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Border-Wide Assessment of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Technology—Current and Future Concepts

Final Report

CHAPTER 7. WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION AND FINDINGS

As part of this project, the research team organized two workshops to further document the state-of-the-practice, stakeholders’ short- and long-term needs, and present and future technology solutions.

The first workshop took place in Austin, Texas on April 5, 2011, with 28 participants in the conference room and more than 10 participating via Webinar. The workshop objective was to describe and discuss ITS technologies that are being implemented at border regions. Appendix A has the detailed agenda and workshop participant list. The audience for the first workshop was mainly State and Federal officials from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and the workshop evaluated integration opportunities in the border region, evaluated State and locally owned toll road operations at border crossings, and showcased experience measuring wait times, non-intrusive toll systems, and variable pricing technologies.

The second workshop took place at Caltrans District 11 offices in San Diego, California, on June 29, 2011. More than 45 people from public and private sectors participated in person at the workshop, and more than 10 participated via Webinar. Based on the results and feedback from that initial workshop, the meeting in San Diego focused on three aspects:

  • Policy, legal, and institutional aspects of border ITS implementations.
  • Implementation experiences from solution providers and technology vendors.
  • Future solutions/products for cross-border ITSs and technologies.

In particular, the first objective was to identify policy, legal, and institutional barriers to implementing ITS technologies along the United States’ northern and southern borders. The second objective was to learn directly from ITS solution providers and technology vendors concerning their experiences in the implementation of innovative ITS projects at the borders. The third objective was to explore technologies that are perceived to have promise for facilitating transportation across the borders, in both directions and for both commercial and passenger vehicles. The final agenda and participant list is presented in Appendix B.

Key Outcomes from the Workshops

During the first workshop, the research team presented a summary of the technology scan findings and facilitated discussion of the ITS technologies that are being implemented at border regions. As mentioned earlier, during the first workshop the audience consisted mainly of State DOTs and Federal agencies. The discussion led to the following points for each of the topics that were presented in the scan report.

Tolling in Border Regions

  • Ready Lanes are being deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border. These lanes allow for a faster crossing using a WHTI-compliant document. They do not pre-clear to the same security level as SENTRI or NEXUS lanes. The number of Ready Lanes is expected to grow in the near future.
  • San Luis II POE is the newest POE in Arizona where tolls are collected, marking the first time that a POE collects tolls west of Texas. Another example will be the future Otay Mesa East POE in California, which also involves a tolled access road. In the future, more POEs in California and Arizona will be developed with a tolling component as the financing mechanism as GSA and other Federal budgets are cut. New Mexico law currently prohibits tolling.
  • Texas law is very restrictive of automated visual identification of vehicles but allows the use of ALPR for tolling purposes. The only other legal way to identify vehicles is using red light cameras.
  • Mexico’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is in the process of equipping every vehicle with an RFID transponder (30 million). This may be leveraged for tolling or other ITS applications
  • Video enforcement in Mexico is nonexistent; as a result, gate barriers at border crossings are used to control access.
  • Currently, Mexican violators cannot be pursued in the U.S. However, tolling violations by Mexican drivers appear not to be a concern to toll operators in the U.S. due to the low violation rates. As more all-electronic toll roads are built near the border, this might become an issue. There is a need to educate and inform Mexican drivers about alternatives for paying for tolls, such as the Day Pass offered by TTA.
  • Tolling interoperability between the U.S. and Mexico and between U.S. tolled border crossings is very limited and currently not a top priority for the agencies involved.

Border Transportation Operations

  • Real-time data sharing at the border is limited or non-existent. There are plans to create an integrated bi-national system at new POEs, such as the Otay Mesa East in California.
  • The lack of protocols for sharing data is one of the reasons that there is little or no data sharing among stakeholders. BIFA is a response to how to share info. It is based on U.S. and Canadian national architectures and their components, with added Customs components. It involves Transport Canada/FHWA/CBP/CBSA. A key benefit is that it gets stakeholders involved in talking about the process.

