Substantial capital investment has been made by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and many local transportation agencies throughout the state in Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS). This investment has not been consistently protected by effective maintenance, particularly in ATMS related communication, which facilitates traffic signal coordination, status reporting, etc., and detection, which directly impacts efficiency. It is important to recognize that robust communication and detection systems are keys to ensuring the benefits of ATMS. The objective of this project is to understand and simulate the impact of communication and detection failure propagation through a typical ATMS architecture. This can lead to the development of more effective maintenance planning that targets cost-effective resources to critical portions of FDOT and local transportation agencies’ advanced Traffic Management Systems communication and detection infrastructure. The research team first performed a thorough literature review of major traffic signal system architectures and conducted a comprehensive traffic agency survey throughout Florida to understand the signal operations and maintenance practice. To effectively measure the performance of a traffic signal system itself, a practical signal system performance concept and measures were established. A traffic signal system degradation index and performance index were developed. Sensitivity analyses were performed through traffic simulations to assess the impact of communication and detection degradation as well as traffic signal timings on ATMS operations. Based on analysis of a large amount of data obtained from the sensitivity analysis, traffic signal degradation and performance models were developed to assist traffic agencies to effectively assess the performance of their traffic signal systems. Furthermore, the research team and project contractors developed a set of improvement strategies that can be combined to provide a general overview of the most significant resource allocation strategies. A From-To matrix was developed to allow traffic agencies to select proper improvement actions based on their available resources. Finally, recommendations for operations and maintenance resource allocation strategies were provided. Future research direction was also recommended based on the results and findings of this project. (Author/publisher)
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