Articles

ITS Wits

Creative thinkers in the Kaine administration are pushing a budgetary amendment that would give Intelligent Transportation Systems a $20 million boost.

by Peter Galuszka

As Secretary of Transportation Pierce R. Homer looks on, Aneesh P. Chopra, Virginia's Secretary of Technology, whips out his Personal Digital Assistant and gives an example of what intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can do.

He tunes into a website, and up pops a Google map of Vienna in Northern Virginia. Based on the color coding of the roads, Chopra observes that traffic is unusually light for a Monday afternoon -- it is Martin Luther King's birthday and throngs of federal government workers are staying at home. On a busier day, a harried motorist could use the real-time information to plan his trip and avoid congestion hot spots.

"This is what we want to see with intelligent transportation systems," chimes in Homer, who is seated in Chopra's downtown Richmond office meeting with a reporter to promote ITS. There is a lot of information, he says, but it's "not being brought together in a consumer- oriented way."

Homer and Chopra are spearheading a fresh budget initiative by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to earmark $20 million to pioneer the use of advanced technology to reduce traffic congestion. Some $10 million would be used to spark fresh ideas for applying ITS in Northern Virginia and a like amount in Hampton Roads, the two most traffic-clogged regions of the state.

The idea is a hot one with the state's burgeoning ITS  sector. Based mostly in Northern Virginia but with offshoots elsewhere, the fledgling industry is gaining recognition as a national leader in using digitized data to link remote monitors, traffic control centers, the Internet and warning signs to help drivers avoid traffic jams. Says Craig Franklin, president of Leesburg-based Trichord: "Virginia is a leader in intelligent transportation and is very advanced."

The state's ITS industry, which started in earnest about six years ago, has gotten a boost from Virginia's critical mass in high tech, links to the defense industry, strategic Mid-Atlantic location  and, perhaps ironically, the atrocious traffic congestion in the Washington, D.C. area -- second worst in the country after Los Angeles. A number of firms are winning contracts with private companies and departments of transportation from Illinois to New York to install ITS to continuously monitor traffic and avoid bottlenecks.

The $20 million ITS initiative could well accelerate the growth of that industry. But goal that would be a fringe benefit to its main purpose: tapping soliciting new ideas and public-private solutions that deliver more congestion mitigation per dollar spent than traditional approaches like building more roads.

With 175,000 people working in high tech in Northern Virginia alone, there should be plenty of brains available to boost ITS, says Homer, who will oversee the project with Chopra's assistance should they win the funding. "What we want to do is make a challenge grant. May the best mousetrap win."

The challenge for Chopra and Homer is to get the proposal through the current session of the General Assembly, where transportation and budgetary issues dominate legislative business. Gov. Kaine has prepared the battleground by linking with technology councils in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and holding a special roundtable at the Center for Innovative Technology in December.

Helping Chopra and Homer work the Assembly are members of the Intelligent Transportation Society of Virginia, a professional association that has kept so far a low profile in lobbying. That may change, however. "We plan to be in the General Assembly over the next couple of weeks," says Kevin Barron, ITSVA member and director of government relations for Fairfax-based TrafficLand.com, which provides remote traffic monitors and makes them available on free websites through VDOT, the news media and the private sector.

Some say Kaine's initiative is just a start. "I think $20 million doesn't go far enough. ... We know what technologies are being used, what applications are being planned and what could be applications today," says Glenn Havinoviski, the president of ITSVA and an official at Wilbur Smith Associates. Some of the areas that could benefit from the $20 million in grants include:

• Upgrading existing traffic management systems in Northern Virginia. A plethora of travel time data is available from radio devices such as Smart Passes. If such data could be immediately collected and collated, real-time information about traffic jams could be made available to alert traffic managers and drivers.

• Upgrade existing ITS hardware, such as road signs that alert motorists about traffic backups. Some signs have been in use for 20 years.

• Figure out how to stream GPS data to the increasing number of cars equipped with Global Positioning devices. Luxury cars such as Acuras and BMWs have satellite radios installed to XM satellite radio or Westwood One that could be programmed to provide drivers with real-time traffic information that they could use as they proceed on their commutes.

Another idea: Add more video monitors like those in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, parts of Interstate 81 and in other states to provide private motorists, traffic control centers and trucking companies with real-time views of traffic congestion.

TrafficLand.com started business six years ago as a partnership with VDOT to converge digital video technologies with the "biggest social problems in traffic," says Kevin Barron, an ITSVA member and director of government relations for the Fairfax firm. The idea was to put the monitors' views on free websites and sell advertising around them. "Back at the time, the Internet was used mostly for e-mail, but now it has a much more functional use."

The firm expanded by selling content to news outlets such as WTOP-radio, The Washington Post's Website and Pilotonline, which is operated by Norfolk's The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Private firms could comprise another market. Trucking firms already are regular viewers of TrafficLand's videos around the clog-prone tunnels under Hampton Roads. Truck firms need the information because they need to move container cargo as quickly and efficiently as possible from various Tidewater ports.

Rush hour tunnel backups are a big problem because they hamper the ability of shipping firms to get their products delivered in today's essential "just-in-time" mode. As more mass retailers such as Wal-Mart and Kmart use Hampton Roads to import goods from Asia, solving the trucking problems could be essential to keep Virginia ports competitive and ensuring the Commonwealth's continued economic health.

As an ITS firm, Trichord has seen steady growth since the firm was founded in 2000, says Franklin. Sales reached $1 million last year and the firm is working in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York and North Carolina. One new product that it is pushing is called the PEMs or "Portable Evacuation Monitoring System" which is a mobile unit that can place traffic video monitors precisely where VDOT or a public safety organization wants. The cameras would give VDOT information it needs to maximize the flow of traffic from urban areas about to be struck by hurricanes or if terrorists attack the United States again.

Proponents of ITS and the Kaine initiative believe that a public-private approach is key. Franklin says the best business model is one based on leasing, in which the state rents hardware rather than purchases it and a private company operates and manages it. Such an arrangement would make it easier to adjust to improvements in technology.

Chopra and Homer agree that a public-private approach is the best way to go. At the same time, "We've got to open and we've got to be transparent," says Homer. Should the proposal win funding, the Secretary of Transportation's office would issue Requests for Information that could be filled by any interested company or group. A committee from the technology councils in Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads will help whittle the proposals down to the most innovative and useful ones, which then would get funded as challenge grants.

There are hitches, to be sure. The state has to be sensitive about potential intellectual property conflicts and there's a chance that state agencies might oppose the program since they might want to handle the funds themselves. Plus, in today's tight budget environment, getting the legislature to do anything that increases spending, especially on transportation, could be problematic. Says Barron: "The General Assembly is of a mercurial nature."

But if the proposal succeeds, say Chopra and Homer, Virginia could chalk up another first in technology innovation. It could be a win-win proposition. The state's growing ITS sector would get a boost and ordinary motorists might slip through traffic more easily without having to pay higher taxes to build ever more roads.

-- January 18, 2007