Ms. Melanie Crotty This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Design Develop Distribute Integrate Sustain

   www.inknowvate.com/inknowvate/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/4/2002   Last Visited: 2/9/2006

   ITS Partnerships: A Discussion with TravInfo's Melanie Crotty

2. 2. TravInfo - Program Organization

   www.travinfo.org/organization. - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/28/2001   Last Visited: 12/28/2001

   Ann Flemer, Melanie Crotty (TravInfo® project manager)
   
   California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), District 4

3. 3. ITS Partnerships: A Discussion with TravInfo's Melanie Crotty

   www.itsonline.com/travinfo1.ht - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/20/1999   Last Visited: 5/11/2002

   A Discussion with TravInfo's Melanie Crotty
   
   The San Francisco Bay Area's TravInfo project, officially inaugurated in June, 1993, was one of the first true "public-private partnerships" in the ITS arena. Its ambitious goal is to provide a single source of comprehensive, region-wide transportation information that travelers can access through a wide variety of methods and services from both the public and private sectors. The $10+ million project -- of which about half comes from federal funding, a third from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and the rest from the State of California and private-sector partners -- has maintained a fairly low profile until recently. In September of last year, the project officially began its operational test phase, which lasts for the next two years. Jerry Werner, ITS Online's Publisher, recently discussed the TravInfo project's challenges and future plans with Melanie Crotty, TravInfo's Project Manager and a Senior Planner at the MTC.
   ...
   Crotty: Our ultimate goal is to have a single information system for all transportation services in the Bay Area, which encompasses a population of 6.5 million people in nine counties that touch the San Francisco Bay. That includes 9 bridges, 24 transit agencies, and one ride-sharing organization. We're trying to take all these resources from a somewhat disparate set of organizations and knit them together. Of course, we don't have them all integrated now. We've defined what constitutes a baseline system, which includes an early Phase I version of Caltrans Freeway Traffic Operations System ("TOS") which includes about 100 directional miles of instrumented freeways (using imbedded sensors). The baseline system also includes California Highway Patrol's (CHP's) automated incident log book, which provides very speedy access to all accidents and events on the roadway. The third automated component of the baseline system is a fleet of roving tow trucks that provide us with speed data.
   ...
   Crotty: We don't have any automated data collection from arterial data. Certain arterials parallel to the freeways are regionally important, so we do beat checks and we call to find out if there's any major accidents or congestion. A couple city or county transportation managers serve on our steering committee, particularly from Santa Clara County, because Silicon Valley is booming and congestion is continuously high throughout the day. There are quite a few ITS projects coming on-line in Santa Clara County under the auspices of the "Smart Corridor." They're building a backbone communications system that will connect most of the city TMCs with the county TMC, and we plan to tap into that system to get travel-time data on the county's arterials and expressways.
   
   ITS Online: Will you also integrate that data with the TravInfo data?
   ...
   Crotty: That's the plan, yes. It's not going to be coming on-line until the end of our operational test period, but the effort is funded and is being designed. Some of our registered participants are very interested in accessing arterial data now. We have an RFP about ready to go out the door to implement some additional surveillance equipment. There was a discussion of having some of those deployed on arterials, but we made a decision to complete one roadway level at a time. We need comprehensive snapshots of the freeways before we start getting arterial data. So we'll just be deploying this surveillance equipment on the freeways. Down the road we'll get arterial information.
   ...
   Crotty: We're probably going to use microwave technology.
   
   ITS Online: And that data will also go into the TIC?
   
   Crotty: That's right.
   
   ITS Online: It sounds like Caltrans is the primary data provider to your system?
   
   Crotty: They are, and CHP (California Highway Patrol) too. CHP has an electronic incident logbook that we use for accidents.
   
   ITS Online: That's just for freeways?
   
   Crotty: CHP's jurisdiction is state-owned highways. We do have information on some major arterials, such as San Pablo, which runs up and down the East Bay, and El Camino Real, which runs up and down the peninsula. That's just accident data, not speed data.
   
   ITS Online: Do any cities or counties provide data into the system right now?
   
