Current Activities
Major Initiative Status Report
The ETO Initiative has ongoing activity in three program areas:
Fewer, Smaller Evacuations
Towing and Recovery and Hazmat Communications Technology Demonstration: A project to provide cell phone cameras to first responders in the Washington, DC, region was kicked off in early 2005. The emergency responders are being trained how to send photographs or video to the dispatch center, which, in turn, relays them to contractors. The Capital Area Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN) is the testbed for this project, administered through the University of Maryland.
Researchers will evaluate the benefits, key among them being faster recovery of normal travel conditions. If the approach works, DOT will produce technical guidance for other regions that want to try this simple idea. More
Traffic Management Technology to Enhance Emergency Response: SAIC has been selected as the contractor for a project to examine adaptations of standard ITS freeway
and traffic management systems. These include loop detector systems, CCTV systems, and lane and ramp control systems. The aim is to facilitate faster incident response by clearing the way for emergency vehicles to travel through congested traffic behind the incident, or in contra-flow downstream from the incident. These technologies could also increase responder and public safety by reducing secondary incidents involving emergency vehicles. A December 2004 project kick-off was planned. More
Guidance for Transportation Operations in Biohazard Emergencies: SAIC has been selected as the contractor for a project that will work with State transportation agencies to evaluate the roles of transportation during a biohazard situation and make recommendations on how the responsible agencies can apply advanced operational methods and technology in order to accomplish those roles effectively. More
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Better Managed Evacuations
Additional FY 2005 Procurements: Several projects originally planned for FY 2007 procurement are currently being re-scoped for FY 2005 procurement. These include:
- Emergency Transportation Operations in Rural Areas: When disasters occur in metropolitan areas, evacuees flee into the surrounding rural areas. The ETO will work with several rural States to analyze issues related to emergency transportation operations in rural areas, and develop guidance for State and local agencies on how to manage volumes of travelers in rural and frontier areas, and help them return safely to their homes.
- Rapid Restoration of Critical ITS Infrastructure: Effective management of transportation operations and traveler information during disasters requires ITS systems to be designed to withstand disasters or, should service be interrupted, to recover rapidly. The ETO Initiative will develop design, installation, and maintenance guidance for State and local agencies on hardening their ITS systems for disaster operations. ITS America will partner in this project to provide input from equipment developers and manufacturers as well as equipment owners and operators. Lessons learned from the 2003 blackout will be considered. Fiscal year 2005 contractor procurement is planned.
- Real-Time Evacuation Management and Modeling: One of the major challenges of managing an evacuation is the dynamic nature of both the incident and traveler behavior. Evacuation managers must be prepared to instantly re-route traffic as incidents progress or new emergency events occur. The ETO Initiative will sponsor the development of evacuation replanning software to help manage traffic flow in real-time.
This work will build on the Traffic Estimation and Prediction System (TrEPS), which was developed with JPO Funding. The ETO Initiative will work with TMC Pooled Fund Study and transit operators to define user needs, and then conduct laboratory tests, followed by field tests with case studies.
