Green Signals

Proposed MUTCD Format Change

2013-01-24T21:28:16Z

On January 11, 2013, the Federal Highway Administration released a request for comments on splitting the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) into two smaller documents. One document would have the federal requirements and the second document would include the recommended practices, which are not federal requirements. Currently, the MUTCD is a single document that contains guidance and regulations on design and installation standards for traffic devices. The proposed changes are meant to make the MUTCD more user-friendly and will not change or create any federal regulations. The comment period ends March 12, 2013.

2013 Operations and Construction Coordination Meeting

2013-01-17T15:53:31Z

CMAP will hold its annual operations and construction coordination meeting on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at its offices (233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago). The meeting allows participating agencies to share information regarding planned 2013 construction with other transportation agencies in the region. The Great Lakes Regional Transportation Operations Coalition will also discuss projects around the Great Lakes, focusing on the I-94 corridor.

To RSVP or request additional information, please contact Claire Bozic (cbozic@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8744). If unable to attend in person, register for the webinar.

Traffic Analysis Tools

2012-12-19T22:52:34Z

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created a traffic analysis tools website on developing and deploying useful traffic analysis tools. The traffic analysis tools program is divided into two sections for deployment and development. The deployment track assists transportation professionals in facilitating the deployment and use of existing traffic operations analysis tools. The development track focuses on the effort to develop new and improved tools to support traffic operations analysis.

System Engineering for Adaptive Signal Control Technology Systems Webinar

2013-02-28T16:18:31Z

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building program will host a “Talking Technology and Transportation” webinar on December 20, 2012, from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The webinar will explain and provide real world applications of the Model Systems Engineering Documents for Adaptive Signal Control Technology Systems report. This webinar is geared towards agencies and professionals involved in the management and operation of traffic signal systems.

MAP-21 Transportation Performance Management Webinar

2012-11-07T17:41:23Z

On December 13, 2012, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. CT., the Federal Highway Administration Office of Transportation Performance Measurement will host a webinar on the process and practice of transportation performance management as it relates to Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the two-year transportation reauthorization bill. The webinar will cover the development and timeline associated with planning and implementing performance management and the performance measure rulemaking process. The webinar will also describe collaborative efforts between the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and its metropolitan planning organizations for transportation performance management.

Integrated Corridor Management Workshop

2012-12-06T23:16:00Z

CMAP and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will present a two-day “Integrated Corridor Management with Analysis, Modeling and Simulation” Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) Workshop on January 9-10, 2012.

The event will take place at CMAP’s offices (233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 800, Chicago, IL). While the workshop will focus on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway corridor, agencies outside of the corridor are invited and will benefit from the workshop information. This workshop is intended to motivate and equip participants to take advantage of specialized analytical tools to assess or refine Integrated Corridor Management concepts, designs, and plans.

To RSVP or to request additional information, please contact Claire Bozic (cbozic@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8744).

Chicago Region Localized Bottleneck Reduction Workshop

2012-10-10T20:29:19Z

The Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) Office of Operations will be hosting a workshop on the Localized Bottleneck Reduction (LBR) Program at the FHWA Chicago offices (200 W. Adams, Suite 330) on November 27, 2012. The LBR Program supports outreach to transportation professionals on how to find and implement quick, inexpensive solutions to localized constriction of traffic flow. The workshop will provide an overview of the LBR program, successful sample projects from other states, and discuss where the region is today and where it may go in the future.

The workshop is geared towards transportation professionals who have the ability to champion or execute a program to address low cost, quick-turnaround, spot congestion relief projects.

Please RSVP with Chris DiPalma by November 15, 2012.

Commercial Vehicle PrePass Program

2012-10-04T18:01:55Z

The State of Illinois participates in the truck PrePass program, which allows transponder-equipped commercial vehicles to bypass weigh stations, port-of-entry facilities, and agricultural interdiction facilities. The PrePass program pre-screens commercial vehicle credentials and drivers’ safety records. Pre-screened commercial vehicles are then allowed to bypass facilities through the use of an automatic vehicle identification (AVI) system. The commercial vehicles credentials are regularly verified with state and federal agencies to ensure commercial vehicles abide the bypass criteria established by the member states and adhere to safety standards.

The PrePass program offers participants, both commercial vehicle drivers and member states, many benefits. Commercial vehicles bypassing facilities save drivers’ time, fuel, and operating costs. It also reduces congestion around facilities and allows law enforcement officials to focus on noncompliant commercial vehicles. The PrePass program also has the potential to make areas around facilities safer for drivers through fewer vehicle weaving movements and merging points. Commercial carriers that participate in the program pay system deployment and maintenance costs through monthly fees. The program is provided at no cost to the state and without a long-term commitment.

The State of Illinois currently operates six weigh and motion (WIM) stations in the CMAP region. The WIM stations are located in the southern part of the region on I-55, I-80, and I-57. It is estimated that the PrePass program has saved 516,250 driving hours, 2.4 million gallons of fuel, and reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 5,472 metric tons since the programs deployment.

