Automobiles, streetcars, buses, bicyclists, pedestrians and a cruise ship terminal present numerous transportation challenges in downtown Tampa, Fla.
Inbound commuters on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway’s Reversible Express Lanes encounter significant delays and numerous rear-end crashes during morning peak periods. Vehicle/pedestrian conflicts are common at a busy mid-block crosswalk near the Hillsborough County Courthouse. Drivers and pedestrians conflict with buses and streetcars traveling the central business district.
Such challenges became a driving factor in local authorities signing on to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to implement a Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilot Project for the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) in conjunction with the Hillsborough Regional Transit Authority to implement CV technology in U.S. regions to measure impact and uncover technical and non-technical deployment barriers.
Tampa was selected for CV pilot project by USDOT as one of three nationwide locations. In southern Wyoming, CV technologies are used to improve safe and efficient truck movement along I-80. In New York City, the technology exploits vehicle-to-vehicle and intersection communications to improve vehicle flow and pedestrian safety in high-priority corridors.
In Tampa, the goal is to deploy multiple safety and mobility applications on and in proximity to reversible freeway lanes. The THEA Connected Vehicle Pilot began in 2015 as an effort equipping nearly 1,000 privately-owned vehicles with onboard units as well as 10 buses, nine trolleys and 46 roadside signal systems to ‘communicate’ with each other and elements of the transportation infrastructure.
The project aims to transform the experience of drivers, transit riders and pedestrians in downtown Tampa by preventing crashes, enhancing traffic flow, improving transit trip times and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
“As an independent local toll authority, we’ve always been interested in innovation and what is the next step in technology that we can use to make our system safer and more efficient,” noted Robert Frey, THEA director of planning and innovation.
The most recent example was adapting all-electronic tolling, “which has helped dramatically in terms of being able to use our existing system to its full capacity and providing safer trips for people by avoiding the toll booths,” he said.
“We need to use what’s available now and get it on the road so we’re saving lives today. It’s inevitable that there will always be better technology on the horizon. We will never get to the point of realizing the value and the benefits in terms of safety, operations and providing people with a more efficient way to move around if we continue to wait.”
While it’s up to vehicle manufacturers to incorporate connectivity technology in transportation products, where public agencies come into play is the ability to work with data from its public transportation vehicles, transit vehicles, pedestrian signal and traffic signals to improve the vehicles’ infrastructure system in an effort to solve contemporary transportation challenges, said Frey.
In 2016, USDOT authorized THEA and its partner organizations to proceed with design, testing and deployment. In 2018, the final phase of the $21 million project ushered in a full-scale operation of CV technology throughout downtown Tampa.
Bus and streetcar operators receive information on a dedicated display, while individual drivers get safety alerts in their vehicle’s rearview mirror.
In choosing private vehicles for the private project, the toll agency targeted those using the toll system. “We knew we could get the frequency of them using it day in and day out to generate useful data,” Frey said.
Through an agreement with Hillsboro Community College’s automotive engineering program, qualified vehicles’ mirrors were replaced with a connected mirror to communicate with the system.
CV applications include an:
• Emergency electronic brake light warning to alert drivers to hard braking ahead;
• End of ramp deceleration warning drivers to slow down to a recommended speed as the vehicle approaches the end of a queue;
• Forward collision warning of an imminent forward collision;
• Intelligent Signal System optimizing traffic signal timing based on connected vehicle data;
• Intersection Movement Assist warning the driver when it is not safe to enter an intersection;
• Pedestrian Collision Warning alerting the driver when a pedestrian is using a crosswalk in the vehicle’s projected path;
• Pedestrian in a Crosswalk Vehicle Warning identifying potential conflicts between pedestrians in a crosswalk and approaching vehicles;
• Probe Data Enabled Traffic Monitoring, which gathers traffic data from connected vehicles to optimize transportation management;
• Transit Signal Priority, giving buses priority at traffic signals to keep them running on schedule;
• Vehicle Turning Right in Front of Transit Vehicle warning of the streetcar operator when a vehicle is turning right at an intersection as the streetcar approaches; and
• Wrong Way Entry warning the driver of a vehicle entering the reversible express lanes in the wrong direction and other equipped vehicles a wrong-way driver is approaching.
For pedestrian safety, the pilot project at the midblock crosswalk on Twiggs Street at the Hillsborough County Courthouse – one of downtown Tampa’s busiest crosswalks – uses Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment for detecting pedestrians and a roadside unit for communicating with connected vehicles.
When an equipped vehicle approaches the crosswalk as a pedestrian crosses the street, the LiDAR system detects the pedestrian and the roadside unit broadcasts the information to any connected vehicles in the area through an audio and visual warning in the rearview mirror.
The approach of installing CV technology in vehicles using the toll roads has provided optimal frequency use and data for the pilot project, with some 500 vehicles moving through the study area daily of the 1,000 installed, said Frey.
“We do have connectivity,” he said. “The onboard units in the vehicles and the roadside units’ infrastructure are talking to each other. We don’t have enough data and there hasn’t been long enough time yet to make any determinations on the impacts to the corridor, but we know the system is operational, people are using it on a consistent basis and the data we are seeing does match what our traffic counts and our toll data reflect. The next step will be crunching that data to see the impacts to our corridor and to our system.”
Frey pointed out that for all of the work required of connectivity technology, new autonomous vehicles are on the horizon that don’t need to be connected because they’re self-contained.
But there are cost barriers to adopting autonomous vehicles, whereas public agencies can leverage CV technology to provide data to get pedestrian signals, transit, public transportation and emergency vehicles to operate better and safer, Frey added.
The USDOT CV pilot program – in its third phase of operations and maintenance – lasts until May 2020 at which time as part of an agreement with USDOT, THEA will maintain and operate the system in perpetuity as well as seek ways to incorporate other vehicles, Frey said.
“As a small agency, we cannot install onboard units on enough vehicles to make a difference, so we are going to have to work with the auto manufacturers on rolling their connected vehicles coming off of the line into our system,” he added.
“As a road operator, I have to serve all vehicles that show up on the ramps regardless of year, make and model. Whatever technology they’re running, I’ve got to figure out a way to make that work. I know we can get a CV system up and operational – we’re already doing it. I know the technology is safe.”
As THEA goes through a replacement program, Frey will be looking at connectivity capability.
“General Motors right now has several vehicles coming out that are connected-capable vehicles. How do they come to Tampa, use the system and receive the benefits is the next step we have to work on so that those vehicles can come in and retrofits of the existing fleet will basically be whether or not people see value or want to do it,” said Frey, adding he is unaware of other public agencies that may be doing so.
Frey says the pilot project changes the way transportation agencies do business.
“Ten years ago, I don’t think you would have found a transportation agency with a software engineer,” he said. “Now we’re recognizing that we need them because so many of these apps being used are software-driven. Those are skill sets we never had before.
“I just awarded a miscellaneous emerging technologies support contract to five technology firms to support us going forward. Existing engineering firms just don’t have the skill set or the technological information to provide us with the skill sets needed going forward with all of the communications, technology, and mobility as that’s coming.”
Changing the way transportation agencies do business means getting the technological means of changing from solely a civil engineering approach to a technological/civil combination, Frey said.
“It’s important to get this technology on the streets actually working rather than having market share conversations and who’s going to do what,” said Frey. “We have a problem with transportation – crashes, injuries, fatalities. If there’s technology that can help, we need to get it out on the streets to do that.”