Recommended Practices for Managing "No Notice" Evacuations: Booz-Allen is the selected contractor for a project to develop recommended practices for management of transportation and application of technology during no-notice evacuations. Based on a survey of existing evacuation practices and operational problems, an operational concept for no-notice evacuation management will be developed, and then tested in a tabletop exercise. The project was kicked off in November 2004. More
Low-Cost Surveillance of Rural Evacuation Routes: Cambridge Systematics has been selected to explore commercial products that could provide sensing and surveillance, independent of wireline communications and power availability from the electric grid, and at substantially lower costs than traditional ITS infrastructure. More
Vehicle-Infrastructure Cooperation to Support Emergency Transportation Operations: The ETO kicked off to contracts in November 2004 to develop service concepts for Vehicle Infrastructure Integration to address all levels of emergency situations and response, including evacuation management. Potential benefits and other impacts of these service concepts will also be estimated where possible. Contractors are Booz-Allen and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). More
Traveler Information for Disaster Situations: Battelle has been selected as the contractor for a project to analyze traveler information needs during major disasters and develop guidance for transportation agencies on how to plan a disaster response program that includes use of all of the agency's communications assets to provide highly effective traveler information. Transportation agencies that operate traveler information systems, as well as the National Emergency Management Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police will also contribute to the project. More
Improving Traffic Signal Timing for Evacuation: This study will assess how signal timing needs to change to facilitate evacuation and disaster response in an urban area, and will provide technical guidance to assist State and local transportation agencies in developing appropriate signal timing plans. (This project is closely related to the work being conducted under the ETO Initiative but is being funded through another mechanism.) More
Managing Pedestrians During Evacuation of Metropolitan Areas: This study will evaluate and make recommendations for actions that can be taken to manage pedestrian traffic during metropolitan evacuations to assure safe and effective movement of pedestrians while minimizing their impact on vehicular traffic. (This project is closely related to the work being conducted under the ETO Initiative but is being funded through another mechanism.) More
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Standards That Enable Information Flow
How do standards apply to incident management?
The ETO Initiative will support two types of standards activities:
- Completing and Deploying ITS Incident Management Standards
- Integrating ITS Standards with Law Enforcement Data Exchange Standards
Completing and Deploying ITS Incident Management Standards: Through the Volpe Center, the ETO Initiative will support completion of ITS standards that relate to Emergency Transportation Operations and Emergency Management, and will also fund field demonstrations of the standards. These standards are:
- Incident Management – 1512, 1512.1, 1512.2, 1512.3, 1512.4
- General Reference Model (GRM)
- Center to Center XML Standards
- TMDD/MSETMCC
- ITIS Phrase Lists
- ATIS Message Sets
- Location Referencing Message Sets (LRMS)
- Transportation Sensor Stations (TSS)
- Communications Profiles
Integrating ITS Standards with Law Enforcement Data Exchange Standards: Effective emergency response requires all responders to share real-time information about the incident and how it is being managed. The development of integrated incident management systems to link transportation agencies with public safety communications systems is complicated by dissimilar data exchange standards. A major technical challenge is harmonizing applicable information standards from the separate, but interrelated communities. These standards include the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) supported IEEE 1512 series and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) supported Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM).
DOJ is currently supporting the Global Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Committee, led by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, in developing Reference Information Exchange Documents that standardize reporting information, and will soon begin to address the needs of first responders and real-time information exchange. This project addresses the standardizing of the exchange of such information with traffic managers concerning activities of joint interest, now only covered in IEEE 1512.
Through the ETO Initiative project, the exchange of incident-related information among transportation and public safety agencies will be facilitated by registering key parts of IEEE 1512 with the GJXDM. This work will build upon previous ITS and DOJ information exchange activities, and will develop a common configuration management approach and tool set for information systems. It will fuse already standardized public safety data concepts used within transportation data systems with the integrated justice information framework established by DOJ’s Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Advisory Committee (GAC).
This project will focus the attention of national associations, public sector deploying agencies, and the commercial vendor community upon implementing multi-agency information solutions that satisfy the need for interoperable data systems. The major emphasis will be on the development of tools that facilitate the exchange of incident information among public safety information systems and ITS information systems.
The project will be dividing into two phases. Phase 1 will develop a common information sharing solution and conduct limited testing. Phase 2 will test and evaluate the solution in operational settings and develop guidance material for the user community. More
Availability
All of the standards development is scheduled for completion in FY 2005. Field demonstrations will take place in the FY 2005-2007 time frame. The following standards are already complete:
- ATIS Message Sets
- Location Referencing Message Sets (LRMS)
- TMDD/MSETMCC
- Communications Profiles
- Transportation Sensor Stations (TSS)
Training
Standards training programs will be developed as part of the ETO Initiative.
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