Chapter 4. Emerging Best Practices

This chapter presents a number of industry practices that have been identified as ‘emerging best practices’, which are listed in Table 9. These are practices likely to become best practices as the research suggests high benefits and multiple agencies are pursuing them. However, these practices have only recently been developed and deployed and are still too new to classify as a best practice.

Although these practices are identified as emerging, several of the practices have been deployed by multiple agencies. For these scenarios, the experiences of several agencies are presented.

Table 9. Identified Emerging Best Practices Discussed in this Chapter

Identified Emerging Best Practice Description	Description
#1 – Citizen Reporting into RCRS	Agencies have developed their systems to allow citizens to report weather and driving conditions into the RCRS. This reporting approach empowers citizens that drive the roads every day with the ability to report their observations, effectively increasing the number of observations from a small number of DOT staff to any number of citizens who may be driving the road.
#2 – Integrating Transit Data into the RCRS	Reporting transit into the RCRS allows the system to ingest updates describing the status of buses (either collected automatically or manually entered) so that delayed buses can be treated as events in the RCRS and information describing the delays can be provided to travelers using the dissemination mechanisms tied to the RCRS.
#3 – Integration of Third Party Data	Data that is purchased from a private sector vendor or received from other public entities (e.g., a public toll facility) is viewed by some as an alternative to deploying additional publicly owned infrastructure that requires ongoing maintenance. This includes automated (no human intervention) ingest of data combined with logic to assign the data to the corresponding segments of road.

Emerging Best Practice #1: Citizen Reporting into RCRS

As described earlier in this report, timely and accurate weather and driving condition reporting into the RCRS is critical for a successful traveler information system. A best practice was described for ingesting weather data into the RCRS from various weather monitoring systems. In addition to this, in recent years a number of agencies have developed their systems to allow citizens to report weather and driving conditions into the RCRS. The idea of this reporting approach is to empower the citizens that are driving the roads every day with the ability to report their observations. This effectively increases the number of observations from a small number of DOT staff to any number of citizens who may be driving the road. The elements that are common to all citizen reporting systems are:

• Training. Each agency that has deployed citizen reporting thus far performs some level of training with the citizens before they are authorized to report;
• Common reporting criteria. In order to ensure consistency with how citizens report conditions (e.g., snow-packed, scattered icy spots, etc.) common criteria are explained during training;
• Reporting after driving. Citizens are instructed not to enter while on the road, but rather after they have arrived at their destination;
• Operator review. Citizen reports typically are reviewed before publishing to traveler information systems; and
• Monitoring. Citizen reports are evaluated regularly to ensure accuracy (and to potentially identify and remove any citizens from the program performing inaccurate reports).

Emerging Best Practice Status: There are three documented deployments of citizen reporting systems, two of which began operation during the 2013/2014 winter season. While all are currently considered successful, this is a practice that relies on voluntary citizen involvement and as such the long-term success will be dependent upon retaining the participation of volunteers.

Success Stories

The first agency to formally introduce a citizen reporting system was Wyoming DOT. Wyoming has openly shared resources such as training materials and recruitment tools. A project performed by the North/West Passage Pooled Fund helped share Wyoming lessons learned with other states. Idaho and Utah have since deployed similar citizen reporting systems, and collaboration between all three states has helped to standardize the phrases used. Standardization of phrases could make it easier for citizens (such as long-haul truckers) to be trained and enter data in multiple states.

Citizen Reporting into RCRS – Benefits

More timely and comprehensive road weather reports in RCRS Reduced DOT staff time Helps meet 23 CFR 511 requirements Engages and builds relationships with the public

In Wyoming, the department developed the Enhanced Citizen Assisted Reporting (ECAR) feature in 2005, and by 2014 it had over 400 citizens sharing information about road conditions and other incidents they observed on the road. A typical ECAR volunteer is someone who regularly drives a particular stretch of road, and possibly has been doing so on a long-term basis. These include truckers and private citizens. Wyoming has indicated that the citizen reporting program is a cost effective method for gathering more timely and accurate information, meeting the requirements of 23 CFR 511, and also engaging the public in a positive experience with the department.

In 2013, Idaho launched their citizen reporting system. Unique aspects of the Idaho system are that all entry is performed using an Internet/mobile device interface; and that citizens may only report for the pre-defined segments that they have registered to receive information about (an indication that they travel those segments regularly). During the initial year of operation, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) reported that they were happy with the accuracy and timeliness of the reports received.

Utah also deployed their citizen reporting system in 2013, as a method of supplementing the reports from plow operators observing conditions. Utah DOT has a strong relationship with the Utah Trucking Association, and has invited members of this organization as well as other members of the traveling public to be volunteers with an ultimate goal of 800-1,000 trained volunteers. During the first winter of operation, Utah trained 475 volunteer reporters who submitted a combined total of 1,800 reports on 120 of the 145 road segments, with a self-reported accuracy rate of over 99%.

Emerging Best Practice #2: Integrating Transit Data into the RCRS

As initiatives such as integrated corridor management are deployed, the delivery of transit information tied to highway travel reports will become more important. An emerging best practice that was noted by two agencies is the integration of real-time transit information into the RCRS. The idea of transit reporting into the RCRS is for the system to ingest updates describing the status of buses (either collected automatically or manually entered) so that delayed buses can be treated as events in the RCRS and information describing the delays can be provided to travelers using the dissemination mechanisms tied to the RCRS. A common element among transit system interfaces with the RCRS is that transit routes and schedules (i.e., departure times at each stop) are typically stored in the RCRS, allowing for traveler information systems to disseminate both planned and updated departure times based on current conditions.

