Appendix D – System Descriptions

Appendix D provides the reader with a background on the systems used to illustrate CM concepts and practice throughout the handbook.

Southern California Priority Corridor

The Southern California Intelligent Transportation Systems Priority Corridor is the site of a large integration effort involving multiple ITS systems. As one of four corridors identified by the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, the objective of the Corridor is to fully deploy and showcase ITS potential. The Corridor serves the counties of Los Angeles and Orange, and the major urbanized portions of Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties. The program includes a number of smaller projects, currently at various stages. Some of the goals of the program include: increasing the safety of travel systems, aiding in the development of intelligent vehicle development, and enhancing the transfer of passengers and goods from place to place. The integration is providing both transportation management possibilities as well as increased traveler information services.

Georgia NaviGAtor

NaviGAtor is the intelligent transportation system for the Georgia Department of Transportation and combines video monitoring and detection with emergency response systems and public input. Based on information gathered through the various sensors, the system formulates a response plan and then communicates it to the public. One of the primary goals of NaviGAtor is to link the central traffic management center to transportation control centers in surrounding counties, the City of Atlanta and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, thereby providing an enhanced ITS capability that serves more than 220 freeway miles. Some of the major features of the NaviGAtor program are: the Motor Vehicle Emergency Response Team, roadside accident investigation sites, traveler information kiosks and free cellular incident response service.

Maryland Coordinated Highways Action Response Team II (CHART II)

As a cooperative program between the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland State Police, CHART, Maryland's Transportation Management System, aims to improve real-time operations of Maryland's highway system through its ITS component, CHART II. Specifically, CHART II is designed to monitor traffic conditions and issue advisories to motorists based on information gathered from speed detectors, loop detectors, cameras, weather sensors and cellular calls from the public. The system utilizes permanent and portable message signs to disseminate the information about traffic conditions to the public. CHART II has a central statewide operations center and local traffic operations centers. Data are stored at the nearest traffic operation center and are retrieved by the statewide operations center when needed. One of the goals of this configuration is to provide redundancy in case of failure of a single site.

Richmond, VA Smart Traffic Center

The Richmond Smart Traffic Center is one of three STCs in Virginia with the stated goals of:

  • Local traffic and transportation operations and management in [the Richmond] district.
  • Regional traffic incident and coordination within coverage area.
  • Coordination with nearby STCs and/or transportation emergency operations centers for regional or statewide transportation operations and incident management.

The Richmond STC uses sources such as police, VDOT offices, and other emergency responders to provide highway incident information to the 4 cities and 14 counties in the Richmond district. Some of the hardware that the system employs includes: variable message signs (VMSs), highway advisory radio (HAR), portable message signs, and closed-circuit video cameras. The system operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.