Traffic Management

  • Concessionaire toll roads leading to the border do not have an incentive to inform the public about delays and best routes since doing so can diminish their revenue.
  • Reliable border wait-time information for contiguous border crossings is needed. Officials should provide drivers with traveler information in advance so they can make route selection far away from the border. In addition to border wait times, information for how to get to the border crossing is needed (travel planning).
  • New Mexico cannot sell TMC data or spend money providing it to third parties. Texas cannot sell its TMC data either. An alternative is for Texas to do quid pro quo with a third party, in which the third party provides something nonmonetary in exchange.
  • British Columbia and Washington State have had BWT measurement since 2003, using inductive loops at two crossings. It is for both northbound and southbound traffic and mostly for passenger vehicles. At Windsor, Ontario there is border wait time measurement using loops and overhead lasers.

Enforcement

  • CBP continues to expand the use of RFID technologies for trusted traveler programs on commercial and private vehicles.
  • State vehicle inspection agencies are also implementing RFID-based systems to expedite the screening of commercial vehicles that cross from Mexico into the United States.

Traveler Information

  • Currently the main source of traffic information still remains television and radio in border regions. Radio stations regularly report traffic conditions based on cameras or visual counts at border regions. Sometimes the information is not accurate because it is not provided constantly and could be lagging in time.
  • The border wait time projects currently under development will provide information in close to real-time basis, as well as archived data.

Archived Data Management

  • Transportation agencies are mostly focused on day-to-day operation, and therefore the archived data management activities are not a priority. Very few agencies have well-structured plans for archiving and using the data.
  • Maintenance and operating cost past research shows that adoption and sustainability are not easy. Understanding needs prior to implementing technology is a key element to secure the successful long-term operation of ITS projects at border crossings.

A conclusion from the first workshop was that a key element for the successful implementation of ITS technologies is to identify policy, legal, and institutional barriers to implementing. Given that Federal, State, and local agencies from two countries as well as private-sector stakeholders operate at the border; it is difficult and time-consuming to overcome these non-technical barriers. Another key finding from the workshop was the realization that it is crucial to understand stakeholder needs prior to the implementation of any technology.

The second workshop included participants from public- and private-sector. On the public sector side, state and local officials presented their implementation experiences. Private-sector stakeholders presented technology implementation experiences that facilitate transportation across borders. The specific objectives of the second workshop were:

  1. Identify policy, legal, and institutional barriers to implementing ITS technologies along the United States’ northern and southern borders.
  2. Learn directly from ITS solution providers and technology vendors concerning their experiences in the implementation of innovative ITS projects at the borders.
  3. Explore technologies that are perceived to have promise for facilitating transportation across the borders, in both directions and for both commercial and passenger vehicles.

The federal agencies that presented their perspective included FHWA, FMCSA and SCT. State DOTs included presentations from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

ITS solution providers and technology vendors presented their experiences in the implementation of innovative ITS projects at the borders in the following subjects:

  • Tolling in Border Regions
  • Border Transportation Operations, Traffic Management and Enforcement
  • Traveler Information
  • Archived Data Management

The various companies that made presentations during the workshop were:

  • FreeAhead, Roy Sumner, Border Wait Time
  • G4 Apps, Bob Borrows, Intelligent Connected Vehicle and Smart Phone Solutions in Smart Border ITS
  • Inrix, Ryan Glancy, A Non-Infrastructure Based Traffic Data Solution
  • Intelligent Imaging Solutions, Brian Heath, Smart Roadside Inspection Systems
  • IRD, Tom Der, Border Transportation Operations
  • Kapsch, Bob Frank, Tolling and border crossing solutions for the 21st century
  • R.C. Ice and Associates, US National ITS Architecture Team, Ron C. Ice, Regional ITS Architectures at Land Border
  • Telvent, Jorgen Pedersen, Turning Vision into Action
  • Transcore, Hal Pittman, RFID Interoperability

Key conclusions from the second workshop are:

  • Utilizing the advanced V2I capability of 5.9 GHz DSRC to allow bi-directional communication capability between the vehicle and the border-crossing systems is a technology that has potential for border crossing operations. The information that his technology is capable of collecting includes vehicle’s weight, dimensions, last inspection, cargo content, and travel history.
  • In the next 10-15 years, tolling will likely be “tag free” and lean heavily on 5.8 GHZ DSRC. A transponder will merge with other electronics (smart phones, navigation devices, or a vehicle’s OBU) for customer convenience. These devices will be interoperable, open standard, and capable of performing multiple tasks. This will depend on the level of adoption by toll operators and vehicle manufacturers as the connected vehicle program evolves.

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