DECEMBER
2005
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511 in Canada – CRTC Application Update
By
Paul Frigon, 511 Coordinator
During September and October, interrogatories were received
from several telephone companies and responses were
filed by the Canada 511 Consortium. It is good news
that, in the final telephone company comments, all of
them now support the assignment of the 511 number as
a service for weather and traveller information in Canada.
Although
a last minute interrogatory was filed by the Canadian
Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP), essentially
objecting to the Canada 511 Consortium’s request
for 511, the CRTC has deferred comment on the CASP submission
until a decision on the Consortium’s application
has been reached.
The
Canada 511 Consortium’s application for 511 is
now complete and all parties are awaiting a CRTC decision,
which is anticipated in the first quarter of 2006. There
still remains a possibility that the Canada 511 Consortium
will be asked to provide additional information in the
coming months, to assist the CRTC in their decision.
To this end, the Canada 511 Consortium will continue
to address items relating to governance, network design
and the Canada 511 Consortium’s mandate. For example,
a network design subcommittee is being formed, and will
consist of technical representatives from Consortium
members.
Upon
the successful conclusion of the CRTC regulatory process,
it is anticipated that a single point of contact will
be identified by the Canada 511 Consortium to act as
their agent. This agent will work with the 511 Service
Provider(s) and other telecommunications service providers,
as required, and will also coordinate activities of
the Consortium members, including the identification
and resolution of any issues that may arise. For further
details on the Canada 511 application, please visit:
www.itscanada.ca/english/project511.htm.
511
Deployment in the U.S.
Usage
statistics for 511 telephone services nationwide in
October 2005, as reported to the 511 Deployment Coalition,
were:
- 1,199,773 total calls
- Over 41 million calls nationwide
since inception
- 14 consecutive months with over
1 million calls
- 511 service was available to over
83 million Americans (28 percent)
- Systems deployed for one year
saw a 9.11 percent increase in call volumes compared
to October 2004
- The San Francisco Bay Area
service set a new national monthly call volume record
and received its 8 millionth call.
26th
Plenary Meeting of ISO Technical Committee 204
By
William Johnson, Head of Delegation Canada, and
Chair,
Standards Council of Canada, Canadian Advisory Committee
for ISO/TC 204
The
26th Plenary Meeting of the ISO Technical Committee
204 (ITS) was held in Portland, Oregon, on November
4, 2005. The Plenary meeting is the focal point of the
standards development business of ISO/TC 204. Working
group meetings were held earlier that week. This report
provides a brief overview of the proceedings.
This was the most successful TC 204 meeting yet, with
160 delegates from 17 countries participating in the
working group and plenary meetings. There were four
members of the Canadian delegation:
- Dr. William Johnson, Head of Delegation,
representing the Standards Council of Canada
- Dr. Lewis Sabounghi, International
Convenor for Working Group 7 (General Fleet Management
and Commercial Freight)
- Mr. Jackson Wang, Canadian expert
to Working Group 10 (Traveller Information)
- Dr. Christina Rudin-Brown, Canadian
expert to Working Group 14 (Vehicle/Roadway Warning).
Highlights
The
Working Group meetings of particular interest to Canada
included Mobile Databases (WG 3), General Fleet Management
and Commercial Freight (WG 7), Public Transport and
Emergency (WG 8), Traffic Management (WG 9), Traveller
Information (WG 10), and Vehicle-Roadway Warning (WG
14). Not all Working Groups meet during the ISO/TC 204
week. The DSRC (WG 15) and the Communications (WG 16)
working groups did not meet; WG 15 is winding down and
WG 16 is too “busy” with four sub working
groups to meet in the same week. To learn more about
the TC 204 meetings in Portland, the Head of Delegation’s
trip report is available at: www.itscanada.ca/standardscommittee/newsandevents.htm
The Delegation from Japan presented an excellent report
(in English) entitled “Standardization Activities
in Japan”. This report described the relationship
between ITS standards development in Japan and the international
work of ISO/TC 204. Japan has an active and productive
program of activity related to ITS standards development.
It
is supported by the Japanese automotive industry and
by public agencies. This report is both an inspiration
on “how to do it right” as well as a model
for other countries to use for reporting their ITS standards
development activities.
ISO/TC 204 has a joint project with the APEC/Transport
Working Group to conduct a comprehensive study of ITS
standards policy and development status in countries
worldwide. The first step in 2005 was to survey ITS
standards development and standards deployment activities
in APEC and TC 204 countries. Canada participated in
this survey, along with 19 other countries and 4 international
standards development organizations. The project report
entitled “Worldwide Report on ITS Standards”
(WRITSS) will enable member countries to benchmark their
own progress against other countries. Due in February
2006, it will be used to animate an international workshop
planned for April in Busan, Korea, in conjunction with
the next ISO/TC 204 meeting.
