Background

Caltrans and MTC view VII as an opportunity to provide significant improvements to the safety and operation of the transportation system. Both organizations are active members of the National VII working group. While there is considerable activity occurring at the national level, the California partners believe the San Francisco Bay Area can play a valuable role to facilitate national decision making regarding VII deployment.

The San Francisco Bay Area consistently ranks as one of the most congested metropolitan regions in the country. It recently ranked second behind Los Angeles in terms of annual hours of delay per traveler¹. Part of the reason for this high level of congestion is the unique geography of the Bay Area, which is surrounded by mountains and several bodies of water. The result is a constrained transportation system that relies on a limited number of freeways and seven major toll bridges.

In response to these challenges, Bay Area transportation agencies have already deployed one of the most advanced transportation system management programs in the country. Important tools to better manage our transportation system include ramp metering, electronic toll collection (FasTrak™) and advanced traveler information (511). One of the biggest values of our VII demonstration will be its ability to help transportation agencies around the country understand how VII can support the deployment and operation of these system management tools. In addition, the Bay Area is home to the Port of Oakland, the 4th largest port in the country, and operations there may benefit significantly from VII. Silicon Valley is also an important asset with its vibrant community of technology innovators prepared to provide the public sector useful tools based on current technologies, and to develop new applications to support and enhance the transportation and economic benefits of a VII system. These innovations also offer the opportunity to collaborate on the development of future transportation technology products.

The ultimate goals of VII California are to:

• Better manage the safety and productivity of the surface transportation system;
• Combine the resources, research, and innovations of the public sector, the auto industry, aftermarket suppliers, and other private sector participants for the benefit of the traveling public;
• Build upon California’s already considerable existing infrastructure investments; and
• Create opportunities for innovation in the transportation system, and explore commercial uses of the system to fund its deployment and operation.

The VII California partners believe that these goals are achievable but before the California partners – or the nation – can commit the financial resources and support any companion legislative actions, there needs to be evidence of the feasibility and value of VII. This evidence should be based on a combination of field testing and off-line simulation work. The field testing results should be made available in a timely fashion to inform national program decision milestones.

Accordingly, VII California partners have identified the following goals for phase 2 of its program:

• Assess real-world implementations of VII infrastructure, architecture and operations;
• Inform future decisions for California and Bay Area investments for system management programs; and
• Inform the 2008 decision for the National VII Program.

Our key strategy to meet these goals is to deliver a testbed that will showcase the value of VII in terms of safety and mobility benefits. The urgency of the 2008 decision makes the concept of a showcase even more important. The viability of the VII California applications will be evaluated by Caltrans, MTC and their contractors. Mobility benefits will be evaluated in terms of user perception of the usefulness of VII-generated traveler information delivered in-vehicles as well as value provided to the public agencies. With regard to value provided to the agencies, we will consider ease of implementation, potential cost savings and additional sources of traveler information. Additionally, we will consider benefits with regard to improved freeway management, resulting from efficiencies projected for toll collection, on-ramp metering and flow balancing operations. Finally, we will determine safety benefits resulting from our intersection and curve overspeed applications by comparing crash or crash surrogate statistics before-after VII implementation and/or with similar intersections or curves that are VII-equipped.

Caltrans and MTC have already begun the deployment of the testbed, through initial installations of five roadside equipment (RSE) locations equipped with 5.9 GHz radio units in the Palo Alto area. We are now finalizing our concept for the remainder of the testbed for a much larger installation. The VII California program will coordinate our Bay Area testbed with tests 3 conducted elsewhere in the nation. We will strive to complement other work being done, while taking advantage of the unique attributes of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Caltrans and the MTC have identified the following public sector VII applications as our priorities for testing:

• Traveler Information
• Ramp Metering
• Electronic Payment (Tolling )
• Intersection Safety
• Curve Overspeed Warning

Caltrans and the MTC are interested in supporting innovative, commercial applications that would be developed and provided by individual automobile companies or other private sector organizations.

¹ 2005 Urban Mobility Study, Texas Transportation Institute.