Published on GEOG 497C: Transportation GIS (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog497c)

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Lesson 1: Introduction to GIS-T

Introduction & Learning Outcomes

What will we learn?

By the end of Lesson 1, you should be able to:

  • characterize the relationship between GIS and transportation and explain why GIS-T is such an active field;
  • discuss some of the challenges and opportunities for GIS-T in the 21st century;
  • list some modes of transportation and discuss the meaning and significance of modal competition, modal shift, and containerization;
  • state the mission and describe some of the current initiatives of the U. S. Department of Transportation (USDOT);
  • discuss some emerging technologies in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the objectives and features of traveler information systems.

Assignments

Lesson 1 will take 1 week to complete. Please refer to Canvas for specific timeframes, submission instructions, and due dates.

To finish this lesson, you must complete the assignments listed below by the end of this lesson week. The details for each assignment are provided in the referenced section.

Lesson 1 Assignments
Assignment No. Assignment Description Section Grade Component / Points
1-1 Read "GIS in the 21st Century" and submit a write-up which addresses some specific questions. 1.1 Lesson Topic / 20
1-2 Learn about the various modes of transportation, and discuss the concepts of modal competition, modal shift, and containerization. 1.1 Lesson Topic / 15
1-3 Review the USDOT website, and examine a few of their current initiatives. 1.2 Transportation Organizations / 15
1-4 Create a 3-5 minute video autobiography. 1.3 Class Participation / 15
1-5 Submit a review of Pennsylvania's 511 Traveler Information System. 1.5 Guest Webinars / 10
1-6 Submit some questions for next week’s speaker: Doug Tomlinson. 1.5 Guest Webinars / 5

 

1.1 Introduction to GIS-T

Among the many areas and disciplines to which GIS has been applied, transportation has been particularly fertile ground, and the development of specialized GIS applications has been an area which has seen a lot of activity. This important interdisciplinary field is commonly referred to as GIS-T. The significance of this field is evidenced by the fact that there are two annual conferences devoted to it. Each year the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sponsors the annual GIS for Transportation Symposium [1]. The symposium draws over 400 registrants from federal, state, and local government and the private sector. There is also a conference sponsored by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) called GIS in Transit [2]which is in its tenth year.

A key reason that GIS-T is so important is that transportation is a huge industry upon which many other industries depend. In 2015, the federal government spent 85 billion dollars on transportation-related initiatives. That represented 2.22% of our total federal budget for 2015. The National Priority Project (NPP) website [3] presents some interesting charts which put federal transportation spending in perspective.

Additional Learning

In their own words, the NPP “is a national non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to making complex federal budget information transparent and accessible so people can prioritize and influence how their tax dollars are spent.” Their website also offers a number of very educational videos [4] if you’d like to understand our national budget, deficit, and debt.

In addition to federal dollars, there are many billions of state and local dollars spent on transportation. If you want to see how states are using transportation dollars, the Track State Dollars website [5] gives you access to data for each state.

In the U.S., federal agencies have helped to promote GIS use for transportation analysis purposes through geospatially-enabled initiatives such as the U.S. Census Bureau’s TIGER program and the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS). Software vendors have continually updated and improved their GIS products to include additional GIS-T functionality and tools. Today, GIS-T is an integral part of transportation operations around the world.

The natural synergy between GIS and transportation is at least in part due to the fact that transportation is inherently spatial, and while it’s true that GIS plays an important role in transportation, one can also argue that transportation plays an important role in GIS. Transportation features are frequently included on maps for context and orientation even when the fundamental purpose of the map has little or nothing to do with transportation.

Assignment 1-1 (20 points)

Read the article "GIS-T in the 21st Century"  by Harvey Miller and Shih-Lung Shaw (the article can be accessed in Assignment 1-1 in Canvas). In this article, Miller and Shaw identified 20th-century GIS-T topics which are still relevant in GIS-T today in addition to topics which have become important in the 21st century as the field has evolved and the needs of the transportation industry have changed.

Submit an M.S. Word document (no more than 500 words in length) to Assignment 1-1 in Canvas which addresses the following items:

  1. According to the authors, what are some of the enduring principles of GIS-T that remain relevant in the 21st century?
  2. What are some of the underlying forces which are transforming transportation and GIS-T in the 21st century?
  3. The authors cite a major shift in GIS-T from aggregate and static analysis to one focused on individual activities and spatiotemporal analysis. What does this mean, and what are the forces leading to this shift?
  4. Define the concept of a location based service and provide a few examples.

