Buffalo Niagara Wait Time Pilot Project Update

TBWG April 2012Ed StrockoFederal Highway Administration

PurposeTest, Evaluate and Deploy Technologies to

Automate the Measurement of Real-Time Border Wait Times at United States – Canada Land Border Crossings

Phase IEvaluated four solutions

GPS/SmartphoneBluetoothRADARVehicle Waveform identification

Phase 2Elements

Deploy a systemValidate its performancePut in place a long-term operational model

TechnologiesBluetoothGPS/Smartphone (dropped)

Phase 2 ActivitiesInstallation of a Bluetooth-based system at two US-

Canada crossings in the Niagara regionPeace Bridge between Buffalo, NY and Ft. Erie, ONQueenston-Lewiston Bridge between Queenston, ON

and Lewiston, NYCalibrate and verify the functionality and accuracy

of the system and to support integration with existing traveler information systems.

Concept of operations will be developed that describes the operational model as applied in the Niagara region, and applicable to other international border crossings.

IssuesTechnological

Intermittent technical malfunction internal to some of the detectors

Need to lengthen readers from 1 hr. to 2 hr. queue Misalignment of some readers

Operational Funding Maintenance Reporting

Recent ActivitiesRelocation of upstream readers to enable

wait time detection up to 2 hours (January-February 2012).

Calibration of system with new readers positions (to be determined based on historical volume information-spring 2012).

Meeting with stakeholders (March 2012)Ground-truth measurement and analysis

supporting system acceptance following system calibration (measurement completed April 6th and analysis currently underway).

Next StepsIntegration of agency systems with BWT

system (spring 2012)Concept of Operations (Spring 2012)Investigate funding of instrumentation for

Rainbow CrossingPlan for transition to agency responsibility

(Summer 2012)Continued operation and monitoring of

system until transition to agencies (through December 30, 2012)