Ohio DOT Statewide TMC - Traffic Management Functionality
Subsystem Description
The Traffic Management Subsystem (TMS) monitors and controls traffic and the road network. It represents centers that manage a broad range of transportation facilities including freeway systems, rural and suburban highway systems, and urban and suburban traffic control systems. This subsystem communicates with the Roadway Subsystem to monitor and manage traffic flow and monitor the condition of the roadway, surrounding environmental conditions, and field equipment status. This subsystem coordinates with the Maintenance and Construction Management Subsystem to maintain the road network and coordinate and adapt to maintenance activities, closures, and detours. Incidents are detected, verified, and incident information is provided to allied agencies, drivers (through Roadway Subsystem highway advisory radio and dynamic message signs), and information service providers. This subsystem also manages traffic and transportation resources to support allied agencies in responding to, and recovering from, incidents ranging from minor traffic incidents through major disasters. When required, special traffic management strategies are implemented to support evacuation and reentry. The Traffic Management Subsystem supports HOV lane management and coordination, road pricing, and other demand management policies that can alleviate congestion and influence mode selection. It also manages reversible lane facilities and barrier and safeguard systems that control access to transportation infrastructure. The subsystem communicates with other Traffic Management Subsystems to coordinate traffic information and control strategies in neighboring jurisdictions. It also coordinates with rail operations to support safer and more efficient highway traffic management at highway-rail intersections. Finally, the Traffic Management Subsystem provides the capabilities to exercise control over those devices utilized for automated highway system (AHS) traffic and vehicle control.
Functional Area: Barrier System Management
Remotely controls barrier systems such as gates and other systems that manage entry to roadways, transportation facilities and infrastructure.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely control barrier systems for transportation facilities and infrastructure. Barrier systems include automated or remotely controlled gates, barriers and other systems that manage entry to roadways. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall collect barrier system operational status. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall collect barrier system fault data and send to the maintenance center for repair. | Existing |
Functional Area: TMC Automated Vehicle Operations
Remotely controls Automated Highway Systems (AHS) in the field by providing AHS use and lane-changing parameters; could also be used for automated vehicle control through work zones.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely control automated vehicle system field elements, by providing lane changing parameters, parameters for determination of vehicle suitability for particular automated lanes, and other control information required for automated highway operation. | Planned |
| 2 | The center shall maintain a log of all automated vehicle check-in and check-out transactions received from the field elements regardless of whether they are successful or not. | Planned |
Functional Area: TMC Dynamic Lane Management and Shoulder Use
Remotely monitors and controls dynamically managed travel lanes, including temporary use of shoulders. It monitors conditions and determines and manages lane configuration changes. Includes intersection reconfiguration, special designated lanes, temporary shoulder use, and lane use restrictions.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely monitor and control dynamically managed travel lanes. | Planned |
| 8 | The center shall support temporary use of shoulders as travel lanes. | Planned |
| 11 | The center shall activate lane management field equipment that is used to dynamically manage specific lanes and shoulders. | Planned |
Functional Area: TMC Evacuation Support
Development, coordination, and execution of special traffic management strategies during evacuation and subsequent reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or major emergency. Interfaces with emergency management and other traffic management centers.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall coordinate planning for evacuation with emergency management centers - including pre-planning activities such as establishing routes, areas to be evacuated, timing, etc. | Planned |
| 2 | The center shall support requests from emergency management centers to preempt the current traffic control strategy, activate traffic control and closure systems such as gates and barriers, activate safeguard systems, or use driver information systems to support evacuation traffic control plans. | Planned |
| 3 | The center shall coordinate information and controls with other traffic management centers. | Planned |
| 4 | The center shall coordinate execution of evacuation strategies with emergency management centers - including activities such as setting closures and detours, establishing routes, updating areas to be evacuated, timing the process, etc. | Planned |
Functional Area: TMC Regional Traffic Management
Coordination between traffic management centers in order to share traffic information between centers as well as control of traffic management field equipment. This may be used during incidents and special events and during day-to-day operations.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall exchange traffic information with other traffic management centers including incident information, congestion data, traffic data, signal timing plans, and real-time signal control information. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall exchange traffic control information with other traffic management centers to support remote monitoring and control of traffic management devices (e.g. signs, sensors, signals, cameras, etc.). | Existing |
Functional Area: TMC Signal Control
