Q. Paul Olson: Have you considered flashing yellow arrow display? With the flashing yellow arrow you don't need to worry about louvering the Dallas Phasing yellow and green balls.
Paul Olson: And I think this is directed at Bill.
A. Bill Henry: Actually we didn't consider utilizing flashing yellow display because at the time we implemented Dallas Displays, the flashing yellow was not even an option. The flashing yellow display was just recently approved to be deployed. For us to consider it now, we would have to spend a lot of time, effort and funding to convert to that type of display. One thing we found out is with the Dallas Display is that motorists are comfortable with it now, and we really haven't had any problem with them being able to interpret what those indications are.
Q. Paul Olson: How many through lanes do you have on your arterial?
A. Bill Henry: We've got two lanes in each direction with a center left turn lane.
Paul Olson: I might add that if you look at this arterial on Google Earth or Virtual Maps you can get a pretty good aerial and look at the striping and the alignment and see what's really going on there.
Q. Paul Olson: What is TSPPD?
A. Bill Henry: TSPPD is short for a program that's called Time-Space/ Platoon Progression Diagram Generator program. You can go on the Internet to tsppd.com and download a copy of it, and you can take a look at it. It's a real easy program to use, and the thing about it is, is when you do your time space diagrams with this program, TSPPD, the diagram portrays what you actually see on the street. And you see that if you get a copy of our video driving through the system.
Q. Paul Olson: What public outreach did you use when implementing the Dallas Phasing?
A. Bill Henry: We used telephone calls. Actually, when we implemented it, we didn't tell anybody, we just put the displays in the field on this particular arterial. This was the first arterial that we implemented Dallas Phasing on. We got quite a few calls for a month or so saying we had bulb burnouts, and after we explained to them what it was, the calls basically dried up and now we're getting very few calls on these displays.
Paul Olson: How easy is it for those folks to find your phone number and give you a holler? Do you post it on the cabinets, or where's it posted so that they can find you?
A. Bill Henry: Well, actually we've got a 311 system, and all you have to do is call 311, and they'll put in a request, and we can take a look at it, from that aspect. Also the City of Little Rock has a web page, and believe it not, my number and name's posted on there.
Q. Paul Olson: What are your heaviest volumes on the side streets?
A. Bill Henry: Side street volumes, in some instances, are approaching the exact same volumes that we have on the main arterial. Two of the major intersections are on/off ramps with Interstate 430, and we're basically hitting capacity at those locations. We've come to the point where we've moved all the traffic we can with optimized timings. Now we're moving to a point where we need to do some roadway improvements.
Q. Paul Olson: Do you have any improvement results or before and after results?
A. Bill Henry: Before implementing Dallas Phasing, our drive time from one end of the arterial to the other was about nine minutes, and with the improvements in timing the drive time was reduced to four minutes. And one of the things we found out when we first instituted this project is, our traffic flowed real good, and within three months our traffic increased by 30 percent on the arterial once they found out that you could drive from one end to the other nonstop.
Q. Paul Olson: During protected left turn, in Dallas Display head, only the green arrow was lighted, or is the red ball and the green arrow lighted?
A. Bill Henry: During the protected phase the green ball is displayed. The only time the red ball is displayed is when the opposing left turn is running concurrently.
Q. Paul Olson: There is another question about the accident history prior to, and after the implementation of the protected permitted left turn with the Dallas Display.
A. Bill Henry: Well, we don't really have much in the way of accident histories. All the accident information resides with the police department, and it's tough to get anything information to do an in depth study. One thing we have found out is, if you have good timing progression you do have less accidents because what we try to do is time these arterials is push the entire platoon through the intersection. So what you have is vehicles running at speed, and you clear the platoons, and so you don't have vehicles to conflict with the opposing movements when the phase terminates, they have cleared the intersection.
Paul Olson: Okay, I think now the questions switch over and these ones starting for Reggie.
