November/December 2002
TELUS
by John W. Epling
When the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)
of 1991 was signed into law, officials of metropolitan planning organizations
(MPOs) across the country were delighted. ISTEA had made a dramatic
change in how transportation planning in the Nation would be undertaken
in the future. Now the local elected officials serving on the boards
of MPOs finally had a chance to play a major role in shaping the transportation
networks in their communities.
As Edward Weiner wrote in Urban Transportation Planning in the
United States, "Each metropolitan area had to prepare a long-range
plan, updated periodically, that identified transportation facilities,
which functioned as an integrated transportation system, including
a financial plan." Further, he wrote, "A reasonable opportunity for
public comment was required before the long-range plan was approved."
Also, "A Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) was required. .
. . The TIP had to include a priority list of projects and a financial
plan consistent with funding that could reasonably be expected to
be available."
It did not take long after passage of ISTEA, however, for the MPOs
to realize that their expanded role in transportation decisionmaking
brought new responsibilities. Citizens, elected and appointed officials,
and other stakeholder groups now were coming to MPOs to advocate projects,
ascertain the status of projects, and lobby for project priorities.
MPOs soon found themselves having to reinvent their decisionmaking
processes, expand their databases, and create more responsive public
outreach programs.
![Photo of TELUS beta tester during a break between presentations](images/03ducca1.jpg)
|
TELUS beta testers take a break between presentations of
the TELUS system.
|
Genesis of TELUS
The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), the fourth
largest MPO in the Nation, took the challenge of ISTEA very seriously.
Like most MPOs, the NJTPA initially tried expanding and modifying
its existing information and decision-support systems. Although those
efforts met with some success, the NJTPA quickly realized that piecemeal
improvements to the existing approach would not adequately support
the decisionmaking process. The NJTPA called upon Dr. Louis J. Pignataro,
then-director of the Institute for Transportation at the New Jersey
Institute of Technology (NJIT), to help.
Early in this NJTPA/NJIT cooperative endeavor, Pignataro brought
Dr. Robert W. Burchell, now codirector of the Center for Urban Policy
Research (CUPR) at Rutgers University, on the team. Pignataro states,
"Bob and I have worked together on several projects, so we know each
other's capabilities quite well. He is a nationally recognized expert
in modeling the fiscal impacts of land development."
Under the guidance of the NJTPA Board, the staffs of NJIT, CUPR,
and NJTPA agreed on the objectives for the new system, and, in 1996,
the consortium unveiled TELUS: Transportation, Economic & Land
Use System. For its role in the development of TELUS, the NJTPA received
the Technical Achievement Award at the Association of Metropolitan
Planning Organizations' 1998 annual meeting in Texas.
The Original TELUS
The version of the TELUS software developed for the NJTPA included
five components: (1) an automated TIP component containing basic information
about each project; (2) an input-output model estimating project impacts
on the number of jobs, per capita income, gross regional product,
and tax revenues at the local, State, and Federal levels; (3) a property-value
model estimating the impact of projects on the value of adjacent properties;
(4) a project-interrelationships component identifying potential conflicts
among projects; and (5) a geographic information system (GIS) reader.
Going National
In 1998, with the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA-21), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),
knowing that many MPOs had a need similar to that of the NJTPA, provided
support to modify TELUS for nationwide distribution. FHWA assigned
Fred Ducca, travel model team leader, as the technical monitor for
TELUS.
With a new mandate—reinventing TELUS to meet the needs of a
nationwide audience of MPOs—the TELUS team wasted no time getting
the effort off the ground. Convening a focus group of 13 MPOs in October
1998, the team hoped to gain a better understanding of the modifications
that might be required. Anticipating that modifications resulting
from the focus group's feedback would take a maximum of 3 months,
the TELUS team looked forward to releasing a national version in January
1999. The thinking was that if the system met the needs of the fourth
largest MPO in the country, how many modifications possibly could
be needed? The answer quickly surfaced.
Original Objectives of TELUS
- TELUS must be a comprehensive, relational database for transportation
projects that is easy to use and includes all the information
necessary to produce the agency's annual transportation improvement
program (TIP). It also needed to respond quickly to informational
requests.
- There should be decision-support features, including, at
least, an economic model and a land-use model, that could
help the MPO board decide which projects to include in the
TIP and the priority to give them.
- A geographic information system (GIS) should be included
that would display the location of projects, both on the computer
monitor and on printed maps.
- There should be preformatted reports that would allow instantaneous
printing and dissemination of project information, including
an attached map, for bard members at their meetings and for
interested citizens, public officials, and other stakeholders.
|
Coming Face-to-Face with Local Requirements
By design, the focus group represented MPOs of all sizes as well
as different sections of the country. In addition to suggestions for
data-field changes, the focus group raised three issues that had significant
impact on the design of TELUS: (1) the potential interest that State
departments of transportation (DOTs) might have in using the software;
(2) the need for a stronger project-tracking feature, in terms of
a project schedule and a complete history of all revisions made to
a project; and (3) the need for some type of project-scoring module.