Remotely controls traffic signal controllers to implement traffic management strategies at signalized intersections based on traffic conditions, incidents, emergency vehicle preemptions, pedestrian crossings, etc.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely control traffic signal controllers. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall collect traffic signal controller operational status and compare against the control information sent by the center. | Existing |
| 8 | The center shall maintain traffic signal coordination including synchronizing clocks throughout the system. | Existing |
Functional Area: TMC Traffic Information Dissemination
Controls dissemination of traffic-related data to other centers, the media, and travelers via the driver information systems (DMS, HAR) that it operates.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely control dynamic messages signs for dissemination of traffic and other information to drivers. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall remotely control driver information systems that communicate directly from a center to the vehicle radio (such as Highway Advisory Radios) for dissemination of traffic and other information to drivers. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall collect operational status for the driver information systems equipment (DMS, HAR, etc.). | Existing |
| 4 | The center shall collect fault data for the driver information systems equipment (DMS, HAR, etc.) for repair. | Existing |
| 6 | The center shall distribute traffic data to maintenance and construction centers, transit centers, emergency management centers, and traveler information providers. | Existing |
| 7 | The center shall distribute traffic data to the media; the capability to provide the information in both data stream and graphical display shall be supported. | Existing |
Functional Area: TMC Traffic Management Decision Support
Recommends courses of action to the traffic operator based on current and forecast road and traffic conditions. Recommended actions may include predefined incident response plans, signal timing plan changes, DMS/HAR messages, lane control strategies, metering strategies, etc.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall provide center personnel with an integrated regional view of current and forecast road and traffic conditions including traffic incidents, special events, maintenance activities and other events or conditions that impact capacity or demand. | Planned |
| 2 | The center shall identify network imbalances and potential courses of action. | Planned |
| 3 | The center shall compare the impact of potential courses of action and make recommendations to the operator. | Planned |
| 4 | The recommended actions shall include predefined incident response plans, signal timing plan changes, DMS/HAR messages, lane control strategies and freeway control strategies including ramp metering, interchange metering, and mainline metering. | Planned |
Functional Area: TMC Traffic Metering
Remotely controls ramp meters, interchange connector meters, and mainline meters, covering all types of metering as well as management of bypass lanes.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall remotely control systems to manage use of the freeways, including ramp, interchange, and mainline metering. | Existing |
| 2 | The center shall collect operational status from ramp meters, interchange meters, and mainline meters and compare against the control information sent by the center. | Existing |
| 3 | The center shall collect fault data from ramp meters, interchange meters, and mainline meters. | Existing |
| 4 | The center shall implement control strategies, under control of center personnel, on some or all of the freeway network devices (e.g. ramp meters, interchange meters, and mainline meters), based on data from sensors monitoring traffic conditions upstream, downstream, and queue data on the approaches to the meters. | Existing |
Functional Area: TMC Traffic Network Performance Evaluation
Measures performance and predicts travel demand patterns to support traffic flow optimization, demand management, and incident management. Collects data from surveillance equipment as well as input from other management centers including emissions, event promoters, and other TMCs.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The center shall monitor, analyze, and store traffic sensor data (speed, volume, occupancy) collected from field elements under remote control of the center to support overall network performance evaluations. | Planned |
| 2 | The center shall collect wide-area pollution data from emissions management centers to support overall network performance evaluations. | Planned |
| 3 | The center shall collect and store plans from event promoters for major future events possibly impacting traffic to support overall network performance evaluations. | Planned |
| 4 | The center shall collect and store anticipated route information from information service providers to support overall network performance evaluations and predictions. | Planned |
| 6 | The center shall exchange traffic information with other traffic management centers, including incidents, congestion data, traffic data, signal timing plans, and real-time signal control information to support overall network performance evaluations. | Planned |
| 7 | The center shall support an interface with a map update provider, or other appropriate data sources, through which updates of digitized map data can be obtained and used as a background for network performance evaluations. | Planned |
| 8 | The center shall provide an interface to the archive data repository to enable the operator to retrieve historical operating data for use in planning to predict future traffic patterns and conditions. | Planned |
| 9 | This center shall use the collected information to measure overall current and forecast network performance and predict travel demand patterns. | Planned |
Functional Area: Traffic Data Collection
Collection and storage of traffic management data. For use by operations personnel or data archives in the region.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The center shall assign quality control metrics and meta-data to be stored along with the data. Meta-data may include attributes that describe the source and quality of the data and the conditions surrounding the collection of the data. | Existing |