USING VM and FPS TO PREPARE A FRAMEWORK FOR THE

DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE TRAFFIC VOLUME

INFORMATION SYSTEM

Presented by

Lucie Parrot, eng. CVS

Tom Fletcher, P.Eng., CVS

Thomas W. Fletcher, P.Eng., CVS

29 year career at the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario (MTO) including Senior Value Engineer

established the Fletcher Group in 1999 past president of the Canadian Society for Value

Analysis. currently director responsible for business liaison

with SAVE International.

Lucie Parrot, eng.,M.eng., CSI, CVS

industrial engineer with over 25 years of experience

involved in product development projects award for her “outstanding contribution” from the

Canadian Society for Value Analysis. with the society since its beginning

Agenda

ContextMandateApproachMethodologyResults

MTO context

successfully used the VE Methodology, since 1998 on design projects of highways

savings in excess of $100 Millions limited use in other business areas develop a new framework for an expanded and

updated Traffic Volume Information System (TVIS2)

Mandate

analyse the functions of 6 existing legacy systems, incorporate new required functions eliminate redundant functions evaluate potential options / FPS highlight weaknesses in current business processes Decide: acquire or develop of new system.

Network

16 477 km of highways collection of data is done on a few specific road

sections on a continuous basis remainder of the sections according to a three year

program. One of the most important statistics AADT-

Average Annual Daily Traffic.

Responsibilities

Head Office : the permanent counting program publication of traffic volume data and statistics.

Regional Traffic Offices: collecting and processing of sectional traffic data on

highway network review of the preliminary data prior to the publication

by Head Office.

ConceptualTraffic Volume - Processing Systems

PDC Data ProcessingDaily Counts24hrs/day365days/yr

Sample Counts( 1/3 of the hwy network per yr,3 times/yr. - totalling 13 daysof count data)

Regions

PDC Stations

- Short Term Count Stations:Manual Counts, Turning Movement Counts,Request Counts- Other Studies:Radar Speed, Ball Bank, Travel Time Delay,Observance/Compliance- Future Requirements:GTA Cordon Count and Commercial VehicleSurveys

Seasonal VariationCurves( 14 pattern types )

Traffic VolumesAccident Rates

Customers:•TransportationPlanning Branch• ProgramManagement Branch•Regional TrafficOffices•Regional PlanningOffices•Head Office Traffic

HeadOffice

Traffic Data Processing

Prepared by Peter Gaboury Mar 2001Revised by Zoe Lam Sept. 2002File: TVP Conceptual.ppt

Actual systems

1. Inventory Count Management System (ICMS)

2. Regional Traffic Information System (RTIS)

3. Noon-to-Noon File Management System (NNFMS)

4. Permanent Counting Stations (PCS)

5. Matching Program (PCSFIT)

6. Traffic Volume Information System (TVIS)

Situation

antiquated and need to be replaced. written in 16-bit DOS, FORTRAN, dBaseIII+, and

Better Basic Some are mainframe applications while others are

for stand alone PC applications that will not work in a modern computer environment

Comparison

publication of current traffic statistics is delayed by over 1 year.

US DOT’s are required to publish federally reported traffic data within 90 days of year end.

Approach Arrange Stakeholder workshops and user interviews

facilitated by a CVS resulting in a functional tree and draft FPS

Prepare final Functional Performance Specification Prepare a detailed questionnaire based on the FPS to

interview 15 selected transportation agencies Short List and visit 3 agencies for detailed analysis Prepare report on findings and preferred solution

from agencies / FPS VE of business processes

Methodology Analyze the functions of current processing

systems in order to identify what needs to be included in the next generation system.

Identify functions of a higher level, by looking at the outside influence factors that have an impact on the design of the new TVIS2 system. (environmental analysis)

Organize functions in a functional diagram & FPS.

Design strategy

ADVISEDCLIENT

MARKETRESEARCH

NEED

FUNCTIONANALYSIS

FUNCTIONALPERFORMANCESPECIFICATION

CONCEPTUALDESIGN

DESIGN TO COST

FMEA

DETAIL ENGINEERING

PRODUCTIONV

A

L

U

E

E

N

GEVALUATION

Functional diagramTVIS2

DETERMINE THE NEEDS

creation of a program schedule according to rules set by frequency, dates, duration and method of collection including time intervals

maintenance or construction work must be known inventory of sensors and equipment add ad-hoc count requests query and revision of the program

COLLECT / RETRIEVE DATA

programming, collecting/recording and retrieving of data recorded by monitoring equipment

upload and download information stamp for time, location and type of equipment

used, for traceability and for quality of data purposes

data entry screens

ENSURE QUALITY OF PROCESS

assessing integrity and quality of the acquired data errors and anomalies are identified and edited New: authentication of data and tracking of level

of confidence

PROCESS DATA

calculations, statistics, spreadsheets and graphs are prepared

match data to curves by pattern types Projections done for uncounted locations Estimates are also prepared warrants are calculated

MAKE RESULTS AVAILABLE

preparation of reports export of data publication of information help the users make good decisions Real time data should be available

ENSURE RELIABILITY AND CONTINUITY OF SYSTEM

respect standards and MTO architecture Support users and owners manage the system legacy data need always to be available make sure no suspicious or malicious activities

take place

Cost analysisItem Cost % of Project

Collect-retrieve data $ 752 000 33,6% Make results available $ 572 000 25,6% Process edited data $ 306 000 13,7%

Ensure quality of process $ 267 000 11,9%

Planning/ Determine the needs $ 190 000 8,5%

Ensure reliability and continuity $ 148 000 6,6% $ 2 235 000

Example from FPSNumber Function Criteria Level Flex Comments

1.1.1.1 Keep track of counts

history forever F0 It is important to be able to eventually go back to any year

    archives After 20 years

F0 Anything before that is available at any time

3.1.2 Monitor collection process

View of data 15 minutes

F1  

    Communication achieved

Yes or no F1  

4.5.3.3 Select best suited curve

Number of best choices

5 F1  

Functional diagramTVIS2

Candidate Agencies 1. Province of Alberta2. California Department of Transportation (CalTrans)3. British Columbia MOT (BCMOT)4. Chaparral Systems **5. Florida DOT (FDOT)6. Maryland (MSHA)*7. Minnesota DOT (MnDOT)8. North Carolina DOT (NCDOT)9. Ohio DOT (OHDOT)10. Pennsylvania DOT (Penn DOT)*11. Quebec MOT12. Texas DOT13. City of Toronto*14. Vermont Agency of Transportation (VAOT)*15. Virginia (DOT)

3 options

1. Utilize a current US-DOT Traffic Monitoring System as a basis for the new TVIS2 System

2. Purchase a Commercial Off the Shelf Traffic Monitoring system

3. Develop a new system based on the FPS developed for this project

System’s Integration

     First opportunity for system IT staff to evaluate FPS as tool.

It was concluded that this provided many valuable opportunities to bridge the gap between user and application developer.