Improving Highway Capacity through Operations

2013-02-28T16:21:24Z

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a capacity project brief on improving highway capacity through operations. Part of SHRP 2 Capacity project C05: Understanding the Contribution of Operations, Technology, and Design to Meeting Highway Capacity Needs, the brief summarizes methodologies developed to estimate the impacts of operational improvements relative to constructing additional capacity. It also provided two real-world examples where the new methodologies were tested using a dynamic traffic assignment model. A full report will be available later this year.

Adaptive Signal Control Initiative and Validation Webinar

2012-09-13T17:40:38Z

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building program will host a “Talking Technology and Transportation” webinar on Tuesday, September 18, 2012, from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The webinar will discuss a generic validation process, which allows the implementing agency to determine if the signal system deployed meets predetermined goals and objectives. The webinar will also provide examples of tools that will evaluate the effectiveness of the adaptive traffic signal technology installed. Adaptive Signal Control Technology (ASCT), part of Federal Highway Administration’s Every Day Counts initiative, adjusts the traffic signal timing to accommodate changing traffic patterns and ease traffic congestion. The Chicago Department of Transportation and Lake County Department of Transportation were both awarded Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement program funds to implement ASCT in four select corridors.

Cook-DuPage Smart Corridors

2012-09-06T20:02:39Z

The West Central Municipal Conference and the DuPage County Mayors and Managers sponsored Phase I of the Cook-DuPage Smart Corridors Plan and Design. Cambridge Systematics was the consultant awarded to complete the project. Agencies including the Illinois Department of Transportation, Regional Transit Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, Pace, Metra, and CMAP participated in the Cook-DuPage Corridor Planning Group. The purpose of the project is to improve travel for all modes through low cost operations/Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) solutions with a goal of selecting four corridors for implementation and pilot projects.

Implementing a smart corridor will include ITS and operational improvements in the following areas: traffic management, improved traveler information, incident management, and transit management. The project was divided into four steps to determine which four corridors would be selected as smart corridor candidates. The steps included identifying corridor limits, prioritizing corridors, corridor characteristic diagrams, and selection of corridors. The study area for the project was bound by IL 50 to the east, the Metra Milwaukee District West line to the north, the Metra Burlington Northern Santa Fe line to the south, and roughly IL 59 to the west. The corridors were ranked through a set of evaluation criteria such as traffic volume, congestion, population and employment density, safety, and others. Decision support materials and corridor characteristic diagrams helped rank the candidate corridors.

The four initial corridors for advancement to the design phase of the project include: Cermak/22nd/Butterfield, Harlem Avenue, North Avenue, and Roosevelt Road. Phase II, the conceptual design of the smart corridors, is currently on hold. This phase will assess the existing conditions and design a concept of operations and functional requirements for each corridor. It will also conduct a technology scan, create concept design plan documents, and develop a maintenance/operational plan for the corridor. Cambridge Systematics has partnered with Jacobs engineering for phase II of the project.

Vehicle Detection in Northeastern Illinois

2012-08-17T14:08:34Z

Source: Travelmidwest.com

One of the most widespread and invisible pieces of intelligent transportation system (ITS) equipment is the vehicle detector, which is used to collect information about road traffic conditions. According to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) 2010 ITS Deployment Survey, there are approximately 3,500 loop, video, and radar traffic detectors installed on arterials in northeastern Illinois. There are an additional 1,300 loop, radar and toll tag detector stations on the region’s expressways and tollways. This critical component of the region’s ITS system is easily overlooked, but the system operators have invested millions of dollars to deploy them on our expressways, tollways, ramps, and arterials. Detectors improve traffic signal operations and our ability to monitor and manage the system. Eight-four percent of our region’s freeway miles and 46 percent of the region’s signalized intersections are currently covered by electronic surveillance.

Vehicle detectors collect information about the presence or number of vehicles as well as vehicle speeds, multiple times per minute around the clock. However, vehicle detectors are only useful when they communicate the information they collect to places where it can be put to use, such as to traffic signal controller boxes to trigger green signals, to agencies where they can monitor traffic conditions and detect incidents, and to the public where information about traffic conditions can be used to make informed travel decisions. Accordingly, the thousands of vehicle detectors are accompanied by a vast communications infrastructure made up of copper wires, fiber optic cables, and wireless communications. As the region’s transportation network communication infrastructure is expanded, and backroom computer technology for interpreting the information evolves, we will improve our ability to manage the system in real time and even predict traffic congestion before it happens. In addition, in-vehicle data is now being collected for some cars and trucks; this data is providing an increasingly valuable data source for system traffic managers and will be the subject of a future post.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is undertaking projects and programs to improve its detector system. First, I-55 and I-80 detection is now being expanded to include most of those expressways within our region. Second, over the next several years, expressway system surveillance will be expanded to include the entire Chicago metropolitan region. Third, IDOT regularly checks arterial and expressway detectors and repairs them as necessary and as traffic conditions allow.