The team's expectation that the first national version of TELUS could
be released within 3 months quickly fell by the wayside. The team
members immediately began making major revisions and additions to
the original TELUS. They also learned that some States were developing
similar or much larger systems. Pignataro sent a letter to the head
of each DOT urging that they explore the features of TELUS before
spending large sums of limited State transportation dollars developing
a comparable system. Efforts to interest the DOTs in TELUS complemented
the team's extensive outreach program, which began in 1999.
![Screenshot of TELUS National Version 3.0 menu includes: Select and Analyze Projects, Geographic Information System, Assemble TIP Database, Utilities, and Exit](images/03ducca8.jpg)
|
The opening screen of TELUS enables the user to go directly
to the desired features.
|
Beta Testing TELUS National Version 1.0
By late spring 1999, the TELUS team had what it thought was a version
that responded well to the issues raised by the focus group. A beta-test
group was created and met in the fall of 1999, after completing 3
months of testing. The beta testers dug into the details of the features,
such as changing existing field names and adding new fields to better
meet their needs and preferences. In many cases, the beta testers
themselves did not agree on the suggested changes. For instance, although
the database needs to include the length of projects, the preferences
for how that length should be expressed differed significantly (e.g.,
miles, mileposts, from/to intersections).
In addition to the needs and preferences issue, some of the beta
testers had difficulty installing TELUS, and others had difficulty
bringing up their GIS maps in the system. If the team had not realized
it before, it certainly realized now that developing a system to meet
the needs and preferences of a single MPO (NJTPA) was one thing; designing
one to satisfy those of 340-plus MPOs nationwide and 50 State DOTs
would be quite another.
Responding to Local Needs and Preferences
Unlike some software, TELUS is not a licensed program where the user
purchases the basic program and pays for individual customization
and continuing support. TELUS is license-free to all MPOs and DOTs,
and there is no charge for technical assistance. Although it is possible
for the TELUS programmers to make minor changes for an MPO or DOT,
it is impossible for them to make a significant number of changes
or major modifications for each MPO and State DOT. Clearly, a solution
to the local needs and preferences issue was needed, and it came in
the form of a customization module (see "Customization").
TELUS National Version 1.0 (V1.0) was released, finally, in the spring
of 2000. Installation disks and user manuals were sent free-of-charge
to every MPO and DOT in the Nation. To keep track of which MPOs and
DOTs were potential users, the team established a Web site (www.telus-national.org)
for users to register at no cost and receive the numerical code that
would enable them to install the system.
"TELUS has really improved my MPO's TIP data-management capabilities,
which was my primary goal when I started using the system," wrote
Paul Jaeger, transportation director with the Stark County Area Transportation
Study in Ohio. "The customization module was a great improvement,
and many of us in Ohio are now looking forward to the Web-enabled
version."
![Screenshot of TELUS customization screen](images/03ducca9.jpg)
|
The customization module ensures that field names and drop-down
lists wil reflect locally unique data sets and preferred terminology.
|
Telus National Version 3.0
The most recent version of TELUS (V3.0) was released in the late
summer of 2002. Like previous versions, it is a highly graphical,
Windows-based program using features of Microsoft Visual Basic for
Applications® and MS Access 2000®. V3.0 will run on a broad
range of Windows operating systems, including Windows 95, 98, ME,
or NT. In addition, V3.0 requires a Pentium® PC processor, preferably
with 166 MHz, 64-MB RAM, and 100 MB of hard disk space. A CD-ROM drive
is required for installation. If MS Access 2000 is not on the user's
hard drive, MS Access 2000 Runtime®, included on the TELUS installation
disk, must be installed.
![Screenshot of graphics used by TELUS to display a project's planned and actual schedules and funding status in terms of committed and noncommitted funds](images/03ducca11.jpg)
|
This screen reflects the graphics used by TELUS to display
a project's planned and acutal schedules and its funding status
in terms of committed and uncommitted funds.
|
System Security
The security module enables the MPO and DOT to establish three levels
of access to the system (higher levels can perform all the functions
described for lower levels). The highest level belongs to the administrator,
who controls access to the system by assigning levels of access. Managers,
the second level, are responsible for maintaining the TIP database
by modifying TIP project information. Viewers, with the lowest level
of access, can view TIP information but cannot modify any of the data.
Customization
The customization module enables the user to tailor TELUS to the
agency's unique needs and preferences. For instance, TELUS field names
can be given an "alias" that will be reflected in all other modules
and features. In addition, the user agency can create lists of all
the localities in its jurisdiction, various districts (e.g., congressional,
legislative) in its area, and, for interstate MPOs, the two or more
States involved.
