The Florida Intrastate Highway System (FIHS), a priority system of about 3,792 miles of freeways, toll roads, and intercity arterials, experienced a 40 percent increase in peak period congestion between 1990 and 1999. During this period, FDOT invested more than $3.1 billion toward the construction of an additional 10.3 percent of lane miles. Moreover, it is projected that by the year 2020, the FIHS will require the capacity to accommodate over 21 million residents and 80 million visitors per year. Vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) by personal automobile and commercial vehicles are expected to increase by approximately 60 percent, while mileage associated with transit trips is projected to rise by another 40 percent. Due to this unprecedented demand for access to the FIHS, traditional infrastructure management programs focusing on roadway expansion will be insufficient to keep congestion within tolerable levels. In its place, FDOT and other state departments of transportation (DOT) will be forced to pursue alternative techniques for managing and operating our existing infrastructures. Included in these alternative techniques are: (1) Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), to better inform the driving public of changing roadway, weather, and traffic conditions; (2) Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), to ensure coordinated operations and active facilities management during peak periods of demand and to support evacuation coordination during emergencies; and (3) Archived Data Services (ADS), to support operations, performance evaluation, and transportation planning. However, for these traffic management applications to have a noteworthy impact, they will require access to traffic data that is superior to what is currently available with respect to both quality and geographic coverage. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate an assortment of innovative traffic data collection technologies based on their potential benefits, within a Florida-specific context. Although available traffic-monitoring infrastructure has the capacity to provide much of the data necessary to support the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) traffic management and traveler information needs, gaps persists with regard to geographic coverage, accuracy, and dependability. Based on what has been learned about probe-oriented traffic data collection solutions, it is widely believed that significant opportunities may exist for these technologies to cost effectively complement, and in some cases replace, traditional traffic data collection resources. With this in mind, this paper reports on research carried out on behalf of, and field testing currently being conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation concerning the potential for utilizing innovative, probe-oriented traffic data collection technologies to enhance the accuracy, timeliness, and reliability of real-time traffic data. The main focus of this analysis falls on the application of these data collection methods on the FIHS.
Samenvatting