Contra Costa Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Transportation Commission's: Innovate 680 Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Initiative

Executive Summary

Lead Agencies - CCTA is a public agency formed by Contra Costa County voters in 1988 to manage the County's transportation sales tax program. CCTA is responsible for maintaining and improving the County's transportation infrastructure projects and programs that connect our communities, foster a strong economy, increase sustainability, and safely and efficiently get people where they need to go. CCTA is also the County's designated Congestion Management Agency (CMA), responsible for putting programs in place to keep traffic levels manageable.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. It serves as the metropolitan planning organization (MPO), as a toll authority, and as the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (SAFE).

GoMentum Station is a recently formed non-profit entity in California (2014) and now is one of the ten USDOT designated AVPG facilities in the United States and one of the largest CAV testbeds in the world with on-going active testing. Based in Concord, California, GoMentum Station is where CCTA and partners lead and facilitate a collaborative partnership among multiple auto manufacturers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier-1 suppliers; technology and communications companies; Roadway Equipment Vendors (REVs); analytic companies, insurance companies; researchers and academic institutions; public agencies, and professional organizations.

Challenges - Interstate 680 is one of the major north-south corridors in Contra Costa County and has been one of the 5th most congested corridors in San Francisco Bay Area for the last ten years. The corridor experiences significant delays and inconsistent flow of traffic in both directions, and these delays are expected to continue in the foreseeable future. Expanding and widening I-680 is an expensive option, and building additional rail service in the Corridor would cost billions of dollars. Neither option is financially feasible or would adequately address our congestion problem.

Goals – In addressing our short-term (next four years) congestion challenges, we have collectively developed the following goals for I-680:

• Improve safety, efficiency, and reliability on I-680
• Develop and integrate advanced transportation technologies to manage congestion
• Shift people from Single Occupant Vehicles (SOV) to shared mobility
• Accommodate the high percentage of residents who do not have access to transit with alternative modes of transportation through on-demand mobility
• Provide mobility for residents who have limited or no access to vehicles, including the disabled and elderly

Figure A

Solutions – The overall Innovate 680 program includes the seven strategies shown here within an innovative Transportation System Management & Operations (TSM&O) approach.

Each of the seven strategies includes multiple integrated elements to address our congestion challenges and deliver benefits to travelers. The ATCMTD funding request focuses on the four corridor strategies that can be implemented within four years:

Short-Term Strategies – Four Year Implementation Period

This ATCMTD grant request will focus on the Innovate 680 strategies which utilize advanced technologies to improve corridor mobility, reliability, economic vitality, sustainability, safety, and air quality while providing long term and sustainable solutions. The selected short-term strategies and technology elements are:

Corridor Strategy 3: Enhance Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Strategies

The 511 Contra Costa program is the travel demand management team for Contra Costa County. It has committed funding through 2024 and it is expanding its capability's through Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) and other private sector partners. ATCMTD funding will support the expanded shared mobility programs, expanded public/private innovative technology solutions and the development of a new App for smartphones to facilitate non-SOV trips in the I-680 Corridor.

Corridor Strategy No. 5: Provide First Mile/Last Mile Connections

This strategy includes piloting Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) service to BART, a program that is currently underway to shift travelers from Single Occupant Vehicles (SOV). This would build on a comprehensive SAV program being implemented at GoMentum Station.

Corridor Strategy No. 6: Innovative Operational Strategies

This strategy includes advancing Integrated Corridor Management (ICM)/Active Traffic Management (ATM) in the I-680 Corridor to another level and building on our current success along the recently completed I-80 Corridor ICM project. This will include but is not limited to building a proactive Decision Support System (DSS) and providing Adaptive Ramp Metering (ARM) to accompany the current ATM system and building a next generation Transportation Management Center that can accommodate CAV and Smart City elements.

Corridor Strategy No. 7: Prepare the Corridor for a High-Tech Future

This strategy will prepare the freeway and arterial corridors for CAV and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) connectivity utilizing Dedicated Short Range Communications (RCS), On-Board Units (OBUs) and Roadside Units (RSUs) consistent with USDOT/FHWA strategies in implementation of Connected Vehicles (CV) applications. This strategy will also include implementation of a security protocol for all deployed technology components.

Longer Term Strategies

Corridor strategies 1, 2, and 4 shown in Figure A are part of the longer-term Innovate 680 program and are not part of this funding request. The short-term strategies selected in Figure A, will complement the longer-term strategies from a Corridor perspective. More detailed information on the longer-term strategies can be found in Section 1.1.

Why Innovate 680?