Please see the rubric below for specific assignment expectations. Additional submission instructions can be found in Canvas.

Review and Summarize (20 points)
Criteria Ratings Pts
Followed Instructions Excellent: Student carefully followed all instructions for the assignment.
6.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submission exhibited some minor deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
4.0 pts
Poor: Student's submission exhibited major deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
1.0 pts
6.0 pts
Content Quality Excellent: Student's submittal fully addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
8.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submittal partially addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated some insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
5.0 pts
Poor: Student's submittal did not address the topics of the assignment and demonstrated little or no insight or thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
1.0 pts
8.0 pts
Writing Quality Excellent: Student’s writing was organized, clear, and concise and was free from spelling and grammatical errors.
6.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student’s writing exhibited some deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity, and conciseness and/or contained a few spelling or grammatical errors.
4.0 pts
Poor: Student’s writing exhibited major deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity, and conciseness and/or contained many spelling or grammatical errors.
1.0 pts
6.0 pts
Total Points: 20.0

Overview of the Transportation Industry

Broadly speaking, the field of transportation is concerned with the transport of people and goods. To appreciate the value that GIS brings to transportation it is necessary to develop an understanding of the various forms of transportation that exist and also the types of activities and problems which those in the field need to address.

Transportation Modes

The different ways that people and freight can be transported are referred to as transportation modes. There are many different modes of transportation, and they can be differentiated and categorized in a number of ways. At a high level, we can divide transportation into the categories of air, land, sea, and space. We could further divide the land-based transportation into road, rail, pedestrian, bike, and pipeline, although one might rightfully argue that pipelines can run under the sea. Transportation modes are not always mutually exclusive and the specific modes we talk about often depend on the situation at hand. There have been many GIS applications which have been designed for a specific mode or for a group of closely related modes.

Assignment 1-2 (15 points)

In Chapter 3 of Jean-Paul Rodrigue’s book “The Geography of Transport Systems”, Dr. Rodrigue discusses transportation modes. Read the following sections of Chapter 3: 

  • Transportation Modes, Modal Competition, and Modal Shift [6]
  • Intermodal Transportation and Containerization [7]

Submit an M.S. Word document (no more than 500 words in length) to Assignment 1-2 in Canvas which addresses the following items:

  1. Describe the concepts of modal competition and modal shift. Come up with an example of modal shift which was not discussed in the chapter.
  2. Define containerization and discuss the impact it has had on the transportation of freight.

Additional submission instructions can be found in Canvas.

Review and Summarize (15 points)
Criteria Ratings Pts
Followed Instructions Excellent: Student carefully followed all instructions for the assignment.
4.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submission exhibited some minor deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
2.5 pts
Poor: Student's submission exhibited major deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
1.0 pts
4.0 pts
Content Quality Excellent: Student's submittal fully addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
7.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submittal partially addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated some insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
4.0 pts
Poor: Student's submittal did not address the topics of the assignment and demonstrated little or no insight or thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
1.0 pts
7.0 pts
Writing Quality Excellent: Student’s writing was organized, clear and concise and was free from spelling and grammatical errors.
4.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student’s writing exhibited some deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity and conciseness and/or contained a few spelling or grammatical errors.
2.5 pts
Poor: Student’s writing exhibited major deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity and conciseness and/or contained many spelling or grammatical errors.
1.0 pts
4.0 pts
Total Points: 15.0

Transportation Processes and Activities

Just as we can categorize transportation according to the many modes of transportation which exist, we can think about transportation in terms of the many processes and activities which are performed in order to manage transportation infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Some of these processes cut across modes and others are specific to a single mode or a few modes. These processes and activities include:

  • infrastructure monitoring and maintenance;
  • transportation planning and transit planning;
  • property acquisition and management;
  • vehicle tracking and logistics;
  • highway safety analysis and improvement;
  • traffic monitoring, modeling, and mitigation;
  • screening projects for environmental impacts;
  • dissemination of travel information to the public;
  • reporting data to government agencies to secure funding;
  • mobile data collection;
  • routing and permitting of oversize overweight vehicles.

GIS-T plays an important role in enhancing the manner in which transportation organizations accomplish these processes and activities and in some cases allow organizations to perform functions which would simply not be possible without spatial technologies. GIS-T applications support evaluation of different scenarios, provide objective data for decision-making purposes, and promote the visualization of conditions.

