Rural ITS: Getting Started and Keeping it Going

1
Rural ITS Getting Started and Keeping it Going

• Prepared for
• Texas DOT
• and
• TTI/TAMU

2
Overview

• Rural Challenges
• Our Experience
• State DOT Lessons Learned
• Key Elements for Success
• Next Steps
• Discussion
• Overview of WTI/MSU

3
Rural Transportation in Context

• 78 of total roadway miles are rural (3,084,000
  miles)
• 39 of vehicle miles traveled is in rural areas
• 60 of crash fatalities occur on rural highways
  (23,876 fatalities in 2000)

Source FHWA Highway Statistics 2000, Table
HM-10, VM-2
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Fatal Crash Rates by Rural Road Class
5
Understanding Rural Transportation

• Challenging topography,weather events, and
  roadconditions
• Limited alternative routes
• High percentage of recreational travelers and
  commercial vehicle operators

6
A Concentration of Recreational Traffic

• Route congestion
• Seasonal demand
• High-frequency crash locations
• High parking demand and turn-over
• Limited transit options
• Limited infrastructure and funding

7
Transit and Mobility

• Rural residents need to get to jobs, shops and
  medical facilities
• 45 of rural elderly and 57 of rural poor
  without a vehicle
• 38 have no access to public transportation a
  further 28 have little access

Source TCRP A - 21, 1999
8
Emergency Response

• Emergency response is a series of phases
• Rural response is 30 longer
• Volunteer efforts can add to response times

Source http//www.arl.psu.edu
9
Availability of Power and Communications

• Limited cellular communication coverage
• Limited power availability
• Limited wireless E-911 service

10
Weather and the Environment

• Impacts include snow and ice, floods, fog,
  tornadoes, hurricanes, and forest fires
• 7,000 fatalities (881 in snow/sleet) and 450,000
  injuries (63,000 in snow/sleet) annually
• 2 billion spent on snow and ice control each year

Source USDOT, National Highway Safety
Administration, Traffic Safety Facts 2000
11
Maintenance and Operations

• Primarily a city and county responsibility
• Local agencies maintain 95 of rural unpaved
  roadways (3.1M miles) and 55 of rural paved
  roadways (926,000 miles)
• Limited budgets resources
• Work zone safety

SourceFHWA Highway Statistics 2000, Table HM-15
12
Animal Conflicts

• Around 726,000 animal/vehicle crashes each year
• Property damage costs of around 1 billion per
  year

Source Conover, M.R. Wildlife Society Bulletin,
1997
13
Our Experience

• Outreach, planning, research, evaluation in 35
  states
• Developer of ARTS CD/video and conferences
• US Senate Testimony (twice)
• ITS Award Winner (three)
• FHWA Rural ITS Toolbox/ Best Practices/ etc.
• Author of ARTS Chapter in ITE/ ITSA Primer
• First to address rural architecture and OM
  strategic planning
• NHI Rural ITS Course
• Champion for rural transportation needs!

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Institutional Foundation
Advanced Technologies
Transportation Needs
Institutional Support
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Potential Partners

• State
• Department of Tourism
• Department of Commerce or Economic Development
• Police/ Highway Patrol
• Department of Transportation
• Federal/ US
• Department of Transportation (FHWA, FTA)
• Forest Service
• National Weather Service
• National Park Service

• Local
• Gateway Community
• Chambers of Commerce
• Transit Operators/ Fleet Operators (trucking,
  delivery service)and
• Concessionaires
• Emergency Management/Response Providers
• Native American Organizations
• Private
• Tele-communication companies
• Concessionaires

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Institutional Lessons Learned

• Institutional buy-in key to success!
• Need for continuous stakeholder engagement and
  re-education
• Diverse stakeholders that have limited
  multi-agency experience
• Limited funding with extreme competition
• Familiarity with traditional and low-tech
  perspective
• Transportation NOT the HOOK

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Information Resources

• ARTS Outreach Video
• ARTS Outreach CD
• NHI Rural ITS Course
• Workshop with a product
• Priority Challenges
• Stakeholders
• Priority Projects
• Institutional and Implementation Issues
• Recognition of OM

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Information Resources

• Rural ITS User Needs Document
• Rural ITS Toolbox

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Information Resources

• Guidance Documents Handbooks
• Regional ITS Architecture Guidance Document
• ITS Simple Solutions   

20
Effective Planning Ingredients

• Focus on quantifying needs and disseminate (GIS)
• Conduct multiple outreach workshop in varying
  locations to build support.
• Build on experience of EDP but deploy
• Management structure for decision making
• Understand partnerships and working relationship
  take time!
• Develop projects focused on consensus and
  effectiveness (early winner!!!!!!!!)
• Develop a marketing plan for continuation

