Assessment of Automated Data Collection Technologies for Calculation of Commercial Motor Vehicle Border Crossing Travel Time Delay

Final Report

April 2002

to

Office of Freight Mgt. and Operations
Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
Washington, DC 20590

by

Battelle Memorial Institute

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Version 1.0
Assessment of Automated Data Collection Technologies for Calculation of Commercial Motor Vehicle Border Crossing Travel Time Delay

by

Battelle
505 King Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43201

for

U.S. Department of Transportation
Washington, D.C.

Contract No. DTFH61-96-C-00077
Task Order 7727

April 2002

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Disclaimer

This report is a work prepared for the United States Government by Battelle. In no event shall either the United States Government or Battelle have any responsibility or liability for any consequences of any use, misuse, inability to use, or reliance on the information contained herein, nor does either warrant or otherwise represent in any way the accuracy, adequacy, efficacy, or applicability of the contents hereof.

This report is not intended as a definitive recommendation for a certain "best" technology but rather as a guide for further detailed investigation. Its intent is to portray the features of various candidate technologies and relate them to the criteria that need to be met by the application envisioned.

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Table of Contents

	Preface
	Executive Summary
1.0	Introduction
1.1	Purpose of the Report
1.2	Organization of the Report
1.3	Background
1.4	Methodology
2.0	Technical Approach
2.1	Disadvantages of Manual Collection
2.2	Assumptions and Issues
2.3	Characteristics of the Border Crossings
2.4	Where Would Sensors Be Located?
2.5	Overview of Vehicle Sensing Technologies
2.6	Candidate Sensing Technologies
2.6.1	Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) Laser
2.6.2	AVI Radio Frequency (RF)
2.6.3	AVI Infrared (IR)
2.6.4	Enhanced Common Inductive Loop
2.6.5	Signature Inductive Sensors (Enhanced Loop-Based Traffic Surveillance)
2.6.6	Mobile Phone Locating
2.6.7	License Plate Readers
2.6.8	Vehicle Matching
3.0	Other Considerations
3.1	Cost
3.2	Maturity of the technologies for deployment
3.3	Site security/vandalism
3.4	Privacy
3.5	Portability
3.6	Hourly count data
3.7	Developments Since 9/11
4.0	Trade-Off Matrix
5.0	Conclusions
6.0	References
Appendix A	Trade-Off Comparison of Automated Technologies

List of Figures

Figure 1.	Data Collectors Have To Make Safety the Top Priority
Figure 2.	The Head of a Queue Can Be Far Away from the Border Crossing
Figure 3.	Primary on the Mexican Side of the Zaragoza Bridge (El Paso-Juarez)
Figure 4.	Primary on the U.S. Side of the Zaragoza Bridge (El Paso-Juarez)
Figure 5.	Some of the Border Crossings Have Large, Imposing Bridges
Figure 6.	Discharge from Primary Can Be Congested
Figure 7.	License Plate Reader at the Zaragoza Bridge, El Paso (Automobile Side)

List of Tables

Table 1.	Comparison of Vehicle Sensing Technologies
Table 2.	Summary Matrix of Candidate Sensing Technologies
Appendix A	Trade-Off Comparison of Automated Technologies

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