Q. Paul Olson: Who operates the entire system?
A. Reggie Chandra: Mid America Regional Council, the MPO for Kansas City. We manage, we facilitate, we staff. There are some elements of the infrastructure that is considered regional. We maintain that as well. Like the communication system is considered regional, but the controller and cabinet are maintained by the jurisdiction. But the timing effort, the managing, the consultants, everything is done by the MPO.
Q. Paul Olson: So once MARC takes over then the locals don't have to any signal timing ever again?
A. Reggie Chandra: Ha, ha. Well, on regional arterials we do maintain and work with the city personnel and provide them with support.
Q. Paul Olson: How many signals in the Kansas City upgrade project?
A. Reggie Chandra: Phase one is 600 signals. Phase two would be about 15. Ultimately I would say about 2,000 signals.
Q. Paul Olson: What type of wireless devices are being used in the system?
A. Reggie Chandra: Back haul, or the backbone of the system is licensed 18 gigahertz microwave. A company called Ceragon, dual pole antennas. In other words you have two radios capable of a throughput of 600 to 700 megabits per second-- 600 to 700 megabits per second throughput. The signal to the access point is by unlicensed radios. The brand, again, is Alvarion. So Ceragon is the licensed backbone, Alvarion is the unlicensed point to multipoint system. Type of radios, they're OFDM radios, the BreezeACCESS.
Q. Paul Olson: There's more information on your web site about this Reggie?
A. Reggie Chandra: I don't think so. They could go to alvarion.com, check on it, and ceragon.com. I think someone asked about the cost too. The subscriber radios, at the signal location, are about-- the cost is about $900 dollars. I am giving you an approximate figure. Installation is about $1,500 to $2,000, the access points that go on the hubs, there about $3,500 to $4,000 dollars. The Ceragon, the cost of equipment is about $52,000 dollars per link.
Q. Paul Olson: What are some of the different controller manufactures that are employed in the network?
A. Reggie Chandra: One of the things that we did was we standardized the controllers to be used in the region, and after going through an extensive process these are the controllers and models that are standardized for the Kansas City region. Econolite ASC 2 on the NEMA side. EAGLE EPAC M52s, again, on the NEMA side. We have 2070 Econolite, and then we have 170 type controllers using Wapiti Firmware Rev 41, or actually any Rev with the JHK protocol turned on. I know that's probably more information that you wanted to know. So those are the four types of controllers we have standardized.
Q. Paul Olson: One issue for wireless is tree canopies. Is this an issue for you in the Kansas City area?
A. Reggie Chandra: Oh, trees are always an issue. That's why we try to install during spring, or summer. If you have to cut through trees using a lower frequency would help, going up to the upper range of the frequency that's not a good idea if you have to cut through trees. They call it line of sight, near line of sight, non-line of sight. So the lower frequency you go the better signal you're going to get. And also for the licensed link there are studies that you can do. Rain is also a factor. When you're shooting a signal over five to seven miles you size your antenna based on the down time you're willing to take. So we conducted a study on that, and that's how it was designed.
Q. Paul Olson: What is the cost of the communication equipment per tower?
A. Reggie Chandra: I believe I talked about that. I think I saw the question and I responded to that earlier. The licensed backbone is about $52,000 per link for 600 megabits, 600 to 700 megabits per second. Then you put in-- throw in your switch for your Ethernet. Then as I indicated the subscriber units are about $800 to $900 dollars per signal location. Installation cost is about $15,000 for, again, this is the Kansas City area, for one tower location, about $1,500 for a subscriber unit.
Q. Paul Olson: Are you using the wireless communication for surveillance video, and is it color, and is it live?
A. Reggie Chandra: Yes, it is both color and live, video, the committee has just approved using IP video, and again, MARC was instrumental in trying to have a standard. We are using Omnicast from Genetec, and sharing video from-- the intention to share video from multiple agencies. We are also working with Kansas City Scout, the freeway management system, bistate freeway management system, they have about a 150 cameras, and we're sharing video with them as well. The answer is yes. The network is designed to carry color video. It would be MPEG 4 of course, and, you know, it is intended to transport that.
