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CONSIDERATIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A TRAVEL SPEED DATABASE INTEGRATING ATMS, AVI, GPS AND THEORETICAL DATA

In October of 1996, San Antonio, Texas was selected as one of four metropolitan areas to participate in the Federal Highway Administration's Model Deployment Initiative (MDI) program. This selection was due in part to TransGuide, San Antonio's extensive Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) that has been in operation since July 1995. At the time that San Antonio was selected as a Model Deployment city, the TransGuide ATMS collected travel speed information on approximately 26 miles of San Antonio freeways and was being expanded to cover 27 additional miles. Through the MDI program, TransGuide is adding an Automated Vehicle Identification (AVI) system and a database of historical travel speed data, which is based on measurements taken with GPS receivers. These additions will expand the coverage to approximately 595 miles. In addition to these new travel speed data collection systems, several Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) are being added as well. These include traveler information kiosks, in-vehicle navigation units, a real-time operations map, and an enhanced World Wide Web page and low-power television system. In order to accommodate these additional data sources and computer systems in the TransGuide environment, the Texas Transportation Institute, in partnership with Southwest Research Institute, developed a comprehensive information system to collect, maintain, and distribute a variety of traffic and travel-related data. This effort resulted in the development of a data repository, the San Antonio Travel Speed Areawide Database, and a software application, the MDI DataServer, which provide a centralized information system for the collection and distribution of data within the TransGuide environment. The MDI Data Server is responsible for managing a variety of data including travel speeds, traffic incidents, weather conditions, public transit routes, and equipment status. The system currently collects data from the TransGuide ATMS, the MDI Automated Vehicle Identification system, a historical database of travel speed data, VIA Metropolitan Transit System, the San Antonio International Airport, a road closure database, and the San Antonio Police Department. Data is currently distributed to a variety of systems, including the TransGuide Operations Real-Time map, the MDI Traveler Information Kiosk system, the MDI In-Vehicle Navigation system, the TransGuide Low-Power Television station, and the TransGuide World Wide Web page. The San Antonio Areawide Travel Speed Database is the central repository for the travel speed data within the data server. A large part of the effort in the development of the database revolved around the issues of collecting, maintaining, and distributing large quantities of rapidly changing travel speed data. This Areawide Travel Speed Database was developed in order to optimize the effectiveness of the various ATIS systems. Unlike the majority of commercially available navigational databases which use static estimates of speed the San Antonio Areawide Travel Speed Database contains up-to-the- minute speed information obtained from approximately 1600 loop detectors and 53 AVI receiver/transmitter stations located around San Antonio. This effort creates the foundation for the ATIS, by allowing the utilization of real-time data to provide accurate route guidance and more importantly, aid the motoring public in selecting the most time-efficient route for their desired trip. This paper discusses the alternatives that were considered in developing a system to collect and disseminate real-time travel speed data from a variety of sources. Detailed data descriptions, data storage requirements, and data transmission issues are also discussed and the benefits of our approach are considered

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Publication Date: 1998. Transportation Research Board, Washington DC. Remarks: Paper no. 981104 prepared for presentation at the 77th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. Jan. 11-15, 1998
  • Corporate Authors:

    Texas Transportation Institute

    Texas A&M University System, 3135 TAMU
    College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135
  • Authors:
    • Ogle, Jennifer Harper
    • Baumgartner, Joey
  • Publication Date: 1998

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Pagination: 16 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00944228
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
  • Files: PATH
  • Created Date: Jul 3 2003 12:00AM