   Crotty: We've set up relationships with some cities. For example, we get information from City of San Francisco police. Now that they know us they'll call us if there's something going on.
   
   ITS Online: You don't have an automatic, real-time data feed from San Francisco?
   
   Crotty: They don't have that. They don't have a TMC.
   
   ITS Online: Do you anticipate down the road a few years that you'll have real-time data feeds, both of speeds and occupancies as well as accidents from the various communities and cities up and down the Bay?
   
   Crotty: That's the long-term plan, and that's why we work with the cities. Their new systems that come on-line will be designed with us in mind, so that we can get the data without the need for retrofitting. Again, Santa Clara is the most assertive and proactive in this area, so we see them as one of the first sources of this data. We've also been working with Contra Costa County, which is launching a kiosk project where they'll be displaying TravInfo data as well as their own data. They are negotiating with one of TravInfo's Registered Participants to develop their kiosks. We expect to coordinate with them to access the data they are adding. However I'm not certain how much additional data will be available.
   ...
   Crotty: There's talk of implementing a variable pricing program on two lanes of Route 101 in Marin County, north of San Francisco. A feasibility study to do that is in process right now. We expect to have significant market penetration for in-vehicle electronic toll collection devices -- that could also be used to develop travel-time data on freeways and arterials -- just because of the nine bridges, without ever having a toll road.
   
   ITS Online: Is it TravInfo's objective to itself disseminate information to travelers, or is it your objective to make data available to other organizations that will disseminate traveler information?
   
   Crotty: More precisely the second. There's an economy of scale to have one place do the collection and integration into a single common format. Since we were using public funds to develop the system, we decided to provide a single way to access the data -- by phone -- so that the public would be guaranteed that they could access the wealth of information at least one way. The phone interface also helps educate the public and seed the market, in some sense.
   
   ITS Online: Is that public education working?
   
   ...
   Crotty: In my view, we still have a challenge to get the public to appreciate the difference between real-time, route-specific traffic information versus what they've been getting all along. Unfortunately, we don't have much in the way of statistics to share about public acceptance because we are still early in the project. We didn't go "live" until last September, and our phone and marketing campaign began in January. So, overall, public awareness and our market penetration is still pretty small. As a field operational test, we do have U.C. Berkeley's PATH Program on-board as an evaluator. They've done some before studies, and one interesting thing they found is that a very high percentage of survey respondents said they were satisfied with traffic information they get over the radio right now. They use it and like it and think it's sufficient.
   ...
   Crotty: I agree with that. Also, there's an issue of "narrowcast" versus broadcast. Today, travelers have to wait 10 minutes to hear a traffic report, and it may not involve their routing. A very specific advantage we're offering is that travelers can get information specific to their route -- when they need it -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
   
   ITS Online: So right now the primary interface you have to the traveling public is a phone connection? It's the same phone number anywhere in the Bay Area?
   ...
   Crotty: That's right. That's also another unique thing we custom-built here. The operational cost is much lower for this system than for an 800 number. We went into this project very specifically with a long-term objective to build a legacy information system. The operational test is just an opportunity to launch it. That's why we didn't want an 800 number, because we'd be left with high phone charges that would be difficult to sustain. We are getting very positive feedback from the public. PATH will be conducting a caller evaluation soon.
   ...
   Crotty: We've divided the region up into six sub-regions: East Bay, South Bay, San Francisco, North Bay, the peninsula, and the Bay Bridges. Once you've selected the sub-region you key-in the number of the roadway. For example, I-880 in the East Bay is 8-8-0, followed by the pound (#) key. In a few cases in the South Bay, the roadway isn't numbered -- users then hit "2#" and are read a list of roadway names. Once callers pick the roadway, they get a report of "exceptions." We report accidents or major congestion. If traffic is free-flow, we say: "there are no incidents to report on the route you selected."
   ...
   Crotty: That's right.
   
   ITS Online: That seems to be a lot of information.
   
   Crotty: It is a lot. The top-level menu has 1 for Transit Information, 2 fo