Q. Paul Olson: How were law suits in regard to accidents and signals handled with regard to actions taken by agencies under recommendations by the committee? Are there instances when the committee was included in a suit?
A. Reggie Chandra: Not at all. Again, accidents that happen at a traffic signal anyone can get sued. They will add anyone and anything to the law suit. We fully expect that, but so far we've not been included in a law suit. Any hardware issues the city is responsible. All we are doing is we're providing, we're designing and providing this traffic signal and timing, when we go into the operation phase that is, to the city or the state, and they're responsible for deploying it. We will deploy for them. We will download to the controllers for them at their request, so ultimately it's the responsibility of the agency.
Q. Paul Olson: Do you have a regional travel time program?
A. Reggie Chandra: MARC does, the planning department does. Operation Green Light, what we do is we maintain travel time information on the corridors that we're timing, that we're optimizing.
Q. Paul Olson: Did you change your cycle lengths in optimization? Do you have delay info for the side street changes?
A. Reggie Chandra: Yes, we do change cycle lengths by time of day depending on what period you're running. I don't have any delay info for the side street changes. Obviously there will be increased delay for the side street. If a signal is running actuated, fully actuated, and you're putting it in a, rather, semi actuated mode on a timing plan, there will be delays there. You cannot get around it with the existing controller architecture and the technology that we have right now. No, that delay was not collected.
Q. Paul Olson: How was signal timing designed and implemented within the regions? Is there a central traffic signal system?
A. Reggie Chandra: There is a central traffic signal system. We use this software called TransSuite from TransCore which is custom-- partly customized for us. We had a contact with them to integrate the various controllers that they did not support out of the box. Now how the signal timing is designed and implemented that would be another T3, but I can quickly walk you through how we do it. We enter into-- we collect data first. We either use contractors, or this summer we worked with UMKC, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, worked the Transportation Department, the professor managed students to collect data for about 100 signals. It was very cost effective. Then what we do is we do the before and after, actually the before travel time studies. Then there, again, there is a systems engineering document, a concept of operations document online that talks about the process that we go through. Then MARC staff we invited the affected jurisdictions in the corridor, have them sit around the table, and ask them for their input. Is there anything-- ask them whether we need to consider-- what things are important to them. What we need to consider as we come up with a timing plan for the corridor. And after we hear what they have to say then we come up with a timing. I sit and design a timing. How I do the timing is a long story. I do not use Synchro. I use various models, and actually I do my timing on a DOS 5.0 computer. I used to work at McTrans Center out of University of Florida, but anyhow, so again, how I come up with a timing plan is a full session. So we come up with a timing plan, convert them to a system that we have created where an engineer who's-- some of the cities there are no traffic engineers, so even a regular civil engineer who's not used to traffic can understand. We show them, get their approval. Most of it is done electronically. We have an online management system. They approve it and then they can either give us permission to download it, which we would gladly do, and then once it's downloaded then a MARC staff is there during the time it's downloaded. We are monitoring the signals making sure there are no face failures, and tweak the signals. Then after it is done, and the engineers in the particular jurisdictions they monitor this and they're happy, once that happens then we do an after study, and then publish the report. So hope that was, you know, answered the question.
Q. Paul Olson: How easy does the system respond to traffic pattern change?
A. Reggie Chandra: It's not a traffic responsive system. It's a hard coded time of day timing plan system.
Q. Paul Olson: Are your benefits vehicle stops in the peak direction?
A. Reggie Chandra: We collect data for all three peaks. It's always during the peak. If it's an off peak we mention it was during an off peak, but we do the morning, the runs during the morning peak, noon peak and PM peak. That's where we evaluate it. That's where the arterial is impacted the most.