As a resident of northeastern Illinois, vehicle detection impacts your daily travel if you plan your trip using Travelmidwest.com or Lake County Passage, which receive vehicle detector information in real time; at a traffic signal, where a detector informs the signal that you are waiting to proceed; when you read message signs providing travel time information; when you enter the expressway at one of the 113 metered ramps; if you wonder about the schedule for the Kennedy reversible lanes; when you drive through an open road toll location; or when you see a sign warning of a traffic backup ahead.

Dissemination Tools for Traveler Information Webinar

2012-08-09T20:45:33Z

On Thursday, August 16, 2012, the ENTERPRISE will host a webinar on dissemination tools for traveler information from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. CT. The ENTERPISE Program is a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Pooled Fund Study that uses the resources of its members from North America and Europe to develop, evaluate, and deploy Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This webinar will be the first in a series that will explore several topics on the next generation of traveler information. The webinar will feature the techniques in operation to disseminate traveler information in Washington and Wisconsin.

Smart Work Zones

2012-08-02T21:00:04Z

According to the Transportation Research Board, about 20 percent of the National Highway System is under construction each year. In 2010, nearly 600 people died in work zone crashes, 32 of them in Illinois. The Illinois Tollway and Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) are using Smart Work Zones, an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) based program, to make travel through and around work zones safer and more efficient. Smart Work Zones include portable electronic message boards to communicate with drivers, portable traffic sensors to monitor traffic flow and slow downs, and portable camera units to provide a view of the work zone. Technology can even help with work zone speed limit enforcement. IDOT staff reported a significant downward trend in the number of speeding violations after message boards began to display the number of citations issued. There have been challenges in implementing the Smart Work Zone program, such as coordinating the efforts of multiple contractors and ensuring that the equipment deployed by contractors can communicate with the agency traffic and incident management systems. However, these challenges are expected to be eliminated as time passes, and Smart Work Zones become standard practice for every road construction project. The U.S. Department of Transportation Work Zone Mobility and Safety Program has many examples of how ITS technology is being deployed in work zones nationwide.

Chicago Southland Fiber Network Project

2012-07-26T20:06:43Z

The Chicago Southland Fiber Network (CSFN) project is collaboration among many state and local agencies, including the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), to link infrastructure in south suburban Cook County through a fiber optic backbone bordering the I-57 corridor. This network will link south suburban municipalities, public safety sites, community colleges, two major Cook County anchor locations (Markham Courthouse and Oak Forest Hospital), and other sites. The project has already installed 65 percent of the duct support required for the CSFN project along the I-57 corridor.

Operations Performance Measures Brochure

2012-07-12T17:46:42Z

The Federal Highway Administration recently released a brochure on the foundation for performance-based management of transportation operations programs. The brochure provides a quick overview of why measuring operations performance matters and how operations-related transportation projects are a very cost-effective solution to congestion. It also provides examples of successful effective operations performance measures already implemented in different regions of the US. The brochure outlines the process on how to start such a program.

Managed Lanes Incident Management Webinar

2012-07-05T15:04:38Z

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations will host an “Overcoming the Challenges of Congestion Pricing” webinar on incident management and access for managed lanes from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT. The webinar will focus on the challenges and opportunities of incident management that arise from different types of managed lanes. The webinar will also provide tips, effective practices, and lessons learned of how incident management is handled on existing managed lanes projects in the U.S.

National ITS Architecture V7 Webinar

2012-06-28T19:44:00Z

On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building Program (PCB) will host a webinar on what’s new and how to use the new National ITS Architecture Version 7.0 from noon to 1:30 p.m. CT. The webinar will provide an overview of the changes and new features found in the National ITS Architecture V7 updated framework. The webinar is geared for any transportation professional involved in planning, implementing, or operating ITS systems.

Contemporary Approaches to Parking Pricing

2012-06-21T16:19:30Z

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently released a primer on contemporary approaches to parking pricing in the U.S. Parking pricing has become one of many travel demand management tools that local governments can use to help alleviate congestion and encourage people to use alternative modes of transportation. The primer covers modern parking pricing applications, current technologies, and model user accommodations currently being practiced in cities around the U.S. The primer also provides innovative parking policies and methods for gaining public support for parking policy changes. CMAP also issued a report, "Parking Strategies to Support Livable Communities," earlier this year.

Performance-Based Highway Maintenance and Operations Management

2012-06-14T19:52:04Z

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released “Performance-Based Highway Maintenance and Operations Management.” The report provides a nationwide synthesis of the current practice of using performance-based highway maintenance and operations management at state departments of transportation (DOTs). Four case studies provide guidance for other state DOTs interested in applying performance-based management practices. Two case studies focus on the processes and procedures required to build and maintain a performance-based approach, and two other case studies examine the application of the approach to management and operations program management.