TRB A3A18 Meeting
DoubleTree Hotel, Minneapolis, MN
Mid Year Meeting Minutes
0800-1600
July 11-13, 1999
July 11, 1998
· Tom Urbanik called the meeting to order at 1:15pm
· All attendants introduced them selves.
· Minutes from the committee meeting January 1999 were approved unanimously.
· January 9, 2000 is the annual meeting.
· Year 2000 papers should be on the Web in August 1999.
· TRIS will be on the Web free of charge (linked from the TRB Web Page) late in 1999.
· Papers for preprint will be uploaded via a web site in November 1999.
· Papers for publication will be uploaded via web site in March 2000.
· Papers for 2001 will be submitted for consideration via a web site in July 2000 (no need to submit seven printed hard copies).
· Review forms can be printed from the web, they may be able to completed on-line.
· HCM 2000 will turn over a 1000 page document around Dec 31, 1999 and it will be officially distributed one year later.
· Richard Cunard will provide the A3A18 secretary with a detail of ongoing research projects. That information will be included in the electronic minutes. (Attachment)
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· Tom Urbanik circulated a list of committee members and asked people to update their address/email/phone.
· Dennis Eyler requested members planning on attending either the 3M tour or the local tour, to sign up.
· Strategic Plan, Don Dey: Deferred discussion on strategic plan.
· Research Problem Statements, Don Dey: Suggested that they be linked to web site (Attachment).
· Adaptive Control, Don Dey: Need a chair for the education task force 1) Develop list of handbooks documenting recommended practice and 2) Develop a framework for engaging other organizations such as IMSA.
· TRB Paper Review, Larry Head: Thanked last years authors, 12 papers were approved for publication last year. This year Larry will again email titles out to solicit reviewers. Reminded reviewers to please write substantive comments on the review forms
· Operations and Maintenance Sunday Seminar (Part A), Bob Desanto: Summarized the Operation and Maintenance conference at the 1999 TRB Annual Meeting. Raj Ghaman, Rick Denney, Anson Nordby and Paul Olson will assist Bob on organizing the Sunday seminar. After the 2000 meeting, Bob Desanto would like to pass the gavel. (Attachment), (Attachment), (Attachment)
· Tom Urbanik proposed that additional time be allocated to discussing O&M at either the January or July 2000 meeting.
· Adaptive Control Sunday Seminar (Part B), Don Dey: Proposed an updated series of presentations on SCOOT, SCATS, OPAC, and RHODES modeled after the 1998 mid-year meeting (Attachment).
· Web Site, Lee Han: Lee indicated the ANSTEC was assisting in maintaining the web site. Work is underway to get an “easier” to remember URL. Lee asked that when people change their email address, they send him email so he can update the list sever. Lee asked for volunteers to help manage the web site. Bob Desanto proposed adding a hits counter.
· Manual and Publication, Rick Denny: Committee has developed an outline for “Primer on Traffic Signal Systems.”
· Signal Safety, Bahman Izadmehr: No report.
· Signal Systems Research Database, Dave Henry: No report.
· Traffic Model Developers, Charlie Wallace. An electronic report was submitted (Attachment).
· Poster Session/Paper Session, Larry Head: Papers accepted for poster sessions are considered “second class” and are considered equally for publications
· Committee Membership, Urbanik/Cunard: Rich indicated the 3 year rotation was coming up and reviewed the rules of appointment. Urbanik indicated he was in need of public sector participants for the rotation.
· ATC steering committee will meet in Salt Lake August 25, 26th.
· July 22,23rd ITS America Highway Railroad Grade Crossing Meeting.
· IDAS (ITS Deployment Analysis Software) is in Beta testing.
· CORSIM CBT will be distributed in Oct 1999 through McTrans.
· CORSIM training course will be distributed though McTrans.
· TSIS 4.3 will be released in August 1999.
· TSIS 5.0 will be released in February 2000 and will include ramp metering.
· ATC Lite and cabinet working group will be established in Salt Lake. A similar effort on adaptive control prototypes is planned.
· Chicago is now under contract for deployment of RTACL. Construction should start late in 1999.
· Tucson (Rhodes) now has hardware installed. Deployment should be finished in early 2000.
· Seattle(Rhodes) may get under way this year, most construction analysis will be done in 2000.
· ANTSTEC is supporting both the ATC and the A3A18 web site. There are links to the ATC web site via the www.ite.org.
· Draft report on OPAC in Virginia is complete. Distribution will be soon. Document will be placed on the JPO electronic distribution list (EDL).
· Summarized USDOT/FHWA reorganization (Attachment).
· Andy Mao delivered an overview on where the ATC effort is going and the motivation driving the effort (Attachment).
· Sean Skehan delivered a presentation on the 2070 effort. Sean indicated this was an updated presentation from a presentation he gave a few years ago (Attachment).
· Raj Ghaman clarified that the 2070 is the name of the effort Caltrans initiated several years ago. FHWA has helped involved a broader spectrum of users. This new effort that builds upon the previous 2070 efforts but is now called the ATC effort.