Q. Paul Olson: How is funding sustained over the long term? CEMAC funds are limited to three years of operations after the construction of the project.
A. Reggie Chandra: Well, we're looking for funding. No, I'm kidding, no. The intention of the project-- this is how the project started with the committee, the steering committee, of course, sets the policy. The infrastructure is going to be built using CEMAC and STP. Then there are some ITS set aside funds with KDOT that we have, and we use all that funding to build the infrastructure, but after it goes into operations we estimated about $1,900 to $2,000 dollars per signal operating cost. That cost is-- the expectation is that the cities will divide the cost base on the number of signals that are in the project. That is till being-- that agreement is still being negotiated. Of course, MARC will be going-- seeking funding, various other sources of funding, for this. This as far as the CEMAC committees probably will not consider operations, you know, after three years, but there are other funding that we probably will seek after. But the assumption is that there will not be any funding and the project has to stand on its own feet. It has to be valuable enough in its benefits that it provides the community that the cities will fund it 100 percent.
Q. Paul Olson: Reggie, could you talk more about how OGL coordinates with Kansas City Scout. What are they doing to coordinate freeway and arterial operations?
A. Reggie Chandra: Yes. One of the missions, or the vision of this project-- it all started a long time back when visionaries got together and said-- even when Scout started, Operation Green Light was intended, actually. It didn't really happen, but intended to be part of the Kansas City Scout so there was one integrated traffic management system. But then Scout became a project, an operation by itself, and had moved on, really, forward, moved on ahead, and then OGL or Operation Green Light started becoming a project, so to speak. So then MARC staff then entered into negotiations, so also did the committees, and their region with Missouri DOT, the District IV office where Scout is housed. So we were able to secure-- actually MODOT was gracious enough to permit us to have free space inside the facility, so technically we are co-located with Kansas City Scout and Kansas City Scout and OGL are co-located. The intentions are down the road, once the infrastructure is up and running, the operations have stabilized, the equilibrium has been sustained we will be doing incident management. In other words there is a spill on the freeway, and cars are being diverted to the side street, to the arterial street, then the Scout staff will work with Operation Green Light. Scout manages a lot of changeable message signs as well. We will have incident plans for such an event, and take people through, you know, change the timing on the signals that are impacted for a better flow of traffic. And also sharing information is also key. Right now we are working with an emergency management system sharing their video with Scout video. That potentially will come through the Operation Green Light network. So there are multiple ways in which we are planning on working together, but the most benefit, I believe, from working together with Scout will be the incident management.
Q. Paul Olson: For both projects how much attention did you have to pay to prescribed ITS procedures and standards? Were both projects part of your regional architecture?
A. Reggie Chandra: Both projects are part of the regional architecture which, again, MARC maintains. There's quite a lot of us. You're hearing about the-- actually the systems engineering part, I believe, was quite helpful in setting up the structure, the infrastructure, the agreements between cities. As you can imagine there's quite a lot of funding agreements, quite a lot of operations agreements that have to go through the councils before you could deploy the project. So the ITS standards we are requiring NTCIP even though it's not a fully mature standard for some of the traffic signals. It's not plug-and-play at this juncture. That's a long debate that Paul and I still-- Paul Olson and I still have, so, but we are specifying NTCIP and we're always looking for nonproprietary standard equipment.
Q. Paul Olson: How many video streams are going over the wireless video network right now, or are planned to?
A. Reggie Chandra: Okay. There are multiple streams. With Omnicast, you can go to Genetec's web site and see it. Multiple cities have what they call federated servers, and these servers would exchange the information. The stream can be 200K or 150K depending on the resolution of MPEG you're requiring it. Without compression it goes up to at T1, or one and a half to two megabits per second. So it's basically on demand. We're also bringing some video detection camera, which are IP cameras, back over the network as well. The way we do that is that let's say the traffic signal of communication traffic has priority. We ensure that is a priority. Anything over that, any band width that is available that is over that, we allocate to other resources, and video being one of them. Procurement of cameras have not yet been approved by the steering committee. We've not studied them. We've looked into them, but we're using existing cameras that have already been deployed by our stakeholders, which are numerous.
