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A Publication Featuring The Information Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume IV, Issue 12 | December 2001 |
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The TRIO project will provide travelers and tourists in the Tri-State (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) area accurate and real time information of road conditions, lodging and recreational activities. Travelers will be able to avoid congested areas and make informed decisions before and while on their trips using the Internet, highway advisory radio systems, and dynamic message signs. This is consistent with the goals of the National ITS program, specifically in the areas of safety, operational efficiency, capacity of the system, enhanced mobility and productivity, and reduces energy and environmental costs associated with traffic congestion.
The goals of the TRIO Integration Project are to:
· Integrate current and future ITS related projects and systems to provide coordinated services across modes and jurisdictions within the Tri-State area; and
·
Increase tourism and enhance
motorist safety through the provision of real-time travel-related information to the
regional travelers and tourists in the three states based on combinations of existing data
supplemented with new data from other sources.
We have deployed the Foretell (Road and Weather Prediction System) and CARS (Condition Acquisition and Reporting System) systems. Both systems are currently being tested in all three states. Although much work is needed to integrate the CARS subsystem in Maine, it has the potential to assist in accomplishing many of Maine’s transportation goals and objectives.
Three generations of TRIO deployment are envisioned.
Generation One - Three major subsystems - CARS, FORETELL and
deployment of information through the 1) three states tourism websites and 2) TripUSA
website - are suggested for Generation One deployment, with rollout expected during the
first year of TRIO operations. This is
because the three systems are already proven for multi-state rural operations and can be
swiftly deployed throughout the entire Tri-State region.
Generation Two - The next two major subsystems are linked directly to
proposed corridor reconstruction activities such as I-93.
As such, their timing, extent and detailed budgets will be determined in part by
external factors, mostly the timing and extent of the reconstruction itself. Generation Two modules may therefore run in
parallel with other deployments, or may run sequentially, as required to fit with outside
constraints.
Generation Three
- The remaining major subsystems may be developed to further extend TRIO outreach, once the basic statewide and corridor components are in place. The phasing and extent of public investment in these modules would be determined based on user feedback and experience gained from the Generation One and Two deployments.Currently it is expected that these modules will be prioritized during stakeholder
outreach in Year One, and then deployed at three to six month intervals. This phasing will ensure risk is well managed, and
costs are kept at an acceptable level. It
will also allow for feedback and user response to early TRIO deployments, so lessons
learned may be incorporated in later modules.
There are 12 Proposed TRIO Modules as follows:
Statewide Base Systems
1. Planning and Program Management
2. CARS System
3. Foretell System
4. Tourism Information System
Infrastructure Deployments
5. Corridor and Local Infrastructure
6. Dissemination Systems
7. Travel Operations Centers
Statewide Enhancements
8. Multi-modal Information Systems
9. Broadening Participation
10. Regional Traffic Management
11. Regional Truck Management
12. Emergency
Coordination.
Module 1 Planning and Program Management - This module contains the initial project
planning activities, outreach and stakeholder input that will set the detailed direction
of the entire TRIO project. Module 1 tasks
include a detailed inventory and needs identification, leading to the setting of vision
and goals. An outline design and business
model will follow. These activities will be
linked to continuing outreach and solicitation of stakeholder responses. Module 1 will also address overall TRIO Program
marketing and branding; further development of an overall business model; and the
refinement of user requirements, preferably in the light of initial responses to early
subsystem rollouts. This user feedback will
be utilized in the continuing definition of the detailed system design and phasing at the
whole-system level.
Module building, module testing, installation and integration, acceptance testing and
user training will be handled in specific subsystem modules. Remaining Module 1
responsibilities relate to system-wide operations and maintenance.
Module 2 CARS (Condition Acquisition and Reporting System) - CARS will provide most
of the core information on road and traffic conditions in the proposed TRIO architecture. As such, it is a high priority module that should
be deployed across the three-state area early in the first-year system rollout.
CARS uses the World Wide Web to allow authorized staff to input construction, accident,
delay, and other roadway, weather and tourism event information into statewide databases. The CARS server also supports routine DOT
dispatch, press release and emergency response activities.
These functions should help promote early acceptance of CARS by giving users
various tools that can serve some existing agency needs.