· Craig Gardner delivered a presentation on the ATC API effort (Attachment, 1.2 MB slow download).
· Floyd Workmon delivered a presentation on the ATC Cabinet effort (Attachment).
· Bullock recapped last year’s discussion of mid-year sites.
· Les Kelman suggested San Antonio or Minneapolis.
· Don Dey suggested Atlanta & Las Vegas.
· Raj Ghaman recommended Seattle – Rhodes Demo, Beckman Center or Turner Fairbanks.
· Rich Cunard suggested Woods Hole.
· Committee expressed an interest in going somewhere to see something.
· Votes for midyear meeting Seattle (12) and Minneapolis (7).
· Based upon local logistics, Minneapolis was selected for 1999 mid year. Seattle and Northern Virginia are back up sites
· Woods Hole was selected for midyear 2000.
· Concept of a “retreat” format is tentatively proposed for summer 2000.
· Concept of a joint meeting with Freeway Ops in Milwaulkee was discussed.
· Raj Ghaman indicated input to the Traffic Signal System Handbook would be welcome.
· Cunard proposed following the format of the TRB Workshop of “Beyond the Greenbook” to give direction to FHWA for updating the Traffic Signal Systems Handbook.
· John Obenberger supported the concept of using the A3A18 committee as a partner in framing the “state of the practice/state of the art issues.”
· Jon Taber suggested a workshop were there are some formal presentations addressing the above concepts.
· The group was ambivalent as to an “Asilomar” or “Minneapolis” format.
· Salt Lake was raised as a possible site.
Don Dey delivered a presentation on a recommended structure for managing the research problem statement submission process (Attachment).
Yoshito Mashiyama, Hajime Sakakibara and Zuiki Yamashiro delivered a presentation discussing emergency vehicle preemption, bus priority, and public transportation priority systems (Attachment).
Meeting adjourned at 5:30pm.
Meeting resumed at 8:30 am on July 12, 1999.
In this session, the goals and objectives of providing priority to transit vehicles were discussed from a transit agency and a traffic agency perspective. Different agencies were asked to discuss what defines a “successful” implementation.
· Kristina Younge, Capital District Transportation Authority (Albany): What Does Transit Want (Attachment).
· Ron Atherley, Metro Transit (Seattle): What Does Traffic Want and Not Want (Attachment).
This session provided a state-of-the-practice review of different transit priority system. Speakers were asked to discuss the design and implementation of actual system implemented in the field. Each speaker was asked to address specific questions (e.g., Why did you pick the detection technology that you did and what issues did you consider?) in presentation.
· Mark Pitstick, Illinois DOT: Summary of Bus Priority Deployment in 1997 along a 15 intersection corridor (Attachment)..
· Sean Skehan, City of Los Angeles: LRT Priority (Attachment).
· George Serumgard, Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro: Bus Priority (Attachment).
This session provided the committee with an idea of what has been happening in terms of new standard development and algorithm development.
· Ed Seymour, Texas Transportation Institute: TCIP/NTCIP Transit Signal Priority Standards (Attachment).
· Larry Head, Gardner Systems: TCRP A-16 Research (algorithm development) (Attachment).
· Kevin Balke, Texas Transportation Institute: Intelligent Bus Priority Concept (Attachment).
· Darcy Bullock, Purdue University: Route Pre-emption Research (Attachment, 1.3 MB slow download).
The discussion resulted in a rather extensive list of “Issues” and “Messages” (see below). Balke and Engelbrecht will distill the above issues into a document to be included in the electronic minutes.
Issues
· Benefits/Costs
· Performance Measures
· Tools – Optimization Schedule
· Warrants/Criteria
· Strategies/Multiple Requests
· Accidents/Safety/Fire w/o Priority
· Differences by time of day
· National Architecture/Standards
· 175 User Service – for priority
· System Integration/Communication
· Simulation Models
· Network Focus
· Technology Review
· One size does not fit all
· Cycle Length vs. bus e.g. off-peak
· Near side bus stops
· Special bus phases / queue jump
· Integration of management strategies
· Perceived benefits are more important the actual benefits for keeping/acquiring transit riders.
· Communication to impacted system users.
· Education
· Smart Kiosks
· Median / Reversible Lane
Messages
· Location/ETA/Lateness/Priority
· Schedule/Routes
· Type of Service – express?
· Headway/Bunching/Management
· Number of Passengers
· System Status / Can you reach objective?
· Checkout information
· Feedback/status monitoring/ Is the system working????
· Travel time to destination.
Head, Husch, Urbanik and Bullock will prepare a revised draft of the 1999 problem statement on human factors associated with phase sequence.
Tentatively Seattle, possible local arrangement guy is Ron Atherley. Backup site is College Station, TX.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.
Meeting resumed at 8:30 am on July 13, 1999.
Attendants broke into four groups to view the SCATS, SCOOT and various ITS/Signal Systems projects in and around Minneapolis.
List of attendants will be provided by Dennis Eyler (Attachment).