Nearly a decade after conversations first began — and more than a year after the seven “core stakeholders” signed a memorandum of understanding — the Connected Corridors Interstate 210 Pilot, is poised to begin testing, likely next spring, a California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) official told Techwire.
The state agency joins the project’s other public-sector partners – Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro); the cities of Arcadia, Duarte, Monrovia and Pasadena; and the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies in working “on behalf of the Regional Integration of Intelligent Transportation Systems,” according to agreements on the program’s website. Generally, the pilot aims to improve traffic, traffic monitoring and decision-making by using technology to cut delays and travel times; provide traffic predictions, suggest alternate routes and even cut down on accidents on one of the San Gabriel Valley’s major freeways.
Among the takeaways:
• The transportation pilot is believed to be the first in California to blend a cloud-based simulation system with machine algorithms and “high-fidelity” simulation tools, Alexandre M. Bayen, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences; and director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, told Techwire.
“I think what’s interesting about this is the ability to have these three things in coordination — machine learning on the cloud with microsimulation is not something that was possible 10 years ago. And that’s why it’s exciting, because with the rise of data that we see nowadays, I think the promises of the approach are quite substantial,” Bayen said.
Officials at Caltrans are working on the final design together, and anticipate starting testing next spring, including using computer modeling and traffic event information to scrutinize algorithms created by the Institute, Allen Chen, a Caltrans senior transportation electrical engineer, told Techwire. The project’s funding includes $22 million in State Highway Operation and Protection Program funding; and $6.4 million in local tax monies from LA Metro.
• Private-sector partners include AT&T and Amazon Web Services, which will provide hosting in the cloud; and a micro-simulation tool from Aimsun SL, acquired by Siemens last year. The pilot’s Decision Support Center will be hosted in the cloud; and, Chen said, “gather all the information from the freeway and the city street.”
The plan, he said, is to direct traffic off the freeway through connected street and off-ramp signals when major accidents or events like large concerts or games occur — recognizing motorists may head there anyway, but doing more to focus them away from certain neighborhoods.
“We have about 500 major incidents every year. The average is about one a day. We’re trying to do corridor management, so we’re going to coordinate our operations together, for major incidents on the freeway or major events in the city,” Chen said.
• The project area includes the 210 freeway “from the Arroyo Boulevard interchange in Pasadena … to the I-605 interchange in Duarte,” as well as “sections of the State Route 134 and Interstate 605 freeways, several key surrounding arterials, and several transit systems serving the corridor,” officials said in the pilot’s concept of operations. The 210 was chosen over freeways like the 405 and 710, which are perhaps better-known for their traffic, because its traffic is easier to measure than the former; and lacks the latter’s trucks, which haul containers to and from the harbor. The 210 freeway also has supporting transit, in the form of the adjacent LA Metro Gold Line train; and has better instrumentation to support an IT deployment.
• The pilot’s ultimate goal isn’t to remove congestion isn’t to remove congestion, Bayen said, pointing out “induced demand” ensures that motorists invariably fill the extra lanes as freeways are widened. Rather, it’s to manage that congestion better – identifying better routes for drivers through the simulation; then, later, actually improving traffic in real time.
“The notion of having an informed decision, so decisions result from actual simulations that can run faster than real time and that can run in massive amounts so it finds the most likely solution to the problem, that is something that’s very exciting,” Bayen said.
