FLOW MAPS
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Real Time Traveler Information
VMS SIGNS
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Corridor Operation and Monitoring
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Example of Real time Traffic Management within
Puget Sound Region

• Transit Signal Priority

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• Video/Data Sharing
• WSDOT Traffic Busters
• 1 Gigabyte Bandwidth
• Use of existing WSDOT fiber infrastructure
• Video Sharing among 22 jurisdictions
• Grant funded WSDOT project
• Project is in design phase

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RITSIP Next Steps

• Complete inventory of 25 corridors
• Complete cost estimate for 25 corridors
• Provide Communication review and proposal for
  the corridors
• Regional Advanced Traveler Information and
  Conditions Reporting system

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Whats happening RIGHT NOW??

• Puget Sound Regional Call for projects Spring
  2009
• Members of RTOC sponsoring projects
• and for the long term
• All RITSIP corridors input to Destination 2040
  long-range plan.

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Questions?ContactsStephanie Rossi
srossi_at_psrc.orgAileen McManus
aileen.mcmanus_at_kingcounty.gov Jill MacKay
jmackay_at_ibigroup.com