Transportation Research Board (TRB) Traffic Signal Systems, VII California, ITS, and Highway Automation Committees Joint Summer Meeting. July 22 - 26, 2007.

This mid-year workshop on VII and CICAS brought leaders in VII and CICAS programs from government, industry, and academia and provided participants with current status, including roadmap to deployment, potential issues faced and to be faced with the proposed deployment, up-to- date research activities that are closely related to traffic signal systems. In addition, the workshop identified data needs and future research topics under VII/CICAS especially for traffic signal control system.

The workshop was highlighted by demonstrations performed by VII California partners, with the assistance of San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans). The demonstrations included:

• Traveler Information - With a network of DSRC roadside units, the traveler information systems provide information that may be relevant to the performance of a traveler's trip, including travel times, incident alerts, road closures, school and workzones and weatherconditions.
• Intersection Safety - This is the application of low latency, high availability, safety critical messaging between Roadside Equipments (RSEs) and Onboard Equipment (OBE) for cooperative intersection safety, with focus on signal violation, dilemma zone warning (to address the onset of yellow signal phase and reducing left-turn crashes). This family of applications may require high data rate, as wireless map updates may constitute a significant component of the message.
• Signal Phase and Timing - This demonstration included CICAS-V and PATH-developed cooperative signal violation information being experimented at two interesections, the latter transmitted to an in-service SamTrans bus. One directly connected to the 2070 controllers, and the other "sniffed" on the 170 legacy controller. These are the snapshots of what is happening in VII California, underscoring real world accomplishments by a dynamic, creative team.
• Advanced Transit Signal Priority - This new development uses the advantage of cell phone technology communicating with RSEs to give signal priorities to public transit. This application increases the accuracy and reliability of on-time arrival and enhances the efficiency of public busing transits.
• Transit Safety - Extensive research have been carried out to promote improvements and feasibility in transit safety. With the latest cutting edge technologies, improvements on transit safety have been made possible by the use of radar detection, sensors, and advanced collision warning system.

Click here for more pictures from the TRB Demo.