National evaluation of the fiscal year 2003 earmarked intelligent transportation systems integration project

Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office2007PDFTech ReportSanchez, Robert R.Carter, Mark (Mark R.)Mitchell, CarolScience Applications International CorporationUnited States. Joint Program Office for Intelligent Transportation SystemsUnited States. Joint Program Office for Intelligent Transportation SystemsWyomingAdvanced rural transportation systemsVariable message signsEvaluation and assessmentDeploymentRural areasRuralARTSTravel managementEvaluation/program assessmentDynamic message signsHighway advisory radioEnvironmental sensor stationsClosed circuit television camerasESSHARDMSCCTVFHWA-JPO-07-040DTFH61-96-C-00098Task SA61028Kennedy, Patrick; Peters, Joseph I.This report presents the Phase II (Baseline) results for the national evaluation of the FY 2003 Earmarked ITS Integration Project: Southern Wyoming, I-80 Dynamic Message Signs. This Phase II Report builds upon the I-80 Dynamic Message Signs Final Detailed Test Plan by providing a detailed description of the Before deployment system performance of I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie in terms of crashes, incident response times, road closures, traffic volume, and road and weather conditions being investigated for the safety and mobility portions of the evaluation. The I-80 Dynamic Message Signs project is a rural infrastructure deployment of ITS devices that will be integrated with existing WYDOT transportation management systems. The devices include DMS, speed sensors, blank-out signs, Highway Advisory Radio (HAR), Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS), and Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) camera systems, and the associated communications infrastructure necessary to operate these devices. WYDOT anticipates having the system operational by October 2007. The I-80 DMS project evaluation consists of a study of system impacts, development of lessons learned, and documentation of best practices. The system impact study will measure or confirm the expected outcomes of the system in terms of safety, mobility, and customer satisfaction. The lessons learned that are produced will be based on stakeholder experiences and are intended to be seful for other agencies developing a similar system. Through the cooperative efforts of the WYDOT I-80 DMS Project Program Manager and WYDOT staff in support of the evaluation, the Phase II evaluation resulted in the collection and analysis of high-quality baseline crash, incident response time, road closure, and traffic volume data. The crash data from January 1999 through December 2005 was well documented and produced a wealth of information about the factors (weather, road, first harmful event, human factors), locations, and driver characteristics related to 2,019 crashes. Incident notification and response times were available for over 95 and 84 percent of the crashes (respectively) and provided a good baseline measure for comparison after the deployment. The road closure data, which spanned seven calendar years, was converted from hard copies of Dispatcher logs into an electronic database by WYDOT and produced insight into the cause, direction, frequency, and duration of I-80 closures. Traffic count data, which included counts by day, and vehicle class, also yielded valuable information regarding traffic volume patterns by year, direction of travel, season, and month in support of current and future analyses. In conclusion, it is recommended that the evaluation continue into Phase III to allow the collection of after deployment data and complete the assessment of system impacts, development of lessons learned, and best practices.112