GIS-T Techniques and Tools

GIS-T utilizes many mainstream geospatial tools and methods but it also employs a number of techniques which were borne out of the specialized needs of the transportation industry. These include:

  • Conflation
    Conflation is a technique used to bring together adjacent or overlapping datasets which were collected at different times and have different levels of accuracy and precision. While the process of conflation in GIS is frequently applied to transportation networks, conflation can also be used to combine other types of features.
  • Network Analysis
    A roadway network in comprised of roads and intersections. In network terminology, the intersections are referred to as nodes, and the streets which connect the nodes are called edges. GIS-T commonly employs network analysis techniques to roadway networks to solve common transportation-related problems such as finding the best route between two points or determining the service area around a specific location (i.e., the area within which someone could reach the location in a certain period of time).
  • Linear Referencing Systems
    Linear referencing systems are used to spatially reference the location of assets (e.g., bridges), occurrences (e.g., crashes), and roadway characteristics and administrative data (e.g., speed limits) by specifying the distance along a linear feature in a roadway network. Collectively, these attributes of a roadway are referred to as events. While the application of LRSs to roadway networks, they can be used in any linear network including pipelines and hydrologic networks.
  • Dynamic Segmentation
    Dynamic segmentation is closely linked to linear referencing systems. In dynamic segmentation, we take the roadway events which are linearly referenced along roadways and transform them on the fly into spatial features. Taken together, LRSs and dynamic segmentation allow us to effectively manage and utilize the myriad of attribute information associated with roadway networks. We will explore these techniques in detail in Lesson 6.

We will learn more about these techniques in upcoming lessons.

1.2 Getting to Know a Transportation Organization

This week, you’ll take some time to get to know perhaps the most significant transportation organization in the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The USDOT (established in 1966) is a cabinet-level department within the U.S. government which is responsible for maintaining and advancing the nation’s transportation systems and infrastructure.

A key function of the USDOT is to develop programs which implement transportation-related statutes. One of the most important statutes the USDOT is tasked with implementing relates to the funding of surface transportation. The latest surface transportation statute is known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2015.

The USDOT is comprised of a number of operating administrations and bureaus, each of which specializes in a specific area of transportation. Some of these divisions, along with the area of transportation they are responsible for, are listed below:

  • Federal Highways Administration (FHWA)
    Specializes in highway transportation
  • Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
    Provides financial and technical assistance to public transit agencies
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
    Regulates all aspects of civil and commercial aviation and operates a national system of air traffic control and navigation
  • Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
    Enforces rail safety regulations and administers railroad assistance programs
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
    Specializes in reducing vehicle-related crashes

We’ll take a closer look at some of these USDOT divisions in later lessons.

Assignment 1-3 (15 points)

Spend some time looking around the USDOT’s website [8] and try to learn some more about the organization and some of their current initiatives and activities. Also, watch the following video kicking off the USDOT Smart City Challenge, which was designed to award a 50 million dollar grant to a city (note: the presentation doesn't begin until about 10 minutes into the recording).

Click for transcript of Smart Cities Webcast. This will expand to provide more information.

KEVIN: Good afternoon. My name is Kevin Monroe, Deputy Assistant Secretary for governmental affairs here at the US Department of Transportation. Now, I want to welcome and thank you for joining us today for webcast on the Smart City Challenge. Secretary Fox will be joining us shortly, but right now I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce my colleague, Mark Dowd, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology. He will tell us more about the Smart City Challenge. Mark.

MARK: Hi, welcome. I'm going to take you through some of the details for the Smart City challenge to get you oriented as to what we're looking for. We'll hearing from the secretary shortly. He is extremely excited about this challenge. As a former mayor, he is looking forward to hearing from his fellow mayors as to how to solve the issues that we identified in "Beyond Traffic".

Beyond Traffic narrative identified the issues of moving people and moving goods, and so we decided that it would be good to reach out to cities and encourage them to put forward their most creative ideas on how to solve those problems using technology and innovation.

I want to take you through a little bit of the schedule. We have two phases: phase one and the most important part is the deadline coming up on February fourth. We are looking for cities to put forward their high-level, thirty-page ideas as how to solve these issues using innovation and technology. The second phase when we down select to 5 will be we will move through the process of awarding the five finalists 100,000 dollars and selecting the finalist who will receive the 50 million dollars.

