Abstract Manager

Introduction: This technical session presentation will include an overview of the current challenges in the integration of traffic management systems and operations, provide key industry trends from the international practice, demonstrating how agencies respond to those challenges and lastly discuss upcoming trends in mobility and how these might affect Transportation Operations Centers (TOC) operations and systems currently used to support them.

Problem Statement: Within the transportation landscape, challenges agencies are facing include limited, and old infrastructure, decentralized legacy systems for managing transportation networks, and effectively coordinating with varying levels of stakeholders. TOCs that monitor and manage transportation networks on a daily basis are at the forefront of experiencing these challenges, limiting their ability to manage traffic efficiently and effectively.

Objective: The objective of this session is to highlight the direction TOCs are moving towards, in order to address existing challenges, as well as promote a proactive behaviour within TOCs to better position themselves to address the needs of potentially future operations.

Methodology: To better address these challenges, TOCs are making key changes to their operational structure and technology portfolio. These trends are foundational towards using people, processes, physical space, and technology at its optimal and includes:

-       Co-locating separate transportation-related functions into a single facility and/or control room for more effective collaboration across events

-       Integrating disparate sources of traffic information to improve situational awareness and synergy across datasets obtained from third party data sources and agency-owned field devices.

-       Optimizing video wall content and usage to use as an effective tool for detecting, monitoring, and assessing planned and unplanned events.

-       Leveraging data analytics in operations to drive continuous improvement and assess internal performance and performance based contracts

Conclusion: Looking towards the changing mobility landscape, we can identify how drivers for changes within TOCs is essential in addressing on-the-rise themes such as:

-       Multi-modal transportation management

-       Adoption of autonomous vehicles

-       Curbside management

-       Vehicle Electrification