Emerging Best Practice Status: Two examples of the integration of transit information into a RCRS were identified. Many agencies track the status of buses, therefore there appears to be great potential to integrate such systems with RCRSs combined with the added benefit of leveraging established dissemination mechanisms for overall information in the RCRS.

Success Stories

In Sacramento, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) RCRS is designed to include transit routes operated by local transit agencies. Transit agencies use the RCRS to enter descriptions of events impacting transit service, such as buses behind schedule, bus stop closures, or changes in service. Events entered by transit staff are then delivered using the same information dissemination systems used to share highway incidents, delays, etc. In this example, travelers hearing about major delays impacting their morning drive could also hear about transit issues (or lack thereof) and this could allow better consideration of whether transit is a preferred commute alternative. A secondary benefit of the SACOG transit integration is that the RCRS outputs the transit information in the GTFS XML output, allowing inclusion in the Google Transit Trip Planner website. SACOG also has plans to integrate automated vehicle schedule adherence data that is typically generated through on-board Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) systems to reduce the need for manual updates of vehicle status. Other benefits of the integration include:

• Increased real-time information available on the Google Transit Trip Planner in the Sacramento area; and
• Increased ability for transit operators to enter status updates that inform riders of operational status of vehicles and delay.

In Idaho, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has worked with 9-10 transit systems in Idaho and in neighboring states (where routes extend into Idaho) to add transit information to their RCRS. This integration has included the largest transit provider in the state (approximately 50 buses) as well as small transit providers (as few as one bus). Individual transit agencies enter conditions that include delayed buses or closed stops, and the information is disseminated through ITD traveler information systems. ITD also has plans to integrate schedule adherence data generated by AVL data in the near future.

Emerging Best Practice #3: Integration of Third Party Data

As noted earlier, travel time information (a requirement for selected roads in 23 CFR 511) is too time critical and changes too frequent to be manually entered. Therefore, some mechanism for automated collection or calculation is needed. There are many examples of public agencies using field equipment (e.g., loops, radar detectors, blue tooth readers) to collect and compute travel times, speeds or other indicators of traffic flow. An emerging best practice is the inclusion of third party data into the RCRS. Third party data can refer to data that is purchased from a private sector vendor or data received from other public entities (such as data from a public toll facility). Third party data is viewed by some as an alternative to deploying additional publicly owned infrastructure on the roadside that requires ongoing maintenance. A key element common among third party integration into the RCRS is the automated (no human intervention) ingest of data combined with logic to assign the data to the corresponding segments of road. Agencies differ in how they handle the speed or travel time data, with some agencies simply using the data to color maps on websites and other agencies using the data to automatically create events in the RCRS that could be announced on 511 phone systems or HAR broadcasts.

Emerging Best Practice Status: Five examples of third party data ingests into RCRS were reviewed as part of this project. In each case the agencies are having success with the operations. This practice was identified as emerging because the third party data industry is still developing, and there are a variety of agencies considering third party data agreements.

Success Stories

In New York, NYSTA ingests travel time data from TRANSCOM’s System for Managing Incidents and Traffic (TRANSMIT). TRANSMIT aggregates all the toll tag reads from E-ZPass to generate travel time data that is completely void of any personal information about any individual vehicles. The volume of E-ZPass equipped vehicles allows for accurate reporting of travel times. Once the travel time data is in the NYSTA RCRS, the times are used to generate travel times for key segments of the toll way. These travel times are then disseminated on DMS reporting travel to downstream landmarks, on the website, and through HAR broadcasts. The NYSTA RCRS also includes functionality that considers the TRANSMIT travel time data and automatically generates events describing locations of slow traffic.

Integration of Third Party Data into RCRS – Benefits

Increased information available to travelers Reduces DOT owned infrastructure Allows travelers to avoid areas with slow speeds Helps meet 23 CFR 511 requirements

In Maryland, the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) purchases private sector data on roadway speeds and integrates the speeds into the RCRS to develop speed and travel time reports. INRIX, a third party data provider, delivers data in a link-based format for MDSHA’s CHART system to assess and develop into reports about speed and travel time on state roadways. CHART also determines which DMS to activate with an incident report once it is developed, and the reports are also shared via the MDSHA traveler information web site.

The Ohio DOT (ODOT) purchases roadway data from two third party data providers (SpeedInfo and INRIX) to provide travel times in and between their major urban areas throughout the state. The department prescribes the format of the data from both sources. The data is polled every minute during the day and every five minutes during the evening hours to conserve energy consumption from the roadside devices that are used to collect some of the data. The data is integrated with their RCRS to provide travelers with automated travel time information in and between key urban areas around the state. ODOT also requires both vendors to provide a confidence score on their data. The confidence score is self-reported and this was closely checked by ODOT staff in the early stages of deployment to establish confidence in the quality of the data and self-reporting process.

In California, data is collected from over 25,000 individual detectors on freeways throughout the state and included in the Caltrans Performance Measurement System (PeMS). The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) RCRS then ingests real-time speed, volume, and occupancy data for freeways in the Sacramento area from PeMS. The SACOG RCRS includes an automated ingest of detector data for freeways in and around the Sacramento area. The SACOG RCRS operates a function that analyzes the speed data from PeMS to automatically create events in the RCRS describing slower than normal traffic conditions. Slow traffic described as an event on a road between two locations allows the slow traffic report to be disseminated over the 511 phone system and DMS messages, or sent to travelers using an email alert system and social media outlets.

In Texas, Texas DOT (TxDOT) fuses together multiple data sources to generate travel time reports. These data sources include loop detectors, radar, blue tooth readers, and third party data acquired through various agreements. The travel time data sources are denser in the metropolitan areas, and rural areas rely more on third party data. The travel times are fused together to create travel time reports.