I think I'll take you through a little bit of what we're looking for. We are looking for a medium-sized city, although we accept applications from all cities. This is generally what we're looking for, from in terms of particularity. We're looking for a population between 200,000 and 850,000 using 2010 census data, a dense urban population that's typical for medium-sized city. We're looking for leadership in the city that is committed to carrying this through for the three years of the program. There are a number of different aspects of smart cities that people talk about. We thought we'd talk a little bit about from a smart city perspective what we're looking for in the transportation sector. There are a number of technologies on the left hand side that will feed into into the solutions and then, on the right hand side are the benefits that we're looking for. We tried to lay out our vision of what of what this would look like and we tried to do it with 12 vision elements that are identified in the notice of opportunity. The highest priority is the technology elements that are urban automation, connected vehicles, and and sensor-based infrastructure. The second level priority are the innovative approaches to urban transportation and these include the sharing economy, Open Data, urban analytics, connected involved citizens, and smart strategic business partnerships. Lastly are the other three smart city elements that are in each architectural standards, smart land use, and and low-cost, efficient ICT.

In your thirty-page, high-level application, we're looking for certain similarities in all the applications that we lay out what we're looking for in our narrative description. The evaluation criteria which will drive a lot of the narrative that includes a lot of what we talked about earlier, which is including population size, etc.

I think is important to take us through a couple of the critical deadlines that we're looking for. The applications are due on February 4th at 3 p.m., and then once we receive the application, we'll go through a fairly rigorous procurement process to down select to the five finalists. We'll announce the finalists in March 2016. Soon thereafter, we will issue $100,000 to each of the finalists to help them get their applications in in good form to compete for the final award. The final award will be issued in June 2016 to the winning city.

I'm sure you have additional questions or concerns and we'll have various opportunities for you to interact with the department on how to solve those problems and those issues that you have. We have an in-person Smart City forum that is on December 15th here at the Department of Transportation between nine o'clock and four o'clock. We have about 350, 400 people already signed up for this in-person meeting, and then following that we'll have a number of technical advisories. We'll do data, architecture, and standards on December 16th, connected vehicles and automation December 17th. We'll discuss sharing economy, user-focused mobility on December 18th, and then we'll help you navigate the smart city challenge application process we'll be out shortly with that announcement.

I'm sure you have questions. Please don't hesitate to send them to smartcitychallenge@dot.gov [9], and we will continue to update our our website with additional dates and additional information at transportation.gov/smartcity.

BRIAN: Mark, thank you very much. Stay here. Hi my name is Bryna Helfer. I'm the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Engagement and we just wanna, Mark, I guess I we just want to go back. We've been getting some questions about the elements, and I was wondering if you might just spend a little bit of time talking about your vision for the elements and what goes into some of these elements. That would be awesome, thanks.

MARK: Sure. So, in urban automation oftentimes when people talk about automated vehicles they talk about it in a singular, linear sense. We actually think that urban automation goes beyond just the urban, beyond the automated vehicle. The moving of goods through automation, the moving of people through automation, and how it interacts with the sharing economy, how it interacts with connected vehicles, and how it interacts with this sensor based infrastructure that's either in the city already or is being developed by the city. So the important part about the technology elements is that we're not looking for just another connected vehicle pilot. We're not looking for just an automation pilot. We're looking for how these these different technologies work together. The innovative approaches, if you go through them, we have a very lengthy description in the notice of funding opportunity as to what they all mean. But if you look at the connected, involved citizens, it's important that we get through urban delivery and logistics, etc. Finally the Smart City elements, the smart land use, etc., are very, are described are key elements.

Wanted to introduce Secretary of Transportation now who will talk a little bit about the Smart City Challenge.

SECRETARY FOX: Hi Everyone, thank you Mark. and thank all of you so much for joining today's webcast. As you know, yesterday we launched our Smart City Challenge targeting mid-size cities. This is an opportunity for mayors and city leaders to define what it means to be a smart city when it comes to transportation. We're asking cities to submit proposals by February 4th and our goal will be to narrow the proposals down to five finalists by May and announce the winner in June; the winner will then receive up to forty million dollars to implement their proposal. That's not all. As Mark has probably alluded to already, our partner in this effort, Vulcan, is offering an additional ten million dollars to the winning city. And our hope is that cities will see this as an opportunity to partner with firms like Vulcan, and other innovators that can help them re-imagine their transportation systems.