Authorized CARS operators use clickable maps and menu-driven data entry screens to
update event information in central database(s). CARS allows manual entry of incidents,
accidents, special events, parking, construction, weather and road condition information. Provision is also made for mobile events (e.g.
hazardous materials routing, snowplow routes) and action plans (pre-planned responses to
construction closures, hazmat spills, winter storms, etc).
CARS was developed for deployment in Washington, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. It uses Traffic Management Data Dictionary (TMDD)
standards for information sharing between different states and regions. The developer states will support Castle Rock in
broadening the user base of cooperating states in this publicly funded software
development. The CARS states would like to
coordinate with TRIO to help ensure that further developments they plan for CARS - e.g.
oversize/overweight permitting - are coordinated with additional features that may desired
by Tri-State members, e.g. predictive traffic capabilities.
This will allow maximum benefits in shared development effort for all, without
unnecessary duplication.
There are various decisions for TRIO members to make before CARS is fully deployed. These include: whether each state will deploy its
own system, or whether a single system should be operated jointly across the Tri-State
region; whether the states will maintain CARS internally, or delegate this to a private
sector contractor; and physically where to locate the CARS server(s). Operational decisions will include issues like -
who should enter what. Future
decisions may address proposed enhancements, and their relative priorities. These questions will start to be answered in
Module 1, and may be revised throughout the project as additional experience is gained
with CARS and with TRIO as a whole.
Module 3 FORETELL Road and Weather Prediction System - FORETELL will complement
CARS by adding a predictive component to road condition reporting. FORETELL is designed to meet the winter
information needs of travelers and highway maintenance managers, combining weather and
road condition predictions every hour for up to 24 hours ahead.
FORETELL downloads national weather model predictions from the National Weather Service (NWS). These data are combined with the latest observations from local monitoring stations. National predictions are then refined on a regional high-resolution grid (with 10 kilometer grid squares or finer), using state-of-the-art weather models developed by NOAA’s Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.
The numeric weather data are used to
predict road conditions at one-mile intervals through the application of road-surface
heat-balance models. These road condition
predictions include pavement temperatures, water depth, snow/ice depth, etc. - data of
particular value for winter maintenance activities. FORETELL
also classifies the detailed, quantified predictions into simpler descriptive phrases for
wider distribution to travelers. Both the
detailed and more general road and weather forecasts are disseminated via the Web.
Like CARS, FORETELL requires no special
software on user computer terminals. Both
systems need only an Internet connection and a recent browser such as Netscape or Internet
Explorer. FORETELL uses color coding and text
descriptions to complement numerical data. Conditions
can be animated over the 24-hour prediction period. FORETELL
also maintain user profiles of preferred information types, routes and areas. Where desired, additional subsystems can
also generate email or pager alerts when chosen thresholds are crossed.
FORETELL was developed within a $3.5
million operational test across a five-state region of the mid-west, through a
public-private partnership of federal, state and private sector funding. Like CARS, it
uses national TMDD standards to ensure seamless information exchange across the country.
Its selection for early deployment in TRIO would ensure that New England became the second
national region to benefit from this leading-edge technology.
As previously mentioned, both the FORETELL and CARS systems have been deployed and are being tested. It is anticipated that information from these systems will start to show up in some “public” form within a year or so and will start by using the three state’s existing tourism websites. It’s anticipated, conditioned upon budget availability that work on Generation Two subsystems would begin sometime in 2002 to develop the systems that will allow deployment of regional dynamic messaging that would be integrated across all three states. Initial focus would be in the I-93 corridor in New Hampshire and the I-95 corridor in New Hampshire and Maine.
Questions or comments? Russell D.
Charette is the Manager, Planning, Development and Engineering, Office of Passenger
Transportation at the Maine Department of Transportation.
[1] Partners in the Tri-State Advanced Rural Traveler Information System integration program include: Maine: Department of Transportation, Office of Tourism, Turnpike Authority, New Hampshire: Department of Transportation, Department of Resources and Economic Development, and Vermont: Agency of Transportation, Department of Tourism and Marketing, Agency of Commerce & Community Development, I-95 Corridor Coalition, and Other public and private sector agencies.
