Bluetooth Traffic Monitoring
Based on the point to point data transmission protocol commonly referred to as Bluetooth, the system logs the unique identifier, called the MAC identification number, at both an upstream and downstream location. Read more>
Arterial Probe Data Validation
The quality of outsourced probe data on freeways has led many departments of transportation to consider such data for arterial performance monitoring. Read more>
Vehicle Probe Project
The I-95 Corridor Coalition’s Vehicle Probe Project (VPP) began in 2008 with the primary goal to provide Coalition members with the ability to acquire reliable travel time & speed data for their roadways without the need for sensors and other hardware. Read more>
“Guidance on Quantifying Benefits of Traffic Incident Management Strategies (NCHRP 03-108) “
We sifted through nearly 5 million incident records and data from hundreds of traffic monitoring stations in multiple states (including Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Florida, California, and Washington) to identify those incidents that resulted in capacity loss. Read more>
Maryland Mobility Report, “Mobility Performance Measure Development and Reporting Support”
Mobility is a key performance area (KPA) at the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) and the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). The goal is to “Support Maryland’s Economy and Communities with Reliable Movement of People and Goods”. UMD CATT develops SHA system’s (including freeways, arterials, and major freight corridors) mobility performance measures. Ever since 2012, these efforts have been highlighted in annual Maryland State Highway Mobility Reports. This report identifies successes, challenges, and strategies being utilized to improve the transportation services SHA and MDTA delivers to Marylanders and the traveling public. What makes this comprehensive view possible is the unprecedented use of data provided by the private sector and supplemented with State resources. The analysis methodology is consistent with that adopted by the annual national Urban Mobility Report. Presentation and reporting of congestion and reliability measures are closely coordinated with the Washington and Baltimore Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPOs) to ensure regional consistency in measure definition and reporting. Read more>
Work Zone Performance Measure Development/Reporting Based on INRIX
Data
In this project, a comprehensive set of work zone performance measures are proposed. These measures cover the key exposure, safety, and mobility performance areas. Read more>
Freight Fluidity
The concept of a “fluidity indicator” has been popularized by Transport Canada to evaluate the performance of trade corridors and multi-modal supply chains. For Transport Canada’s applications, the fluidity indicator measures total transit time and travel time reliability of goods along defined supply chains. There is increasing interest by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to adapt “freight fluidity” in the United States, though a specific documented definition and application of what “freight fluidity” means for the U.S. – and what it might look like – is elusive. Read More>
Estimating Winter Weather Road Restoration Time using Outsourced Traffic Data: Three Case Studies in Maryland
The objective of this study is to examine the I-95 Vehicle Probe Project (VPP) data to determine if the speed and travel time data can be used as a basis to calculate winter weather road restoration performance measures, specifically by identifying the time required to restore the roadway to normal operating conditions. A candidate algorithm based on reduction of speed and change in confidence score within the VPP has been proposed and tested. The algorithm is evaluated during three known snow events in the state of Maryland to determine if it successfully identifies the onset and clearance of hazardous road conditions. Read More>
Highway Segmentation and Referencing System Matching for Performance Measurement
This project deals with the problem of projecting one transportation network to another. In the current environment where private sector plays an ever increasing role as traffic data provider, it is inevitable that public sector wants to adapt the spatial data and to use it in its legacy systems. The first step in this process is to match the typically proprietary private sector network with the public sector’s legacy network. Different public and private entities may use different location referencing systems for the purposes of analysis and reporting data. So, in most cases, it is necessary to transform the spatial data from one location referencing system to another. Geographic Information System (GIS) is a powerful tool for this purpose. GIS uses standard referencing systems to locate the features along a transportation network. This study proposes a methodology that takes advantage of GIS capabilities in projection of transportation networks. A workflow is introduced based on the proposed methodology. A tool is created to perform the projection in the ESRI ArcGIS environment. Sanity checks and some reporting options are presented. Results are reported on projecting a subset of the Highway Performance Measurement System (HPMS), used by Maryland State Highway Administration, onto the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) network in Maryland.
Baltimore-Washington Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Pilot
With increasing demands on the ground transportation network and limited opportunities for network expansion, transportation professionals seek to develop strategies to better utilize existing network capacity. Integration Corridor Management (ICM) is a shift from network expansion to a focus on capacity management and system efficiency, in order to take advantage of existing transportation infrastructure. Read More>
Volume and Turning Movement from Probe Data
The I-95 Corridor Coalition is sponsoring research to achieve viable volume and turning movement data through outsourced probe data for both operations and planning purposes. Our primary goal of the project is to ensure that initial product offerings meet practitioner information needs for operations, performance measurement, and planning applications, and that Coalition members understand the fidelity, potential and limitations of such data. Read more>
Video Analytics Research for CHART
On-going (no publication yet)
Maryland State Highway Administration’s (SHA) Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) makes extensive use of video cameras, which are permanently deployed across the state of Maryland to monitor traffic flow and improve traffic operations. The Transportation Management Center (TMC) Operations Division uses these cameras to monitor traffic in real time, detect and verify incidents, and to dispatch field response units to the incident scene. Today, CHART manages more than 700 Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Cameras at the state and local levels. In an effort to complement other conventional data sources that are available to SHA through vendors (probe data) or existing infrastructure (loop detectors and microwave radars), SHA is interested in taking advantage of the existing cameras to extract more traffic data from its video feeds. This project will evaluate the technical feasibility and economic advantages (if any) of such efforts.
SHRP2 Work Zone Impacts and Strategies Estimator (WISE) (R11) project
This project is based on funds provided to the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) for the SHRP2 Implementation Assistance Program to pilot the use of the Work Zone Impacts and Strategies Estimator (WISE) Software (R11). Read More>
Implementation of SHRP2 Reliability Data and Analysis Tools (L38) in Maryland
This project deals with implementation and evaluation of SHRP2 reliability data and analysis tools (L38) in the state of Maryland. The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has been selected to perform a proof of concept pilot to collect travel time data, evaluate travel time reliability, and use the outputs of these analyses to inform decision making on transportation plans, programs, and projects. Specific SHRP2 tools that are evaluated under this project are L02, L07, L08, and C11. This project builds on existing reliability products and develops enhanced tools as necessary to ensure travel time reliability data and analysis tools are used to support decision making for operations projects in SHA.
Trajectory Data Analysis
In 2016 the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) purchased 4 months of GPS trajectory data from INRIX, which is one of the leading GPS companies in North America. The SHA subsequently asked University of Maryland Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) to analyze these data and evaluate its potential for transportation system analysis. Thus far, CATT has demonstrated great potential for applying trajectory data to estimating demand, evaluating public transit, measuring traffic performance and safety.
National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS): Validation and Quality Assessment
The University of Maryland (UMD) Center for Advance Transportation Technology Laboratory (CATT Lab) is leading a FHWA sponsored project to provide NPMRDS. Transportation agencies use this data to reduce traffic congestion, increase freight productivity, improve safety, and minimize harmful greenhouse gas emissions throughout transportation networks across the United States. The Data Validation, Calibration and Quality is part of this effort to ensure that required frequency, quality, accuracy, spatial, and temporal data to calculate speed, travel time, and reliability measures are available in the NPMRDS.
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