This paper presents a prototype video system to monitor and manage high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes near San Diego, CA, USA. The aims were to: (1) develop a system using off-the-shelf hardware; and (2) use software and/or hardware based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) concepts. Rather than construct a specialised video system for the HOV lanes, it was decided to examine the more general problem of supporting video monitoring of several critical road operations. The existing pieces of equipment to support Traffic Operation Center (TOC) operations were not designed to be mutually compatible. Any system, developed to support TOC operations, needs to be simple to use, requiring minimal operator intervention, requiring minimal operator intervention, and performing routine tasks automatically and efficiently. However, it was decided to provide a set of aids for the operator, rather than replace him by an automatic system; thus the system had to have a simple interface, easy to learn and use. A simple prototype system was designed and implemented, to determine the feasibility of incorporating video monitoring into TOC operations. The datalink connection between the TOC workstation and the field video controller was successfully based on the TCP/IP network protocols.
Abstract