Jeffrey Wojtowicz

Probes as Path Seekers: A New Paradigm

In a recent field experiment, a fleet of Global Positioning System—equipped vehicles shared real-time data about network travel times over a wireless network and had their path choices automatically updated accordingly. This paper describes the behavior of these 200 vehicles during the 3-month experiment and illustrates the kind of information that can be derived from the data archive that the vehicles created. Much can be learned about real-time traffic-responsive path choice, travel times, compliance, and more. Planners, designers, and system operators can learn much about the way a system behaves and can sharpen their ability to create systems that work effectively and efficiently under all ranges of use. True path seeking by probe-equipped vehicles will arise when such vehicles become a common part of the vehicle fleet.

Improving Freight System Performance in Metropolitan Areas: A Planning Guide

This report provides a regional public planning guide that identifies potential strategies and practical solutions for public and private stakeholders to improve freight movement system performance in diverse metropolitan areas. The Guide is intended to serve as a comprehensive reference for all portions of a metropolitan area, from the urban core to more suburban and exurban areas (urban fringe). The Guide includes an Initiative Selector tool to aid in the selection of possible alternatives for various problems, and Freight Trip Generation (FTG) software that planners can use to identify main locations where freight is an issue based on freight trips produced and attracted. Links to access the Initiative Selector and FTG software appear in this report. The report is divided into three sections: Section 1: Urban Freight Transportation Decision-Making Process; Section 2: Overview of Public-Sector Initiatives; and Section 3: Case Studies.

Traffic Management for Planned Special Events Using Traffic Microsimulation Modeling and Tabletop Exercises

This article describes the use of microsimulation for traffic management of special events, including evacuations and traffic incidents. Specifically, the research employed tabletop exercises using the microsimulation software TransModeler to present traffic management alternatives for special events to stakeholders. The exercises involved analysis of evacuation or egress conditions with current traffic management plans, review of possible high-impact incident scenarios, and testing and formulation of improvements to current traffic management procedures, including incident response. Two case studies were developed for the tabletop exercises; one the evacuation of a minor-league baseball stadium and another concerned with vehicular egress plans for a large urban indoor arena. Both venues were in New York States Capital District region. The results demonstrated that the real-time use of microsimulation during a tabletop exercise elicited many new traffic management strategies. Also, a cost–benefit analysis of using microsimulation models in conjunction with tabletop exercises for these types of events was explored. The project was made possible by funding from the New York State Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

Freight Trip Generation and Land Use

This report provides a comprehensive discussion of how the freight system, and specifically freight trip generation and land use, relate. The report consolidates available freight trip generation models in an electronic database to assist practitioners interested in using these models; identifies the most appropriate approaches to develop and apply freight trip generation models; and estimates establishment-level freight trip generation models in a number of case studies. The case studies confirm the superiority of economic classification systems over standard land use classification systems as the foundation for estimating freight trip generation.

Experimenting with Real-Time ATIS: Stepping Forward from ADVANCE

In the early 1990’s an in-vehicle navigation and route guidance project called ADVANCE was conducted in the northeastern suburbs of Chicago. It proved that travel time data could be updated on in-vehicle devices (albeit not in real-time) to assist drivers in choosing faster routes to their destinations. This past spring, about a decade later, a more progressive but similar 3-moonth field experiment was conducted in upstate New York. Nearly 200 participants used state-of-the-art, in-vehicle navigation and route guidance technology in conjunction with GPS tracking and broadband wireless to share travel time data and pick the shortest paths through a congested network. The route guidance devices observed travel times, uploaded them to a central server that updated a travel time database, and then downloaded every minute to each of the probe vehicles to ensure the latest travel time information was being used while enroute. The experiment resulted in a total of 4,111,210 latitude-longitude position/speed/time points. The largest number of location points per user was 98,018 while the smallest was 117; the average per user was just over 26,000 location points, or 325.5 points per trip. There were 12,629 probe trips for a traveled distance of 147,316 miles over a duration of 3,945.8 hours. This paper presents a discussion of the Capital District ATIS project including the parallels and differences with the ADVANCE effort. Areas covered are: travel time data, project background, description of the study data, participant statistics, experimental design, sample results, and a summary with future research directions.

The New York City Off-Hour Delivery Program: A Business and Community-Friendly Sustainability Program

The New York City Off-Hour Delivery (NYC OHD) program is the work of a private-public-academic partnership—a collaborative effort of leading private-sector groups and companies, public-sector agencies led by the New York City Department of Transportation, and research partners led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The efforts of this partnership have induced more than 400 commercial establishments in NYC to accept OHD without supervision. The economic benefits are considerable: the carriers have reduced operational costs and parking fines by 45 percent; the receivers enjoy more reliable deliveries, enabling them to reduce inventory levels; the truck drivers have less stress, shorter work hours, and easier deliveries and parking; the delivery trucks produce 55–67 percent less emissions than they would during regular-hour deliveries, for a net reduction of 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year; and citizens’ quality of life increases as a result of reduced conflicts between delivery trucks, cars, bicycles, an...

Use of Social Media by Transportation Agencies for Traffic Management

Social media have become an integral part of modern communication. There is, however, no clear consensus among transportation managers about how social media could or should be used to collect or disseminate actionable information. To provide guidance on the potential use of social media in transportation, a better understanding is needed of the content of the message as well as the path taken from the sender to the potential user of actionable information during crises and other nonroutine events in the transportation system. This paper assesses how social media are used to support traffic management operations during planned special events, such as concerts and sporting events, and during unplanned disruptive events, such as accidents and weather events. This paper also examines best practices for traffic operations among various agencies and presents practices used to disseminate real-time, actionable information to motorists in a useful and engaging format via social media.

Analyses of Arterial Travel Times Based on Probe Data

This paper presents an analysis of arterial travel times based on AVI (automatic vehicle identification) data from vehicles that were equipped with toll tags. The source is a six-month experiment conducted on a small arterial network in upstate New York. Data were collected using wireless, solar-powered toll tag readers. The paper explores and examines trends by time of day, day of the week, and as affected by weather and other conditions. The results point toward the value of using such data for travel time prediction, travel time reliability monitoring, incident detection, and overall performance monitoring.

Freight Data Cost Elements

This report identifies the specific types of direct freight transportation cost data elements required for public investment, policy, and regulatory decision making. It describes and assesses different strategies for identifying and obtaining the needed cost data elements.