Once the lists are created, they will show up on the other screens
as drop-down lists, enabling the user simply to select the proper
entry. The user can select the number of years in the TIP, list the
agency's phases of work, identify how dollar amounts will be shown
(e.g., in thousands), identify user categories that are different
from those in TELUS, and other options. These features considerably
reduce the time required for data entry and minimize data-entry errors.
![Screenshot of a data entry page](images/03ducca10.jpg)
|
The data input screen has drop-down menus for most of the
fields, making data entry fast and accurate.
|
Project Information
This module contains all the data about every project in the TIP
or the State transportation improvement program (STIP). The project
information module is the central database from which other TELUS
modules and features draw. Among the data it includes for each project
are the project ID number, project name and narrative description,
lead agency and contact, project-revision number, narrative project
description, project length and limits, narrative remarks about the
project, project budget and funding sources, project mode (e.g., transit,
highway), FHWA system category (five levels), and project schedule
by phase-of-work.
When entering project data, the user also classifies the project
as being "TIP," "Pre-TIP," or "Non-TIP" depending, respectively, on
whether it has been approved for inclusion in the TIP, is being considered
for inclusion, or is not being considered but is a project that the
MPO or DOT wishes to track because it affects the transportation network.
![Screenshot of GIS map from TELUS system](images/03ducca12.jpg)
|
The user's GIS maps can be accessed in TELUS to select projects
for analysis or print out maps showing the location of a project
for a report.
|
![TELUS default scoring system screen](images/03ducca13.jpg)
|
For users who do not have a scoring system, or do not like
the ones they have, TELUS includes a default system that they
can use or modify.
|
Project History
This feature keeps track of all revisions made to a project, including
the date of the change and the reasons for it. The user who needs
a report of all revisions to a project can go to the reports module,
described in "Preformatted Reports," select the preformatted report
for project-revision history, and either view it on the screen or
print it.
Project Scheduling
The project-scheduling feature of TELUS maintains the status of single-
and multiyear projects on a quarterly or annual basis (the user selects).
This module includes both numerical data and color charts reflecting
the planned and actual schedule, by phases of work, and the status
of project costs, by committed and uncommitted funds.
"Being able to track project funding by year and phase of work has
been an especially valuable feature for us," says Dan Troxel of the
Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission in Ohio. "And once we got
the preformatted reports to reflect information the way the State
DOT wants, we were able to put the system into full use."
Project Interrelationships
This module provides users with the capability to identify and analyze
potential relationships among transportation projects. TELUS performs
an automatic search and identifies projects that share certain characteristics,
such as same mode, county or municipality, corridor (highway or rail
line), and phase of work (construction). TELUS then displays a list
of projects with potential relationships. Since TELUS only
identifies potential relationships, the user must examine the relationships
to determine whether they are of concern.
Mapping
The GIS module enables users to access their agency's GIS system
to view the project's location, select TIP projects for analysis,
and print maps of projects for inclusion in reports. V3.0 uses ESRI
MapObjects®® for this purpose.
Project Scoring
TELUS includes a project-scoring module with a default scoring system
based on the seven TEA-21 planning objectives: economic vitality,
system integration and connectivity, safety and security, system management
and operation, accessibility and mobility, preservation of existing
system, and environment and quality of life. Each of the objectives
includes a number of scoring factors. An eighth category enables the
user to identify and score locally important factors such as project
readiness-to-go. In the default system, both the categories and factors
are weighted but can be modified by the user. The user also can choose
to create a completely new scoring system.
Planning Analysis
TELUS offers a planning analysis module that calculates the degree
to which the entire TIP meets the seven TEA-21 planning objectives.
This calculation is based on estimates of the percentage of project
costs that are typically attributable to the achievement of one, several,
or all seven objectives. For instance, the cost of fencing along both
sides of a new highway supports the planning objective of safety and
security of the transportation system. If the cost of fencing were
found, typically, to be 0.1 percent of the cost of these types of
projects and one of these types is in the MPO's TIP at a total cost
of $40 million, then $40,000 is attributed to safety and security
for that project. The remaining cost of the project might be attributed
to some or all of the other objectives.
Similar calculations are made for all projects in the TIP. The percentages
are default values in the project analysis data table and can be altered
if the MPO or DOT believes that it has more accurate values. The result
is a table summarizing the percentage of total TIP dollars contributing
to each of the seven objectives and the percentage of projects contributing
to each of the seven objectives.