Let me just talk some about why we are doing this. First of all, we don't have a top-down transportation system in the U.S., we have a bottom-up system, and while we are grateful that Congress passed a five-year transportation bill last week our national vision for transportation is still in some ways stuck in the 20th century when it comes to thinking about technology, innovation, and the kind of inputs that mayors and local officials think about all the time when it comes to how to integrate transportation and quality of life and of course protecting our environment and so many other issues. So, our department is working hard on the national level to create policies and programs and practices that help make it easier for local and state decision-makers to do these things. We're trying to reposition government so we can help you solve problems at the local level. We also want to increase our ability to rapidly absorb technology in the transportation space so we can do things that previous generations can only imagine. So, we're imagining things like connected and autonomous vehicles that practically eliminate crashes. And we're imagining this technology interacting with wired infrastructure to eliminate traffic jams as well, but we're not only imagining it happening, we're making it happen. We're moving quickly to require all new cars to be equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle technology. And, as part of this effort, we also launched a pilot program to demonstrate connected vehicles in three US cities, including New York. We're updating our policy position on autonomous vehicles and we're working to integrate unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace. We even have hired our first data chief data officer. So, we've pushed as hard as we can and will keep pushing at the national level, and now we're hoping to incentivize you at the local level to work just as hard. And, ultimately, we know that the best laboratory we have for emerging innovation and technology is where it is most needed, which is in our cities.

Another forward-looking thing we did was to look at our transportation system over the next 30 years, and this bears directly on all of you on the call. Our report "Beyond Traffic" tells us that we're gonna add seventy million more people to our population over the next thirty years, and it's also telling us that our cities will absorb most of this growth. This is part of the reason it's been said that the 20th century will not be dominated by countries, but it will in fact be dominated by the rise of cities and the rise of organization in regionalism. Along these lines, the entire world is now having a conversation about smart cities which is really a conversation about what our cities should look like in the future, and now our cities will need to show us. In this challenge, all of you will help define what a smart city is. So, rather than be prescriptive, we want you to be bold. We're asking you to develop your own unique vision, your own unique partnerships, your own unique blueprints, for building the city of the future, and we're putting the ball in your court in giving you the opportunity to demonstrate to the world what a fully integrated, forward-looking transportation network looks like. I want to say this because I know that many of you have been working on your community's vision statements and plans and land use strategies and all sorts of things. This challenge is an opportunity to bring all that together and to make progress so everyone joining us for this, I want to assure you that this is not only the beginning of our outreach process; we will continue making outreach happen over the next several weeks. In fact, tomorrow we'll host a smart city forum. Actually, I'm sorry, December fifteenth we will host a smart city forum, and we encourage folks to join us in person, but will also have a virtual option available as well. As I say, we'll have more webinars in the coming weeks. So, I'm looking forward to see seeing the proposals that come forth. I'm also looking forward to working with you all of you to push the boundaries of what is possible. And, with that, I'll turn it back to my team to give you more details and answer any questions you have and with that, thank you very much. Great to be with you.

KEVIN: Thank you Secretary Fox, and thank you, Mark Dowd. As the secretary just mentioned to remind you that you can sign up online for the December 15th in-person Smart City forum here at USDOT. He did mention that there will be an online option also. Please go to www.transportation.gov/smartcity [10] that's www.transportation.gov/smartcity [10]. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much again for joining us.



Click for transcript of #SmartCityPitch: Columbus. This will expand to provide more information.
ON SCREEN TEXT: In Columbus, we've build an unprecedented culture of collaboration. We've knocked down silos, and built up partnerships to become the Midwest's fastest-growing city. #1 in job growth #1 in population growth. Our culture of collaboration is the Columbus way. It is how $50 million becomes $140 million. We will set the pace for smart city transformation. We will connect hard-working people to jobs. We will lift a low-income community out of poverty. Give students of all ages unprecedented access to education. Give more expectant mothers access to prenatal care, and get more children to Pre-K. Through collaboration, we get things done. By sharing data, and leveraging advanced analytics, we will clear congestion and improve safety like never before. We will demonstrate how a city can leap ahead. You see, we know how to lead (fastest growing city for startup activity in 2015), to collaborate (#1 metro for job growth in the Midwest), to set a bold vision (lead the country in smart mobility), and best of all we know how to deliver results. So, let's transform Columbus. Let's build a connected, cutting edge, sustainable, smart city. Smart Columbus will move America forward. We're ready. All of us. #smartcolumbus

  • The winner, announced in June of this year, was Columbus, Ohio. I think you’ll agree that their winning pitch (see above) exhibited an impressive use of multimedia.

