Creating a Smart and Connected Transit Corridor

Transit signal priority projects across the nation transform commuter corridors into models of mobility

Maintaining a reliable schedule and dealing with traffic congestion issues are priority concerns for transit agencies. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, implementing a transit signal priority (TSP) system can reduce delays by nearly 33% per year. TSP is a connected corridor technology feature that can help transportation agencies deliver more-reliable transportation systems that significantly improve mobility for communities.

Successful management and delivery of TSP projects depend on building on lessons learned from previous projects throughout the country, developing and leveraging strong partnerships and adhering to best practices.

Starting a TSP project

Much knowledge can be gained from the TSP initiatives that states and cities across the nation have already implemented. Understanding the common challenges and opportunities experienced by transportation agencies undertaking TSP for the first time could lead to cost savings and better system integration. Key strategies to consider in starting a TSP program are as follows:

• Undertaking a systems engineering process. Systems engineering sequentially translates user needs into project requirements. This approach breaks a technology corridor project into manageable components and encourages stakeholder input. It provides a roadmap for thinking through test cases when setting requirements and ensures that the resulting system design is comprehensive and aligned with user needs.

This type of evaluation also helps with conditional priority initiatives, which can support traffic flow by setting specific criteria, such as passenger counts on buses and adjusting signals to match this condition to maintain bus schedules or giving priority to certain types of bus service, such as rapid transit.

• Assessing existing signal system and bus technology. This gap analysis allows project owners to understand where opportunities exist to build upon current infrastructure technology and where upgrades may be necessary. For example:

– Technology already aboard buses may allow them to be connected to the technology corridor with minor or no changes.

– Traffic signal controller software updates might be necessary at some or all intersections to ensure compatibility with the overall TPS system.

A thorough assessment further identifies where other vendors may be needed. It allows early awareness of and planning for upgrade time and capital investments, minimizing the risk of extra costs and schedule impacts during construction.

Signal system assessments should include a review of side street detection needs and capabilities. In many cases, side street signal duration can be reduced to enable longer signal phases for transit

Kevin Hayes, PE Senior Project Engineer

HNTB

Corporation

Kevin Hayes is the senior systems engineer on NJDOT’s first-ever connected vehicle infrastructure design and deployment. He has nearly 30 years of experience in design, integration, TSP and queue jump lanes.

Contact him at kehayes@hntb.com

Matt Junak, PE

Senior

HNTB

Project Engineer

Corporation

Matt Junak, PE is a senior project engineer who has led planning, design, implementation, and testing for TSP systems around the US—including Go Raleigh and EMBARK. He has 20 years of experience in ITS & Connected Automated Vehicle design.

Contact him at mjunak@hntb.com

Diane Newton, PMP, CVP VP, Intelligent Mobility Solutions

HNTB

Corporation

Diane Newton is a vice president and task manager who oversaw delivering the concept design, requirements and RFP development and contract and technical oversight services as the owner’s rep for a cloud-based transit signal priority system on IndyGo’s Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit Line. Newton has 20 years of experience in technology and transportation systems engineering, design, deployment and evaluation.

Contact her at dnewton @hntb.com

Some buses are already equipped with technology that can integrate with TSP deployment.

vehicles without detriment to side street mobility. Verification, however, requires an intersectionby-intersection review to avoid disrupting side street traffic demand or inadvertently diminishing pedestrian or cyclist safety.

• Starting small. Starting with incremental initiatives or smaller-sequence deployments, like pilot projects on short corridor segments, allows project owners to refine TSP strategies and make adjustments based on real-world performance before committing to large-scale implementations.

The agencies and municipalities collaborating to develop the GoRaleigh Transit Plan in Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, first conducted trials to determine which TSP technology package could be effectively applied to their bus rapid transit routes. By determining which would deliver the most reliable bus schedule performance, the project owners could confidently deploy the technology, publish schedules and trust the technology to deliver dependably.