TC 204 is enjoying continued growth in international
recognition and in attendance at its meetings. The next
Plenary Meetings will be hosted by Korea in April 2006
and by South Africa in October 2006. For further information
about ISO/TC 204 or the outcomes of the meetings in
Portland, contact the Head of Delegation, William Johnson,
at johnswf@attglobal.net.
ITS
Canada Welcomes New Members
SUSTAINING
CORPORATE
Serco Group
CORPORATE
DM Solutions Group
Integrated Vehicle Technologies
Transportation
Project Announcements
Unique
Highway Inspection Station Under Construction at Saint-Bernard-De-Lacolle
On
November 25, 2005, the start of construction of an
inspection station on Highway 15 at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle
was announced. The project, an innovation for Quebec
and for Canada, is being carried out jointly by the
Government of Canada, the SAAQ [Quebec automobile
insurance corporation] and the Quebec Department of
Transport, which is also responsible for the implementation
of the project.
The work involves the construction of a control station
on Highway 15, situated approximately 2.7 kilometres
north of the border. This station will use intelligent
transportation systems, including a vehicle detecting
system, an embedded scale to weigh heavy vehicles
on the highway, automated identification systems for
heavy vehicles made up of a transmitter/receiver and
cameras to provide optical recognition of licence
plates, and variable message signs.
The
ITS equipment in this new station will be integrated
into the computer systems of the SAAQ, which will
allow highway controllers to screen heavy vehicles
before they are required to report for inspection.
The station should be operational by fall 2006, when
a six-month testing period will begin. The total investment
for this project is $21.6 million.
Other
work underway to improve the safety and efficiency
of the Highway 15 trade corridor includes development
of a congestion detection system on Highway 15 South,
improvement of existing lighting and installation
of new lighting along the centre strip, and landscaping
to improve the look of the gateway for traffic entering
Quebec.
For
full details:
www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2005/05-h267e.htm
Government
of Canada and York Region To Study Better Traffic
Management
On
November 28, 2005, Transport Canada, along with several
municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area, announced
a study of opportunities for integrating traffic management
systems in the region.
The
study will examine how the various traffic management
systems in the Greater Toronto region could be integrated
to provide effective centre-to-centre communications
to improve traffic flow, as well as developing a regional
traveller information system to provide commuters
with information on traffic conditions. The Government
of Canada is prepared to contribute up to $250,000
per municipality to undertake this study.
Federal
funding will be provided under the Strategic Highway
Infrastructure Program, a $600-million program to
improve highway infrastructure across Canada. Part
of this funding, $100 million, is earmarked for initiatives
that better integrate the country’s transportation
system. Funding for the study is dependent upon the
signing of contribution agreements. For full details:
www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2005/05-h268e.htm
Intelligent
Transportation Systems Project Funding
By Lizuarte Simas, Regional Municipality of York
In
January 2005, a total of $5 million in funding for twenty-five
new projects was announced under Transport Canada's
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Plan. The winning
projects will take place in various locations across
Canada. Details on all of the projects are available
at www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2005/05-h001e.htm.
Funding awarded:
$250,000
Total cost of proposal: $500,000
This
project will result in the deployment of an Adaptive
Traffic Control (ATC) system that will become part of
York Region’s strategic infrastructure for the
delivery of traffic management and control services.
The system will satisfy and support the following user
services and user sub-services of the traffic management
services (user services bundles) of the ITS Architecture
for Canada:
- Surface Street Control
- Operations and Maintenance.
Operational
benefits of the ATC system to York Region will include
the following:
- Multi-criteria ATC algorithms
that cater for a wide range of traffic conditions,
including over-saturated and congested situations
- Distinctive ATC criteria (i.e.,
maximum green bandwidth, minimum delays and stops,
queue balancing and gating) are applied to optimize
signal timings for prevailing traffic conditions
- Flexible detector configuration
requirements enable users to optimize detector coverage,
while minimizing capital costs, for better data collection
- Reduced effort to update and
maintain signal timing plans
- Improved traffic operational
efficiency and reduced traffic congestion in key corridors
- Seamless integration with the
Region’s Centralized Traffic Control System
(CTCS) to provide a complete set of alternative traffic
control strategies as required, including free operation,
time based coordination, traffic responsive control
and traffic adaptive control
- Open system architecture and
communications protocol, with a technology growth
path that can accommodate changing information technologies.
The
project will add the ATC package to the existing CTCS.
These new features will be evaluated on a set of intersections
in the Region using 3G wireless communications. An overview
of the system is illustrated below.
ATC requires upgrades to the
CTCS and intersection as follows.
