Minnesota Guidestar Program

The Trilogy project was an ITS demonstration of the broadcast of freeway system traveler information to both commercial and commuter drivers over a 25-mile (40.3 km) radius of the TwinCities metropolitan area. In this project, real-time freeway system operating conditions, particularly incidents and traffic congestion, were monitored at the Minnesota Department ofTransportation (Mn/DOT) Traffic Management Center (TMC). This information was broadcast to a fleet of test vehicles with dashboard mounted display screens. Two Trilogy different systems were used to broadcast traveler information. The first system utilized the Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) - Traffic Message Channel; and the second system utilized the High Speed Data System (HSDS) to transmit messages to in-vehicle receivers. The purpose of the test was to determine if real-time traveler information would influence individual travel decisions, determine the technical feasibility of the system, and access the usefulness of the information. The project was started in August, 1995 and ran through February, 1998