Developing and Managing Partnerships

Strong partnerships play a crucial role in transit technology projects. Fresh approaches and solutions emerge from partnerships with private-sector companies, and knowledge of stakeholder perspectives enables project owners to gain shared commitments to achieving project goals.

• All stakeholders. A first-time TSP project presents an opportunity for collaboration with all relevant agencies (e.g., transit, state DOTs, traffic, local government and emergency services, among others), as well as bus operations and maintenance staff and members of the public. Having key stakeholders at the table from the beginning and understanding their needs and limitations informs project conceptualization, requirements and decision making.

As an example, transportation agencies’ connected corridor goals may need to be weighed against bus operators’ desire to avoid the cost and maintenance

requirements of added technology placed on their buses. Asking the right questions of all stakeholders leads to the development of balanced system requirements.

Transit agencies and DOTs work together to create a unified transportation system for urban cities. Continued cross-agency collaboration is vital to create a connected corridor. A TSP feature like queue jumping, where transit buses get preferred signals over other vehicle traffic during peak congestion periods, requires a unified and well-planned approach among all transportation agencies transit and local DOT alike.

• Engineering partner. Capital projects — especially first-time TSP projects — are complex. On-point systems engineering and technology integration, management and maintenance are important to consider.

Applying Best Practices

In a connected transit technology corridor, the following best practices can help mitigate risk, inform the appropriate allocation of resources and, ultimately, ensure optimal performance.

• Think big picture. Holistic planning intertwines goals, funding and stakeholder needs to establish realistic project deliverables. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma took this approach with its EMBARK TSP Master Plan. After reviewing user needs and requirements, the City developed a master plan that determined priorities, phasing and yearly capital investments required to deliver on the citywide, 300-intersection goal.

• Gain insights from previous projects. As part of the EMBARK project and the IndyGo TSP for the Purple Line BRT project in Indianapolis, Indiana peer exchanges connected city and transit leaders with agencies that have already established robust citywide TSP systems. These meetings provided insights into staffing resources, technology deployment and operational challenges, providing project leaders with clarity about how they could

IndyGO Red Line bus rapid transit project included TSP among other design features.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHT:

Route 1/Route 295 Smart & Connected Corridors

With aims to drastically improve motorist safety and mobility, the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Smart & Connected Corridors project is a first-of-its-kind deployment of emerging and cutting-edge roadside technology such as Connected Vehicle Roadside Units, Wrong-Way Vehicle Detection Systems, and an intelligent edge-computing platform. Read more about this project on our website

design their systems with the end in mind. This can be especially helpful if an agency wants to explore TSP techniques like queue jumping to understand stakeholder acceptance and performance metrics other cities evaluated before incorporating them into planning.

Similarly, informational meetings held with five potential technology company bidders on the EMBARK project gave Oklahoma City leaders a way to learn about the vendors’ systems, capabilities, experience, results and costs. The discussions allowed the City to conduct an upfront evaluation of available TSP architectures and assess what structure best fit the project needs.

More modern approaches to TSP consider “hardware light” models, which minimize or avoid adding more technology and equipment to buses. To test its inclination for that methodology, IndyGo invited several vendors to operate a cloud-based, hardware light TSP system on multiple Red Line intersections. That proof of concept confirmed the effectiveness of the City’s preference.

Other best practices include incorporating the most accurate bus location data systems available, integrating third-party data and using advanced traffic signal performance measures to enhance system operations and dynamics. Owners can explore these and other TSP system features when assessing technologies that achieve project goals.

• Allow adequate time for testing. Building time in the launch schedule to test a new TSP system provides a margin to address operational challenges before the system is unveiled for broad public use.

In all, TSP deployment is a proven congestionreduction tactic that should be assessed against a capital plan and across individual intersections and affected side streets. Some intersections will need more upgrades than others to make the entire system function in unison. Considering best practices and lessons learned from other cities’ TSP programs and working with key stakeholders is fundamental to creating a connected technology corridor. n