Submit an M.S. Word document to Assignment 1-3 in Canvas which addresses the following items (your document should be no more than 500 words in length):

  • Over the next 30 years, the population of the U.S. is expected to grow by roughly 70 million people. It is also expected that the majority of the growth will occur in metropolitan areas. What are some transportation problems you believe exist in cities today, and what effect do you think the expected population growth will have on them?
  • Imagine you were one of the cities participating in the challenge. How would you define a smart city in terms of its ability to alleviate some of the transportation issues you identified?
  • Besides the Smart City Challenge, describe another one of the USDOT's initiatives (preferably one where you can see spatial technology playing an important role).
Review and Respond (15 points)
Criteria Ratings Pts
Followed Instructions Excellent: Student carefully followed all instructions for the assignment.
4.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submission exhibited some minor deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
2.5 pts
Poor: Student's submission exhibited major deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
1.0 pts
4.0 pts
Content Quality Excellent: Student's submittal fully addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
7.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submittal partially addressed the topics of the assignment and demonstrated some insight and thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
4.0 pts
Poor: Student's submittal did not address the topics of the assignment and demonstrated little or no insight or thoughtful reflection on the part of the student.
1.0 pts
7.0 pts
Writing Quality Excellent: Student’s writing was organized, clear, and concise and was free from spelling and grammatical errors.
4.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student’s writing exhibited some deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity, and conciseness and/or contained a few spelling or grammatical errors.
2.5 pts
Poor: Student’s writing exhibited major deficiencies in the area of organization, clarity, and conciseness and/or contained many spelling or grammatical errors.
1.0 pts
4.0 pts
Total Points: 15.0

 

1.3 Getting to Know Each Other

One of my goals for this course is to promote meaningful interactions between all of us as we cover topics in GIS-T over the next 10 weeks and to lay the framework for building relationships which will extend beyond the end of the course. Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to get to know your classmates and me a little better. As a first step, you will create a video autobiography so we can begin to get to know you. In later lessons, you will spend time in one-on-one video chats with your classmates getting to know each other better.

Assignment 1-4 (15 points)

Create a 3-5 minute video autobiography in Canvas. At a minimum, your autobiography should include the following elements:

  • Name and place of residence
  • Educational background
  • Current and prior positions and responsibilities
  • Summary of your skills (technical and non-technical)
  • Interest/experience in transportation and GIS-T
  • Why you are taking the course
  • What you are hoping to get out of the course
  • Professional interests and goals
  • Personal interests

The video should be clear, flow smoothly, address the key elements and not sound robotic. It would be advisable for you to develop a rough outline to follow. Here is a link to instructions [11] for how to easily create a video discussion post within Canvas. Next week, you will be watching and responding to your classmates' videos.

Video Assignment (15 points)
Criteria Ratings Pts
Followed Instructions Excellent: Student carefully followed all instructions for the assignment.
5.0 pts
Satisfactory: Student's submission exhibited some minor deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
3.0 pts
Poor: Student's submission exhibited major deviations from the instructions for the assignment.
1.0 pts
5.0 pts
Presentation Quality Excellent: The presentation flowed smoothly, proceeded in a logical manner demonstrated good preparation but did not sound over rehearsed and robotic.
10.0 pts
Satisfactory: The presentation had some structure and demonstrated some preparation on the part of the student.
6.0 pts
Poor: The presentation did not flow smoothly, lacked organization and indicated little or no preparation on the part of the student.
1.0 pts
10.0 pts
Total Points: 15.0

 

1.4 This Week's Webinar

We will not have a webinar in Week 1.

1.5 Next Week's Webinar

Speaker

Next week we will have a webinar with Doug Tomlinson, Chief of Traffic Operations at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Doug's career has focused on various aspects of traffic engineering including work zone traffic control, traffic signals, traffic calming, incident management, ITS, and Traffic Operations. He is currently a Chief of Traffic Operations for PennDOT's Bureau of Maintenance and Operations with a focus on Planning and Operations.

Doug has worked for PennDOT since 1994. He was named ITS PA person of the year by the Pennsylvania chapter in 2013. Doug was a graduate of PennDOT's first Executive Development Academy, as well as a 2008 Graduate of the Operations Academy. Doug graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 1993 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering Technology.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is an exciting subfield within transportation which encompasses a broad array of technologies. The unifying goals of ITS technologies and systems are to help us use our transportation network more effectively and to allow us to make more informed decisions. One of the most active areas within ITS is in the area of Connected Vehicles and Autonomous Vehicles (CV/AV). Check out this TED talk [12] from 2011 on Google's driverless car:

Link to this video and accompanying interactive transcript. [12]

Then watch this brief USDOT video [13] on connected vehicles:

Click for the transcript of Connected Vehicle: The Future of Transportation. This will expand to provide more information.