York
Traffic Management Centre:
- Traffic adaptive software upgrades
to the existing CTCS
- Add communications modems for
access to 3G network.
Intersection:
- Add vehicle detectors (loops)
- Add MAC (Multi-criteria Adaptive
Control) Adaptor connected to the existing intersection
controller
- Add communications modems for
access to 3G network.
The
MAC adaptor installed at the intersection is responsible
for gathering the traffic data from the vehicle detectors
and signal cycle timing operation of the controller,
coordinating this information, and performing local
tactical control of the intersection.
This
project is being undertaken in partnership with Delcan
Corporation.
University
of British Columbia’s New Transit Centre
By
Keenan Kitasaka and Graeme Masterton, TransLink
TransLink’s
universal pass system serves more than 60,000 students
at Simon Fraser University and the University of British
Columbia. As reported in the May/June issue of ITS Canada’s
newsletter, student referendums to extend the Vancity
U-Pass Program at SFU and UBC until August 2008, add
a summer U-Pass at UBC, and increase the monthly fee
for students passed successfully.
Designed
to increase transit ridership, U-Pass provides students
with unlimited travel on the region’s bus, rapid
transit, and passenger ferry services. Under this successful
program, transit ridership is soaring while traffic
volumes to the campuses have dropped.
- There are now more than 50,000
U-Pass holders, 60 percent of them at UBC (the others
at SFU).
- Since the U-Pass was introduced
in the fall of 2003, UBC has measured a 139 percent
increase in transit use, with a 53 percent increase
in 2003 alone.
- Vehicle trips to campus have
decreased by 16 percent.
As
a result of this popularity, TransLink has had to increase
service. A bus now arrives at UBC every 40 seconds.
Currently, the UBC bus terminal ranks as the third busiest
“station” in the TransLink system (if ranked
as a rapid transit station), and is projected to become
the number two station by 2015.
TransLink
is now working to construct a new transit terminal at
UBC, similar in design to an airport terminal, with
reader boards and gates. The terminal will have the
majority of the routes below-grade, with the electric
trolley bus routes at the surface. The currently at-grade
transit exchange would have had to be increased to such
a size that it would be uneconomical in terms of the
land that it would require. In addition, UBC has development
plans for the site of the above-grade facility.
The
underground transit centre being constructed is filled
with ITS infrastructure. With the new terminal,
all buses will have GPS and will feature "all-door"
boarding. Dynamically controlled signage will count
down the departure times from the main “terminal”
area at the surface, and additional signage below-grade
will direct passengers to the departure gates.
By
2021, a bus is expected to arrive via a tunnel every
20 seconds to an "arrival area" with gates.
After passengers unload, the buses will be sent to a
holding area where drivers will be able to rest. An
advisory system using either voice annunciation or readers
boards in key areas will advise operators when they
should return to their bus. The operator will then be
directed to a "departure" gate to load passengers.
It is estimated that there is only a 50-second lead-time
between the bus departing the holding or “layover”
area and arriving at the departure gate. A traffic signal
is required to control an "intersection" inside
the terminal that will be linked to the above-ground
traffic light. This will allow buses to platoon out
of the terminal and through the first at-grade intersection
without stopping.
The
project is challenging and will test the limits of technology
but, when completed in 2008, it will be a state-of-the-art
facility. There are transit facilities with some of
the features being utilized at UBC, such as Arnheim,
Netherlands, The Bus Exchange in Christchurch, NZ, and
at Sydney Australia’s Bondi Junction. The major
difference at UBC is combining all features together
with a split terminal, and pushing through three to
four times the volume of passengers using only three
arrival gates and four departure gates below grade and
up to three gates at the surface.
This
facility will rival any transit terminal in the world
in terms of the reliance on ITS to ensure that up to
over 9,000 arriving passengers and 6,000 departing passengers
in peak hour can be accommodated.
National
Sustainable Urban Transportation Programs and Initiatives
Day
By William Johnson, Director – ITS Canada
On
December 2, 2005, William Johnson represented ITS Canada
at the National Sustainable Urban Transportation Programs
and Initiatives Day, held in Ottawa and hosted by Natural
Resources Canada for the Interdepartmental Working Group
on Sustainable Urban Transportation. He made a presentation
as part of a panel that included Michael Roschlau of
the Canadian Urban Transit Association, Al Cormier of
the Centre for Sustainable Transportation and Allen
Stewart of the Transportation Association of Canada.
One
theme of the Initiatives Day was partnerships and lessons
learned. ITS Canada has much experience at building
national partnerships for the '511' initiative and the
recently launched ITS Framework for Traffic Management.
