Regional Transit Authority Transit Vehicles - Transit Vehicle Functionality
Subsystem Description
The Transit Vehicle Subsystem (TRVS) resides in a transit vehicle and provides the sensory, processing, storage, and communications functions necessary to support safe and efficient movement of passengers. The types of transit vehicles containing this subsystem include buses, paratransit vehicles, light rail vehicles, other vehicles designed to carry passengers, and supervisory vehicles. The subsystem collects accurate ridership levels and supports electronic fare collection. The subsystem supports a traffic signal prioritization function that communicates with the roadside subsystem to improve on-schedule performance. Automated vehicle location functions enhance the information available to the Transit Management Subsystem enabling more efficient operations. On-board sensors support transit vehicle maintenance. The subsystem supports on-board security and safety monitoring. This monitoring includes transit user or vehicle operator activated alarms (silent or audible), as well as surveillance and sensor equipment. The surveillance equipment includes video (e.g. CCTV cameras), audio systems and/or event recorder systems. The sensor equipment includes threat sensors (e.g. chemical agent, toxic industrial chemical, biological, explosives, and radiological sensors) and object detection sensors (e.g. metal detectors). In addition, the subsystem supports vehicle operator authentication prior to operation of the vehicle and remote vehicle disabling. The subsystem also furnishes travelers with real-time travel information, continuously updated schedules, transfer options, routes, and fares.
Functional Area: On-board Maintenance
On-board systems to collect and process transit vehicle maintenance data including mileage and vehicle operating conditions for use in scheduling future vehicle maintenance.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall collect and process vehicle mileage data available to sensors on-board. | Planned |
| 2 | The transit vehicle shall collect and process the transit vehicle's operating conditions such as engine temperature, oil pressure, brake wear, internal lighting, environmental controls, etc. | Planned |
| 3 | The transit vehicle shall transmit vehicle maintenance data to the center to be used for scheduling future vehicle maintenance. | Planned |
Functional Area: On-board Paratransit Operations
On-board systems to manage paratransit and flexible-route dispatch requests, including multi-stop runs. Passenger data is collected and provided to the center.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall manage data input to sensor(s) on-board a transit vehicle to determine the vehicle's availability for use in demand responsive and flexible-route transit services based on identity, type, and passenger capacity. | Existing |
| 2 | The transit vehicle shall receive the status of demand responsive or flexible-route transit schedules and passenger loading from the transit vehicle operator. | Existing |
| 3 | The transit vehicle shall provide the transit vehicle operator instructions about the demand responsive or flexible-route transit schedule that has been confirmed from the center. | Existing |
| 4 | The transit vehicle shall provide the capability to log passenger boardings and alightings and make passenger use data available to the transit center. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Passenger Counting
On-board systems collect transit vehicle loading data and make it available to the center.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall count passengers boarding and alighting. | Existing |
| 2 | The passenger counts shall be related to location to support association of passenger counts with routes, route segments, or bus stops. | Existing |
| 3 | The passenger counts shall be timestamped so that ridership can be measured by time of day and day of week. | Existing |
| 4 | The transit vehicle shall send the collected passenger count information to the transit center. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Schedule Management
Collecting of data for schedule generation and adjustment on-board a transit vehicle. Supports communication between the vehicle, operator, and center.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall receive a vehicle assignment including transit route information, transit service instructions, traffic information, road conditions, and other information for the operator. | Existing |
| 2 | The transit vehicle shall use the route information and its current location to determine the deviation from the predetermined schedule. | Existing |
| 3 | The transit vehicle shall calculate the estimated times of arrival (ETA) at transit stops. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Transit Fare Management
On-board systems provide fare collection using a travelers non-monetary fare medium. Collected fare data are made available to the center.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall read data from the traveler card / payment instrument presented by boarding passengers. | Existing |
| 10 | The transit vehicle shall provide fare statistics data to the center. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Transit Information Services
On-board systems to furnish next-stop annunciation as well as interactive travel-related information, including routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real-time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, non-motorized transportation services, and special events.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall enable traffic and travel advisory information to be requested and output to the traveler. Such information may include transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real-time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, and special events. | Existing |
| 3 | The transit vehicle shall broadcast advisories about the imminent arrival of the transit vehicle at the next stop via an on-board automated annunciation system. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Transit Security
On-board video/audio surveillance systems, threat sensors, and object detection sensors to enhance security and safety on-board a transit vehicles. Also includes silent alarms activated by transit user or vehicle operator, operator authentication, and remote vehicle disabling.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall perform video and audio surveillance inside of transit vehicles and output raw video or audio data for either local monitoring (for processing or direct output to the transit vehicle operator), remote monitoring or for local storage (e.g., in an event recorder). | Planned |
Functional Area: On-board Transit Signal Priority
On-board systems request signal priority through short range communication directly with traffic control equipment at the roadside (intersections, ramps, interchanges, etc.).
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall determine the schedule deviation and estimated times of arrival (ETA) at transit stops. | Existing |
| 2 | The transit vehicle shall send priority requests to traffic signal controllers at intersections, pedestrian crossings, and multimodal crossings on the roads (surface streets) and freeway (ramp controls) network that enable a transit vehicle schedule deviation to be corrected. | Existing |
Functional Area: On-board Transit Trip Monitoring
Support fleet management with automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automated mileage and fuel reporting and auditing.
| ID | Requirement | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The transit vehicle shall track the current location of the transit vehicle. | Existing |
| 2 | The transit vehicle shall support the computation of the location of a transit vehicle using on-board sensors to augment the location determination function. This may include proximity to the transit stops or other known reference points as well as recording trip length. | Existing |
| 3 | The transit vehicle shall record transit trip monitoring data including vehicle mileage and fuel usage. | Existing |
| 4 | The transit vehicle shall record transit trip monitoring data including operational status information such as doors open/closed, running times, etc. | Existing |
| 5 | The transit vehicle shall send the transit vehicle trip monitoring data to center-based trip monitoring functions. | Existing |