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Management Relationships
Governing
Governing
Board
Board
Policy
Friends of the
Friends of the
Chair
Chair
Steering
Steering
Committee
Committee
Committee
Committee
(Other Regional
(Other Regional
Co
-
Chair
Co
-
Chair
Stakeholders)
Stakeholders)
Technical Task
Technical Task
Force(s)
Force(s)
TBD
TBD
Regional Team
Regional Team
CA
CA
Projection
North Coast
North Coast
North East
North East
Direction
Oregon
Oregon
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Siskiyou Pass Early Winner

• Interstate 5 between Medford, OR and Yreka, CA
• Significant truck traffic
• Mountain pass with frequent inclement weather
• Includes CCTV, VMS, RWIS, HAR, call boxes,
  incident management plan

23
COATS Architecture
COATS Architecture Scope
COATS Unique Rural-focused features that are
beyond the scope of the National ITS Architecture
National ITS Architecture Scope
Applicable National ITS Architecture features
that can be adapted for COATS
Not Applicable Urban and/or Interurban features
of the National ITS Architecture not relevant to
COATS
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Three Levels of Architecture
Subregional Architecture
Project Architecture
COATSRegionalArchitecture
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The Summer ScenarioA Major Festival
transit parking lot response
transit parking coordination
Parking Management
Transit Operations
traffic information for transit
parking instructions
parking availability
transit and fare schedules
transit system data
Information Services
traffic flow/images incident data
traffic information
Transportation Operations
roadway information system data surveillance
control signal control data
Roadway (Infrastructure)
incident information
event plans
emergency traffic control request/response
event information
travel service information
event plans
event coordination
Event Promoter
Emergency Management
Tourist Services
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Lessons Learned

• Translating architecture terminology
• Making architecture accessible is biggest
  challenge
• Local champions are a must!
• Projects or scenarios are good tool
• Cant do architecture in vacuum

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Architecture Development
Initial ITS Architecture Development
Validate ITS Architecture
Regional Workshops (Phase 2)
Forge New Partnerships
Update ITS Architecture
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Deployment Recommendations

• gt1,400 locations
• Not off-the-shelf
• County-level narrative of all deployments
• Maps by critical program area
• Tabular summary
• legacy
• planned
• Capital / OM costs

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County Map
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County Table - Example
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Funding Sources

• COATS Funding for ITS Chapter
• Project specific funding (pages 168-170)
• Federal
• STP, NHS, CMAQ Program, Transit Funding, ITS
  Program
• State
• State Gas Tax, State ITS Research, PVEA, TSM
  Program, FCR Program
• Regional/Local
• Impact Fees, Vehicle License Fee, Federal Aid
  Balances, Local Sales Tax

32
Funding Sources (cont.)

• Partnering
• Shared Resources, Direct User Fee, Private
  Provision of Public Services, Selling Data
  Rights, 911 Financing Model, Public Venture

33
Success Stories

• Funding is not the challenge but rather
  institutional support, synergy and knowledge!!!
• Secure earmark and fund hot-spot improvements
• Utilize SPR (or scenic byways) for demonstration
  and partnership development
• Provide seed money for Districts with maintenance
  funding centralized

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Success Stories (cont.)

• Leverage funding from tourism, emergency
  management and federal lands
• Develop marketing plan for local mainstreaming
• Provide economies of scale for private sector

35
Organizational Lessons Learned

• Dual approach to organizational buy-in most
  effective
• Executive staff leadership and support is
  essential
• District and maintenance staff support critical,
  less traffic engineering
• Tourism and public safety important partners
• Statewide/ rural plan allows for priority roadmap
  and justification

36
State DOT Lessons Learned

• Program Initiation
• Organization buy-in
• Institutional Cooperation
• Planning and Deployment
• Funding (capital, OM)

• Contacts
• Caltrans (Coco Briseno)
• Oregon DOT (Galen McGill)
• Washington DOT (Bill Legg)
• Minnesota DOT (Jim Kranig)
• Vtrans (Bruce Bender)
• Kansas DOT (Matt Volz)
• Alaska DOT (Jill Sullivan)
• Idaho Transportation Dept.
• (Bob Koberland)
• Wyoming DOT (Jim Galke)
• Utah DOT (Martin Knopp)

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California

• Research initiated Program thru State Highway
  Funds with WTI/MSU
• Dedicate rural POC
• Develop a Plan and Vision for institutional
  support and mission objectives
• Utilize multi-state arrangements to funds and
  provide executive peer pressure
• Top-down executive support important
• Leverage money (COATS)1M --- 20M

