The intelligent Transportaton Office of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario developed a prototype of the Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Information Production System (MTIPS). MTIPS is a real-time data collection, processing, and dissemination system which can provide timely information on transit and traffic conditions. The Main objective of MTIPS is the development and demonstration of the system architecture of an intelligent transportation system that will support one window access to transportation informatin collected from various sources. Data from Toronto Transit Commission's Communications and Information system permit automated, continuous monitoring of bus location and estimation of general traffic conditions in real time. The ministry's Freeway Traffic Management system on Highway 401 provides spot speed data which are converted to link travel times. The Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Department traffic detectors will be used to generate volume and saturation flow data on arterial roads. These data are processed using a formal control systems formulation for modelling and prediction of traffic flows. The estimated car and bus travel times and traffic events are stored and organized in a database for dissemination to various users using standard traffic message formats. The requirements for full scale system deployment are analyzed. (A)
Abstract