Imagine a future where vehicles talk to one another and to critical infrastructure. This connected vehicle technology can change our transportation system as we know it by enabling safe interoperable network wireless communications among vehicles, infrastructure, and personal communications devices. Connected vehicles provide drivers with 360 degree awareness of similarly equipped vehicles within a range of approximately 300 meters. This secure system keeps personal information private and does not track your vehicle. Drivers will receive warnings that inform them of potential hazards through a visual display, seat vibration, or tone. These are only warnings the driver remains in control of the vehicle at all times. However, the technology can also support limited automated functions in which the driver only cedes partial control of the vehicle. Warnings can help drivers respond quickly to avoid potential crashes. For example, the intersection movement assist application warns drivers when it is unsafe to enter an intersection. The do not pass application warns drivers when it is not safe to pass a slower moving vehicle. The emergency electronic brake light application notifies the driver when an out-of-sight vehicle several cars ahead is braking ,and imagine the value of this blind spot warning application which lets this commercial driver virtually see what's happening in his or her blind spot. Connected vehicles can communicate with smart roadside infrastructure like rail grade crossings to alert drivers when a train is coming even if the driver cannot see or hear the approaching train.

Connected vehicles can help with weather related traffic and safety issues too. This this is especially true with conditions such as black ice where the weather may not appear to be dangerous, but the roads are slippery. Information collected from multiple connected vehicles can help determine when a potential hazard exist such as icy roads and warn drivers before they experienced them. Road weather data from the vehicles can be sent to traffic management centers or TMCs providing detailed, real-time information to help monitor and manage transportation system performance. The centers can then take actions like adjusting traffic signals and speed limits, notifying maintenance crews, dispatching maintenance vehicles to the road, and broadcasting warnings for motorists. Motorists can get real-time road weather information from in car displays by dialing 511 or by listening to highway radio stations. Motorists will be able to get road weather information on their personal devices before leaving home.

Connected vehicles can even help us to reduce our carbon footprint and facilitate green transportation choices. Eco lanes are similar to today's HOV lanes but with a big difference. Motorists in these lanes agree to drive eco-friendly vehicles and drive at a speed that conserves fuel. Drivers will be alerted about the proper speed with dynamic message signs.

Connected vehicle applications can help vehicles to reduce idling and unnecessary stops by communicating with smart traffic signals. Traffic signals broadcast data about their current signal phase and timing and systems inside the vehicles use the data to determine speed advice for drivers. Drivers could then adjust their vehicles speed to pass the next traffic signal on green or slow down to a stop in the most eco friendly manner thereby saving fuel, reducing emissions, and saving drivers money. Connected vehicles can enhance awareness of unexpected roadside incidents like disabled vehicles, car crashes, police activity, and first responders caring for crash victims. Incident zone warnings will alert drivers about incidents ahead and warn them to slow down and change lanes. Communications could also be sent to first responders at the scene via shoulder radios to warn them of the danger of approaching vehicles. Connected vehicle technology can help control traffic flow and reduce the result in congestion at accident sites before it gets out of hand.

With millions of connected vehicles our ability to share robust data with each other and with smart infrastructure will continue to improve traffic flow, enhance coordination with transit, and make our communities even more safe and livable. The connection protection application gives public transportation providers and travelers the ability to communicate two ways. The connected network gives passengers real-time transit information so they can more accurately predict whether they will make their next connection. If multiple people on a delayed bus will miss their next connection transportation providers can adjust bus departures to enable the passengers to make their next connection. Dynamic ride sharing applications make the logistics of ride-sharing, scheduling, reliability, and communication easier by connecting vehicles and handheld devices. Applications do the matching for us authenticating users and connecting riders with drivers. The co-operative adaptive cruise control app helps drivers avoid stops and starts which can also help conserve fuel and improve traffic flow. And the queue warning app monitors traffic data to detect stretches of slow-moving traffic and warn motorists to reduce speeds to avoid potential rear-end collisions.

Connected vehicle technology can help pedestrians, too. For example, the mobile accessible pedestrian signal system app sends an automated pedestrian call from the smartphone of a pedestrian with disabilities to the traffic controller holding the walk signal until the pedestrian has cleared the crosswalk. This application also alerts drivers of the presence of a pedestrian with disabilities at the crosswalk.

The potential benefits of a connected transportation system, one that is able to enhance safety and mobility and address environmental impacts are wide-ranging. They will be felt by every one of us, enhancing the livability of our communities and ultimately making our transportation safer and smarter. Imagine the possibilities.

