Projects

Following is a (partial) list of WSRTC spin-off and incubator projects.  Please visit this site frequently as we continue add content.

Spin-off Projects:

The following projects have been developed in conjunction with WSRTC efforts. The projects are in various stages of research and development, and are generally considered mature since they've gone through pilot-testing and evaluation stages.

• Western States Rural Transportation Technology Implementers Forum
• One Stop Shop (OSS)
• Integration of Aviation AWOS with RWIS
• Weathershare
• Automated Safety Warning Controller
• Redding Responder
• Integrated Corridor Management (ICM)

Incubator Projects:

One of the Consortium’s primary activities is the pursuit of incubator research projects for three focuses: technology, operations and safety. Incubator projects are low-cost research efforts that serve as a “proof of concept”. Based on the results of an incubator project, the decision may be made to pursue development of a larger spin-off project, which requires its own specific funding resources.

Based on discussions held in February, 2010, the Consortium members agreed upon three initial incubator projects. These would be completed during the 2011 calendar year, pending availability of funds. Each of the Consortium’s pillars are represented among the incubator projects.  

Technology Incubator: WeatherShare Expansion

Previous work funded by Caltrans and conducted by the Western Transportation Institute developed a web-based interface that aggregated weather information, including current and forecast conditions in California, for use primarily by DOT personnel.  The system, WeatherShare, collects weather information from a variety of public sources, including the National Weather Service, and tailored to the needs of DOT personnel, particularly traffic management center (TMC) operators.  Emphasis was placed on providing “at-a-glance” capability to recognize weather conditions.

As WeatherShare has become better known outside of California, other states, particularly those in the Consortium, have expressed interest in having the system’s coverage expanded to their state.  As a result, this incubator project will investigate the expansion of WeatherShare coverage to Oregon, Washington and Nevada.  In doing so, the extension of the system to cover broad regions (i.e., multiple states) will be demonstrated.  The expanded coverage of WeatherShare would offer seamless weather information across jurisdictional boundaries, providing DOT personnel with a better picture of conditions both inside their own state, as well as a neighboring state. 

Operations Incubator: Regional integrated Corridor Management Planning

Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) seeks to coordinate individual network operations between parallel facilities/routes to create an interconnected system allowing cross network travel management. To date, limited exploratory work has been performed that examines the use of Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) in rural areas.  Part of the reason for this limited investigation is the lack of clear criteria for when the application of ICM in a rural environment makes sense.  This incubator project would work to establish criteria for determining when the application of ICM in a rural context will provide benefits (travel time savings, etc.). 

As a result of this work, it is expected that a more formal process will be established for determining which routes in a rural region would benefit from an ICM application.  Such a process would be applicable to routes in entire regions in a manner that could be replicated given an available dataset.  Once routes have been identified, specific operations guides could be developed based on expected and observed events that could impact a primary route.  As a result of identifying such corridors and developing plans, the movement of vehicular traffic and freight can potentially continue with minimal disruption when faced with a primary route is impacted by an event.

Safety Incubator: Survey of Western States Safety Warning Devices

Transportation entities across the west have deployed various ITS systems to address a number of different local safety and operational concerns. Often, these systems are “self-contained”, existing solely to address a particular issue at a given site. Such systems are typically roadside-based, with all equipment and processing completed on-site. While such self-contained safety warning systems exist throughout the western United States, there is a lack of documentation related to them, specifically an inventory of what is presently deployed. In essence, no one in the west really knows what deployments have been made in neighboring states (or even within their home state in some cases). As a result, this incubator project will seek to document such systems in western states at the state and local level.

This synthesis would identify where existing deployments are located, what their function/purpose is, and other information of interest. Such a synthesis would entail contacting state DOTs, as well as local city and county personnel to determine what devices they presently have deployed in their jurisdiction. As a result of this work, practitioners will have a synthesis document available to them that presents information related to safety warning devices throughout the west. This information could then be used in learning about the benefits of available systems, as well as provide a starting point for making contact with practitioners in other jurisdictions to learn more about their experience with a system.