Q. Paul Olson: Did you state a cost about $53 million dollars for the 600 signals, and is there an estimate for the remaining work?
A. Reggie Chandra: No. That was $47 to $57 million that is for the cost of the entire project for the entire region. Phase one is $14 million. That's 600 signals. That's providing the traffic operations center, which is in Lee's Summit, building all of the communication backbone infrastructure, staffing, timing, upgrading 39 controllers, upgrading all the NEMA controllers to, I believe, we bought about 200 controllers, and, you know, buying brand new controllers, then multiple consultants and contractors.
Q. Paul Olson: It wasn't clear on the volumes in the Little Rock example. Was that 1,100 to 1,400 vehicle per hour per approach, or per lane?
A. Bill Henry: Actually, the 1,100 vehicles, was two lanes in one direction. The 1,400 vehicles an hour was in the opposite direction, but it's two lane approaches.
Q. Paul Olson: Are you able to re-service a phase within a cycle length such as a side street or left turn?
A. Reggie Chandra: No, we don't do that. It's rather complicated to do that.
Q. Paul Olson: Is that something Bill's doing?
A. Bill Henry: Well, generally, when you're running peak hour traffic you don't ever have excess time to be able to do that. We have, in some locations, you know, you can change the mode operation on these EAGLE EPACs where you can make that happen, and that way, you know, you only have a predetermined amount of green band, and it can leave the main street phase in order to go to the side street phase, or left turns when there's not any demand on the main street.
Q. Paul Olson: Is that something Bill's doing?
A. Bill Henry: Well, generally, when you're running peak hour traffic you don't ever have excess time to be able to do that. We have, in some locations, you know, you can change the mode operation on these EAGLE EPACs where you can make that happen, and that way, you know, you only have a predetermined amount of green band, and it can leave the main street phase in order to go to the side street phase, or left turns when there's not any demand on the main street.
Reggie Chandra: I do, this is Reggie, I do have a solution for that, but it's going to take longer than what we have here so, Gary, if you want to contact me afterward we can talk about it.
Q. Paul Olson: Can you post the web site address for OGL?
Operator: We do have one question coming from Liang Husi. Thank you. You're line is open.
Q. Liang Husi: What is the University of Florida's role in this project?
A. Reggie Chandra: I just did a masters degree there, so, in traffic engineering. I consider myself to be Ken Courage's boy, so. I don't know whether he claims me or not, but. There is nothing else there. It's my background where I'm from.
Liang Husi: Thank you.
Jerry Froese: Hello, it's actually Jerry Froese with the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. One of the things that I-- or one of the questions not asked was with our ministry we have quite a few-- we also look after major highway systems and we're not always in an urban environment, so we use a lot of protected only phasing and a lot of eight phase cabinets. And one of the things I wasn't sure about, as far as your Green Light initiative, is how well you've been able to fit signals with say few phases on them with some of your signals that carry quite a few phases, or maxed out in phasing, say eight phases? And I was kind of curious from the standpoint that of the eight-- that your initial project it seemed that you had great success, and I was wondering if those eight signals had similar phasing, or indeed are of all different types and complexities?
A. Reggie Chandra: Most of them-- so you have to remember that we identified the regional arterials that carry a lot of traffic, so under the project we have some of the heaviest traveled corridors, and most of them, by that, are eight phased operation. So that's where, you know, some of them are protected permissive, some of them are protected only, and in those protected permissive is where the Dallas Phasing, or the flashing yellow phasing would come in handy, can be deployed. There are some signals in between these major signals that could be, you know, just, you know, a couple of phases there. We have a couple of pedestrian walk signals. They just happen to be there, but the majority of the signals are major intersections.
