dailywireless.org » Transportation’s Big Show

Transportation’s Big Show

Is this something you can share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry? – Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

While E3 Expo in LA is the draw for gamers, ITS 2006, opening in Philadelphia today, is the big draw for transportation wonks. The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) kicked off its 2006 Meeting & Exposition with a keynote address by former FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.

“My teenage son just began driving. And when my wife and I handed over the keys, we realized that we were handing him the keys to something that could kill him,” said Powell. “So on behalf of millions of parents, we need you to succeed.”

Highlights from this year’s meeting also include:

Educational Tracks: automotive, telecommunications, and consumer electronics; commercial vehicle and freight mobility; homeland security and public safety; transportation information; transportation policy, evaluation, and advocacy; public transportation, research, integration, training and education; transportation system operations and planning.
Vehicle Infrastructure Integration: The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration initiative represents the next step in the deployment of ITS. Many of the sessions as issues of privacy and the roles of the public and private sector are discussed.
Homeland Security: Some of the nation’s top security officials will discuss how investments in ITS technologies and communication systems can support homeland security goals.
Evacuation Management: From planned evacuations to no-notice evacuations decisions and management, communicating with the public during evacuations, the role of emergency services and lessons learned from New Orleans and Florida.

Vehicles could serve as data collectors and anonymously transmit traffic and road condition information from every major road within the transportation network through the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration initiative.

Accidents, construction and congestion can affect travel times. Inrix’s Dust Network plans to obtain GPS data from commercial fleets to automatically report actual road conditions in 50 major U.S. cities, covering some 35,000 miles of roads.

The University of Washington’s ITS program has a variety of research efforts combining computer and communications technologies to solving transportation problems. The development of a regional ITS backbone that allows agencies and organizations to share real-time data on current traffic conditions. Traffic Information Products are available over cellular and WiFi devices.

AT&T announced today a deal with ParkingCarma service and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to launch a pilot project called Smart Parking. This program provides advanced notification to travelers via road-side signs, the Web and cellular phones to indicate the number of available parking spaces in designated areas for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) commuters.

AT&T will provide core network transport services, as well as network design consulting and wireline services to support this application which is expected to help relieve the amount of traffic on the roadways.

Microsoft’s SenseWeb uses Networked Embedded Computing to enable people to browse online maps for up-to-the-minute information about local gas prices, traffic flows, restaurant wait times, and more. They would like to incorporate the technology into Windows Live Local (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth), the company’s online mapping platform.

By tracking real-life conditions, which are supplied directly by people or automated sensor equipment, and correlating that data with a searchable map, people could have a better idea of the activities going on in their local areas.

PinPoint Alerts is a prototype service from Microsoft Research for providing location-sensitive alerts to a mobile device. For instance, you may want your phone to alert you if one of your friends is nearby, or if your child didn’t make it to school, or if there is a traffic jam on your commute route.

Multimodal traveler information is the new buzzword; where information is available to commuters by the Internet and phone.

Traffic.com’s business partners include Microsoft, The Weather Channel, Comcast, Motorola’s VIAMOTO, and XM Satellite Radio. Drivers in 40 major metropolitan markets can receive free, customized traffic reports complete with predictive traffic trends, vehicle speeds, congestion levels, travel times, and delay times delivered via Web, wireless device, radio, television, and in-vehicle navigation systems.

Live mapping sites like CORIE (which maps sensors on the Columbia) or Palatial and others are showcased by sites such as Google Maps Mania. San Diego’s Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), sponsors O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference this June.

“The first-generation Web mapping — ESRI, MapQuest, MapPoint — have had APIs for quite some time, but they weren’t hacker-friendly,” says Tim O’Reilly.
Eventually, MapQuest prohibited even the repurposing of its maps. This created a demand for reusable map data, a demand that would eventually be met by companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
Embedding the XML tags 38.888 and -77.035 in a Web document, for example, lets mapping or browsing software know that the document is about the Washington Monument.
Almost immediately on the release of Google Maps, programmers found they could write their own program using the open interface to manipulate the maps — making their own content, rather than the usual Google search results, appear in the info windows tied to specific map locations.
Interactive maps have the potential to greatly extend the power of contextual advertising — the engine that drives the search industry and accounts for Google’s ever rising revenues.

WSDOT’s website contains comprehensive traveler information for the entire state. Oregon’s TripCheck website and their new 511 telephone service got record use during the holidays during heavy snow. TripCheck features Roadway Incident Maps, showing you where roadway incidents have occurred and an estimate of the delays involved as well as 120 Road Cams around the state to help locate trouble spots and keep an eye on traffic conditions. By clicking on a variety of icons, displayed as snowflakes, cameras, weather stations and general information, potential travelers can get a good idea of what to expect.

Portland State’s new ITS Lab Faculty, which I’m visiting this afternoon, has dozens of interesting research projects with a variety of partners.

Seattle’s Traffic Guage (right) costs $5/month but the webservice is free and available in many cities. The portable TrafficGauge, available at an introductory price of $49.99, is only available in cities that support its dedicated frequency (likely on an FM subcarrier).

Oregon’s TripCheck supplies local media but wireless technologies such as FM Digital radio subcarriers (via Ubquitity) can send traffic info. Local stations are competing with XM traffic reports and Sirius traffic radio, both of which deliver via satellite radio.

Cellular users can get traffic reports and directions, too, via Yahoo Mobile and Google Mobile along with Mobile Maps.

City-wide WiFi clouds may be the biggest opportunity. With a $129 Nintendo DualScreen or $199 Playstation sitting on your dash, perhaps streaming news and live situation reports will have a cost/effective delivery vehicle.

AirportMonitor even tracks the position of aircraft.

Federal Highway Administration

Traveler information – http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/TravelInfo/index.htm
Managing travel demand – http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/Travel/Index.htm
Commuting – http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/program_areas/reduce-recur-cong.htm
Non-commute situations – http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/program_areas/reduce-non-cong.htm
Intelligent transportation systems – www.its.dot.gov
ITS benefits and costs database – www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov

Other Resources

Association for Commuter Transportation – tmi.cob.fsu.edu/act
National Travel Demand Management and Telework Clearinghouse – www.nctr.usf.edu/clearinghouse
Transportation Research Board, transportation demand management committee – www.cutr.eng.usf.edu/trb
ITS America – www.itsa.org