The article presents the cooperation between administrative units and private entities aimed at building a broadly understood traffic management and emergency management system in Houston, Texas. In the United States, every metropolitan area has centers of varying sizes that fulfill similar functions. The author analyzed the current state using materials published by Houston TranStar and based on a visit to this center, one of several similar ones (Washington, Denver, Providence) that took place in 2007 thanks to an invitation from the Department of State.
Traffic management and emergency management system in Houston
Houston, Texas, is home to one of the largest traffic management centers in the United States. Houston TranStar was established in 1993 as a joint initiative of state authorities, the City of Houston, Harris County, and the Texas Department of Transportation to provide services and coordinate tasks in the field of traffic management and emergency management in their respective areas.
The traffic management center has the capability to monitor the current situation on roads using various ICT tools, the largest of which is the Computerized Traffic Management System (CTMS) owned by the state department of transportation. The CTMS system consists of, among other things:
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over 730 CCTV cameras scattered throughout the area,
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a travel time monitoring system (covering 1,328 km of roads),
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a signal control system for highway entrance and exit ramps,
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an automatic vehicle identification system used for automatic toll collection on toll roads,
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a radio broadcast system (12 transmitters and one mobile system broadcasting messages automatically – approximately 2,500 – 3,000 messages per year),
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216 Dynamic Message Signs (DMS)
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a Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) – collecting data from over 800 sensors, including 351 belonging to Harris County and 249 to the state department of transportation.
This system also allows for the publication of traffic information using DMS, the radio broadcast system, the Internet (including current information on traffic conditions, collisions, and roadworks on specific sections via the social networking site Twitter.com), and local media – radio and television stations, and newspapers.
TranStar coordinates rescue operations and roadside assistance, minimizing waiting times for appropriate services. Often, help is dispatched before any of the victims or witnesses request it. This happens in cases where a collision, accident, or technical problems causing vehicle immobilization result in a decrease in the current average travel speed on a given section as reported by detectors, or when the situation is captured by an observer on one of the CCTV cameras.
In the event of emergencies, such as hurricanes, evacuation plans for residents using automotive transport (mainly residents’ vehicles) are prepared. These plans assume the evacuation of the four-million population of the metropolitan area within 12 hours to a distance of at least 150 km from the center of Houston.
Administrative cooperation and public-private partnership
The construction and operation of the system providing the services described above is a continuous process for many public entities and requires cooperation with research centers and private companies.
The mission of Houston TranStar is to provide effective traffic management and emergency management services through the shared use of partners’ resources to maximize safety and traffic flow. In the United States, administrative units work closely with each other, as well as with business entities – within the framework of public-private partnerships. Examining this issue using the example of Houston, we are dealing with close cooperation between the following administrative units:
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Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) – responsible for managing highways and state roads (1,328 km of roads, including 1,213 km of highways) and traffic on them using the computerized traffic management system,
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Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO)
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City of Houston (management of the city road system)
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Harris County (including the county office of emergency management, the unit responsible for toll collection on toll highways).
Each partner is responsible for the part of the transport system under their jurisdiction. TranStar allows for the coordination and increased efficiency of not only current operations but also the planning of infrastructure and service development by leveraging synergy effects. Problems with the compatibility of the partners’ information systems are solved jointly. An example of a currently addressed problem is the incompatibility of the telecommunications infrastructure of intelligent traffic management systems in Houston and highways in Harris County. To solve this problem, work is underway on a communication solution based on a WiMax network.
In order to reduce costs, partners share their ICT infrastructure. For example, CCTV cameras owned by TxDOT are available in passive mode to everyone, and for specific partners or external entities, active access with the ability to control the cameras is provided under specific, established rules. Officially, TranStar employees state that the camera footage is not recorded so as not to provide a video stream sharing service to interested parties, in particular lawyers dealing with collision and accident cases on roads.
Administrative cooperation allows for the coordination of traffic in the city and on nearby highways in situations where traffic intensity increases, for example, in the case of local sports team matches (hockey, American football, baseball). In such cases, signaling is centrally switched to mass event mode, ensuring optimal arrival before and departure after the event.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2010.