Preformatted Reports
Many MPOs and DOTs are besieged with requests for information about
projects from a variety of sources: board members; citizens; interest
groups; news media; nationally-, State-, and locally-elected officials;
and others. The nature of these requests vary from a need for basic
project information and location to such issues as the date that construction
will begin or end, how project costs have changed, whether the right-of-way
has been surveyed or purchased, and whether the road alignment has
changed. In the absence of a comprehensive and integrated database
with preformatted reports, providing this information often can take
hours, maybe even days. With TELUS, the response takes minutes.
"We just produced our TIP using TELUS," says Roger Del Rio of Florida's
Broward County Office of Planning. "I really like the report wizard
that allows us to modify the preformatted reports to fit special reporting
needs. Now all key people in the office can access a common database
for quick analyses and responses. Our next goal is to use TELUS to
track transportation projects that are underway but not completed."
Economic Impacts
In January 1999 Dr. Henry ("Hank") Robison, principal research scientist
with Economic Modeling Systems, Inc., of Moscow, ID, was brought aboard
the TELUS team to develop input-output models to replace those in
the original version of the software. By 2004, TELUS will include
input-output models individually designed for each of the 340-plus
MPOs nationwide.
The models will estimate the impact of projects on the number of
jobs; per capita income; gross regional product; and local, State,
and Federal tax revenues. The impacts are reflected for the project's
host county or municipality, adjacent counties, the region, and the
State.
Land-Use Impacts
In June 1999, Dr. Stephen Putman, professor at the University of
Pennsylvania and president of S. H. Putman Associates, Inc., Townsend,
DE, was added to the team to develop a land-use model to replace the
property-value model. Unlike the other modules, the land-use model
does not draw upon the project-specific information contained in TELUS
to function. The land-use model will use the output of an MPO's network
model, along with local employment, population, and land use data,
to reallocate land use among the MPO's subgeographies (e.g., traffic
analysis zones). Output from the land-use model then is used as input
to the agency's network model, and the two models are run repeatedly
until a state of equilibrium is reached. The model is scheduled for
release in the fall of 2003. Like TELUS, the land-use model will be
license-free to MPOs and DOTs.
New for 2003: A Web TELUS
A Web-enabled version of TELUS is under development, and it will
be deployed and tested by the Alabama DOT during the fall and winter
of 2002-2003. It should be available nationally by the spring of 2003.
The Web version is designed to integrate with an agency's existing
TIP/STIP database stored in a relational database management system,
such as Oracle® or MS SQLServer®. The Web server may be running
Windows®, Unix®, or Linux® operating systems, with a Pentium®
class processor, 128 MB RAM, 30 MB of hard disk space, and permanent
Internet access. The "client machines" (i.e., those of the MPOs) simply
need Web browsers, such as MS Internet Explorer® or Netscape Navigator®,
to access the system.
The Web-enabled version of TELUS, like the desktop version, will
be provided at no cost to DOTs and MPOs, but the agency must provide
third-party software licenses, such as the operating system, the reporting
software, and the GIS software. The DOT can serve as host for the
server with the State's MPOs as clients, but the Web-enabled version
also could be used by an MPO serving as host with its member local
governments serving as clients.
"I like a Web-enabled version of TELUS because it will open the TIP
and long-range planning process to even more public involvement,"
says Steve Ostraseski, Birmingham Regional Planning Commission, AL.
"Plus, it will allow MPOs to share data with the State that are difficult
to share now, including GIS maps of projects, traffic projections,
and project rankings. In general, the sharing of project-level data
would be more efficient. It would be helpful, however, if TELUS could
be expanded to include long-range plan information. We can do it now
with TELUS, but it takes some ingenuity."
Change of Leadership for TELUS
On September 30, 2002, Lou Pignataro left the TELUS project as project
director to pursue other ventures. The new director is Dr. Lazar Spasovic,
who has been with the NJIT's Institute for Transportation for a number
of years. Regarding the change in leadership, FHWA's Fred Ducca says,
"Administratively, conceptually, and managerially, TELUS has been
exceedingly well run during Lou's tenure. Now that I have had a chance
to get to know and work with Lazar during the transition, I am confident
that TELUS will continue in this vein."
![Opening screenshot of web-enabled TELUS](images/03ducca14.jpg)
|
An example of the opening screen of the Web-enabled version
of TELUS. The screen can be redesigned to fit the user's preferences.
|
John W. Epling is president of The Epling Corporation, a Virginia-
based public policy advisory and research firm. Since 1998, he has
been under contract with the NJIT serving as the project manager and
deployment coordinator for TELUS. Epling served for 5 years as the
executive director of the National Association of Regional Councils;
6 years as State planning director for New Jersey; and 18 years directing
two regional councils and local planning offices. He has master's
and doctor's degrees in public administration from the University
of Southern California, and a master's degree in urban and regional
planning and a B.S. degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University. In the spring of 2002, he was inducted into the
College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.