We are in a unique position to carry out Innovate 680 for the following reasons:

Collaboration at all levels. In the last 18 months, we have built unprecedented collaboration and consensus with secured commitment at all levels of local government and with private enterprises in our community. This includes our key stakeholders (MTC and Caltrans); Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD); Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART); all bus transit properties (County Connection, Tree-Delta Transit, and Livermore Valley Transit Authority); local jurisdictions; legislative and community leaders; a major developer along the corridor (Sunset development); and a number of private entities including Contestant, Bishop Ranch, EasyMile, Best Mile, First Transit, Crisco, HERE and Telegram. (See letter of commitment on page 5 from MTC and Caltrans and all other letters of support in Volume 2 -Appendix D.)

The GoMentum Station program is now an international Autonomous Vehicle Proving Ground (AVPG) and a leading CAV deployment facility and is built for the sole purpose of addressing the significant congestion, safety, and air quality challenges in our community and beyond. The Innovate 680 project will directly leverage the success of the comprehensive GoMentum Station programs. GoMentum Station is already up and running, exceeding the USDOT goal of being operational by January 2018.

Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) In early 2016, CCTA through the GoMentum Station program launched a comprehensive project with the goal of shifting the traffic from Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOGs) to transit and increasing transit accessibility globally. This innovative implementation of First Mile (FM) /Last Mile (LM) CAVs is the first in North America with full public-private commitment and participation. This program is on-going and we expect to go through full commercialization and implementation in 2019.

New Innovative Operational Strategies (IOS) are a suite of technology-based solutions that when integrated and managed, maximize the efficiency of the roadway system. These strategies will build upon the TSM&O toolbox in new and innovate ways that include advanced ICM, ATM, ATMS and next-generation TMCs with fully equipped DSS.

SPaT Challenge – If funded through the ATCMTD Program we will meet and exceed the AASHTO SPaT Challenge along Ygnacio Valley Road and San Ramon Boulvard, two major arterials within the I-680 Corridor.

Cost: The cost of the short-term program elements is estimated to be $39,000,000. We are seeking $12,000,000 in funding from the USDOT through this grant application. We have $16,000,000 in public funding programed to the Innovate 680 program and a commitment of $11,000,000 in local private funding. Short-term program costs are shown below:

CCTA, GoMentum Station, our co-sponsor MTC and our other partners are committed to the delivery of this project. Investing in the approach and strategies here will produce a return on investment for the USDOT through a scalable and replicable model for next-generation regional corridor projects. The remainder of this grant proposal is structured as prescribed by the NOFO and illustrates in detail our vision, strategy, and execution for Innovate 680.

The seven strategies envisioned for the I-680 Corridor are intended to be complementary and to ultimately be implemented as an integrated suite of corridor improvements. However, each corridor strategy can provide independent utility and is scalable to allow deployment based on available funds, economic conditions, regulatory requirements, and other factors that may influence project delivery. Our goal is to have scalability and replicability for each program element as well as the overall integrated corridor vision.

Several factors will be considered during the project development phase and as part of the project evaluation so that each strategy can be developed with a goal of successful replication in other corridors. Technical factors to be considered and evaluated will include software integration, emerging technologies, interoperability, and maximizing the use of existing infrastructure.

Letter of Commitment

June 12, 2017

A Bay Area partnership has been formed between the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to cooperatively plan and implement advanced technologies to address congestion, mobility, and safety in the I-680 Corridor. Innovate 680 will harness the power of emerging technologies to actively manage and operate this congested corridor. I-680 is a well-traveled north-south corridor in the heart of Contra Costa County that connects to economic employment and housing centers in the North Bay and Silicon Valley in the South Bay.

CCTA's mission for Innovate 680 is to develop the Bay Area's first connected corridor of the future. CCTA would integrate and deploy advanced technologies such as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), Decision Support Systems (DSS), cyber security systems, Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies, on-demand mobility, enhanced Transportation Demand Management (TDM), Transportation Management Center (TMC) with Smart City Lab and shared autonomous vehicles strategies.

MTC, as a co-sponsor, will deploy emerging technologies, new data and mobile applications integrated with existing Freeway Service Patrol technologies to improve the traditional incident response methods. These new systems would improve incident response times, tow operator safety and work zone communications, thereby resulting in decreased congestion in the corridor. MTC has committed resources to ensure the successful implementation of connected incident management systems as part of Innovate 680 with plans to implement throughout the Bay Area region.

As the owner and operator of the State Highway system, Caltrans is committed to implementing advanced Adaptive Ramp Metering (ARM) in the corridor. Combining decision support systems with ARM brings dynamic responsiveness to the system in managing congestion on both I-680 and local roads.

We support the CCTA's grant application for the Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment program for Innovate 680. We are committed to working cooperatively and providing the necessary resources on the effective deployment of integrated advanced technologies along I-680 as outlined in this application.