38
Oregon

• Need for automated data dissemination
• Recognized rural nature of state, traveler
  information and CA partnership (COATS)
• Executive and District buy-in important
• Rural plan and outreach are key!
• STIP funding 1/yr and congressional earmarks
• Districts funds capital, hdqts maintenance
• Maintenance staff leadership important but
  transitioning to TE

39
Washington

• Rural challenges addressed through stand-alone
  applications (hot-spots) not program
• TravelAid (mountain pass) Demo Project
• Statewide/ rural plan important to justify
  program (when asked) rather than support
• Value of ITS has been recognized
• Districts fund ITS project not central office
• Maintenance becoming critical issue
• knowledge
• resources
• funding

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Minnesota

• Rural program initiated through Guidestar and
  after Orion MDI failed
• Congressional earmark funds secured (80 rural)
  seed money for multiple years
• MinnDOT Hdqtrs developed process whereby
  Districts submitted project proposals
• Critical to secure Executive staff and District
  maintenance support
• Conducted statewide/ rural scopeing study

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Minn (cont.)

• Scopeing Study identified regional deployment
  needs, priorities and institutional arrangements
• Rochester, Mankato, Deluth, St.Cloud (8.5M)
• Advanced Rural Transportation Information Center
  (2M) interagency focused 24/ 7
• Regional Transportation Operation Communications
  Centers (18M over 6 yrs)
• Key to Success
• Broad stakeholder buy-in and partnership
• Top-down and bottoms-up approach

42
Vermont

• Outreach workshops jumpstarted efforts
• Program initiated due to multi-state involvement
• (Tri-state, I-95)
• Multi-state efforts provided executive peer
  pressure, allowed Vtrans to learn from others and
  created critical mass
• Funding initially provided through congressional
  earmark
• Top-down and bottoms-up approach
• Essential to have and utilize resources to build
  program such universities, ITSA Chapter, etc.
• Statewide plan and regional plan need to be
  integrated
• Media coverage can assist with executive support
  and private sector partners

43
Utah

• Recognized urban population growth and mostly
  rural state needs
• Rural ITS accelerated when TOC issues raised
  (satellite vs. central)
• Focus initially on corridors and hot-spots
• Parallel process of rural/ statewide plan with
  vision and early-winner essential.
• Outreach, focus groups, education important along
  with champions.
• Funding for ITS
• 1M hdqtrs project proposal
• Districts fund majority through construction

44
Wyoming

• Evolution and understanding of ITS slow
• ITS program ad hoc initially until executive
  staff buy-in (Program Mgr.)
• ITS Plan important to provide outreach to
  partners and districts (CEO too)
• Multi-state initiative allow for learning and
  peer pressure (Greater Yellowstone, etc.)
• Funding from multiple sources
• Safety, project and STIP
• 12M annual program for capital and upgrades
  (hdqtrs)
• 30M district construction (ITS can be used)

45
Kansas

• Statewide/ rural plan accelerated organizational
  buy-in
• Program set-aside 2M/ yr, 10 yrs (not in TIP)
• Initially started in urban centers (Witchita 5M)
• Key to success implementing District ideas and
  maintenance buy-in

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Alaska

• Program initiated through congressional earmark
  (RWIS)
• Current ITS program in STIP (5M over 3 yrs) with
  OM centrally funded rather than at district
  level.
• Rural deployment plan provided opportunity
  collaboration, coordination and outreach can
  not do it alone.
• Key to success involve maintenance first and
  secure federal partners.

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Idaho

• Program initially project (hot-spot) oriented
• I-84 Storm Warning
• Plan key to providing focus and outreach
• Funding
• Earmarks initially
• ITS funding in mainstreamed in construction and
  design phase
• No dedicated funding

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Key Elements for Success

• Document needs and conduct outreach to increase
  understanding
• Institutional buy-in and organization support are
  essential
• Develop plan, adopt a vision but deploy ASAP
• Multi-state initiatives provide for peer
  pressure, partnerships and learning
• Provide seed funding for deployment, OM
• Enlist maintenance staff as champions

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Recommendations and Next Steps

• Conduct rural scanning tour for senior mgmt
  including maintenance
• Conduct corridor or statewide/ rural plan to
  identify needs, partners, and applications
• Secure funding for district demonstration
  projects (2M-5M/ yr) through earmark, SPR, STP
• Raise awareness of rural ITS applications that
  can be funded through construction projects
• Enlist partners from tourism, public safety,
  federal lands, county govt. and universities

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WTI