These examples highlight our strong relationships with
CUTA and TAC. In his summary at the end of the day,
Peter Reilly-Roe of Natural Resources Canada noted the
willingness expressed by participants to work together,
the importance of understanding and changing human behaviour,
and the need to think about things in new ways. While
conceding that sustainable transportation is a difficult
concept to articulate, he urged those present to consider
"To articulate the vision is to become the vision"
as the best road forward.
This
was a worthwhile engagement for ITS Canada as it demonstrated
to federal officials that ITS Canada is a willing partner
with a proven track record of successful leadership
in national partnerships. The informal discussions in
the networking sessions over coffee and lunch were invaluable
opportunities to establish good relations with the event
convenors and attendees.
Members
in the News
Globis
Data Inc. has announced that it has successfully
demonstrated the delivery of streaming video from traffic
cameras to Bell EV-DO handsets. By obtaining real-time,
streaming video from traffic cameras, users will be
able to check key parts of their route before starting
a trip and select the optimum route, resulting in faster
trips, increased productivity, and less frustration
idling in traffic.
The
recent demonstration was part of the launch of Bell‘s
new leading-edge mobile data network, EV-DO (Evolution
Data Optimized), the fastest mobile data network ever
commercialized. The demonstration used traffic video
from cameras owned and operated by Transports Québec.
Traficon has
announced a new video detection module, called the VIP-Total,
that combines traffic monitoring, automatic incident
detection and traffic data collection. It has been developed
for tunnel, highway and bridge applications on fixed
and PTZ cameras. Its current intelligence, with the
implementation of the latest and more advanced technologies
such as MPEG4 image compression and Video over IP, makes
this product unique in the video detection market. This
VIP technology provides real-time data and image information
for optimal traffic control and fast, accurate incident
detection.
News
bITS
UMTRI
Wins $25 Million Contract to Help Drivers Avoid Crashes
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded
a $2.5 million contract to the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to develop
technologies to assist drivers in avoiding crashes.
Partners include Visteon Corp., Eaton Corp., AssistWare
Technology Inc., Honda R&D Americas Inc., Battelle
and the Michigan Department of Transportation. A new,
integrated crash warning system in a fleet of 16 passenger
cars and 10 heavy-duty trucks will be developed and
tested.
The
goal is to develop integrated, advanced technologies
that will warn drivers when they are about to leave
the roadway, are in danger of colliding with another
vehicle when changing lanes, or are at risk of colliding
with the vehicle in front of them. It will use information
gathered by inertial, video and radar sensors, plus
a global positioning system module to prevent or lessen
the impact of some crashes.
For
further details, visit: www.umtri.umich.edu
U.S.
DOT Releases Traffic Congestion and Reliability Report
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal
Highways Administration has released a report entitled,
“Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends
and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation
(2005)”. The report contains an overview of
traffic congestion in the United States and a summary
of recent trends in congestion, as well as suggested
operational solutions to assist in easing congestion
and to improve reliability of travel times.
For
details, visit: www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report/index.htm
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Gulf Traffic
December 12 to 14, 2005 – Dubai, UAE
www.gulftraffic.com
- 2nd Abu Dhabi International
Road Exhibition & Conference (ROADEX 2006)
March 12 to 15, 2006 – Abu Dhabi, UAE
www.roadex-uae.com
- 4th Annual GTA Transportation
Summit
March 21 and 22, 2006 – Toronto, Ontario
www.strategyinstitute.com
- Intertraffic Amsterdam
April 4 to 7, 2006 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
www.intertraffic.com
- AQTR’s 41st Annual
Congress
April 9 to 11, 2006 – Quebec City, Quebec
www.aqtr.qc.ca
- ITS America’s 2006 Annual
Meeting & Expo
May 7 to 9, 2006 – Philadelphia, PA
www.itsa.org/annualmeeting.html
- Traffic and Road Safety Third
International Congress and Exhibition
May 17 to 19, 2006 / Ankara Turkey
www.trodsa.org
- CUTA 2006 Annual Conference
May 27 to 31, 2006 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
www.cutaactu.on.ca
- ITS Canada’s Annual Conference
June 4 to 6, 2006 – Whistler, BC
www.itscanada.ca/whistler2006
- 11th IFAC Symposium
on Control in Transportations Systems
August 29 to 31, 2006 – Delft, The Netherlands
www.rws-avv.nl/ifac-cts2006
- World Roads Conference
September 27 to 29, 2006 – Singapore
www.worldroads2006.com
- CUTA 2006 Fall Conference
and Trans-Expo
November 4 to 8, 2006 – Toronto, Ontario
Trans-Expo – November 7
www.cutaactu.on.ca
Newsletter
published by ITS Canada.
Submissions
or comments can be emailed to askus@itscanada.ca.
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