Please Note

The USDOT has put together an interesting historic summary [14] of ITS technologies.

Traveler Information Systems

An area of ITS which has become very popular in recent years is traveler information systems. These systems disseminate real-time information to travelers in order to allow them to make more informed choices. These systems commonly contain the following types of information:

  • Traffic and road conditions
  • Construction projects
  • Planned events
  • Camera video and images
  • Incidents
  • Weather information

Traveler information can be disseminated by a number of methods including via Highway Advisory Radio stations (HAR), Variable Message Signs (DMS) and 511 websites, mobile applications and IVR systems. On July 21, 2000, the Federal Communications Commission designated a single 3 digit number (511) which could be used anywhere in the nation to obtain traveler information. Implementation of the services themselves was left to states and local agencies.

The Federal Highways Administration (FHWA), an organization you'll get to know better in an upcoming lesson, hosts a 511 Travel Information Telephone Services [15] website which shows the locations in the U.S. which provide 511 telephone services. As you can see from this site, most states in the U.S. operate a 511 information service. If you click on any location with 511 telephone services, you'll be given more information about the 511 services of that state/location. You'll notice that there is a “backdoor” number you can use to call 511 in a state even if you are not in that state. The information provided also gives the link to the corresponding 511 website if there is one.

Assignment 1-5 (10 points)

Explore the Pennsylvania 511 website [16] (Doug Tomlinson's group is responsible for this site) and the 511 telephone service for Pennsylvania (dial 511 if you're in Pennsylvania or 1-877-511-PENN if you're not) and investigate the information which is available to you through IVR. Submit an M.S. Word document (no more than 500 words in length) to Assignment 1-5 in Canvas which addresses the following questions.

  1. Have you used traveler information systems in the past? If not, why not? (3 points)
  2. Compare and contrast Pennsylvania's 511 phone service and 511 website. What are the pros and cons of each? (3 points)
  3. How is GIS used to help states disseminate traveler information and what benefits does it offer travelers? (4 points)

Assignment 1-6 (5 points)

After reviewing Doug Tomlinson's biography, some of the background information on ITS and the PA 511 website and 511 phone / IVR system, come up with 3-5 questions for Doug. The questions should be clear and relevant to Doug's area. Submit the questions to the Questions for Next Week's Presenter assignment in Canvas. Submit them via the text entry box provided for this assignment in Canvas. 

Webinar Questions (5 pts.)
Criteria Ratings Points
Question Quality
Excellent: Questions were clearly worded, demonstrated a thorough review of the background material and thoughtful reflection and insight on the part of the student.
5.0 pts
Satisfactory: Questions were somewhat clear, demonstrated some review of the background material and some reflection and insight on the part of the student.
3.0 pts
Poor: Questions were unclear and/or demonstrated little or no review of the background material and/or demonstrated little or no reflection and insight on the part of the student.
1.0 pts
5.0 pts
Total Points: 5.0

 

1.6 Summary of Lesson 1

In this lesson, we briefly examined the important role GIS plays in the field of transportation and learned about the manner in which GIS-T is evolving in the 21st century. We also learned something about transportation modes and the concepts of mode competition, mode shift, and containerization. In our efforts to become acquainted with transportation organizations, we spent some time exploring the USDOT, which is the topmost governmental transportation organization in the U.S. In preparation for next week’s webinar, we also spent some time learning about intelligent transportation systems and, in particular, traveler information systems. This week, you also took the first step in getting to know each other by creating a video autobiography which will serve to introduce you to the rest of the class.

Questions and Comments

If there is anything in the Lesson 1 materials about which you would like to ask a question or provide a comment, submit a posting to the Lesson 1 Questions and Comments discussion in Canvas. Also, review others' postings to this discussion and respond if you have something to offer or if you are able to help.

 


Source URL: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog497c/node/3

Links
[1] http://www.gis-t.org/
[2] http://www.urisa.org/education-events/gis-in-transit-conference/
[3] https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/
[4] https://www.nationalpriorities.org/videos/
[5] http://www.trackstatedollars.org/
[6] https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/ch3c1en.html
[7] https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/ch3c6en.html
[8] https://www.transportation.gov/
[9] mailto:smartcitychallenge@dot.gov
[10] http://www.transportation.gov/smartcity
[11] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10627-4212710345
[12] https://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Cn47L8FRQ&feature=youtu.be
[14] http://www.its.dot.gov/history/index.html
[15] http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/511/
[16] http://www.511pa.com/