City after city is moving to adopt technology to remake themselves as smart cities. The infrastructure that is in place, often legacy systems that go back decades, can be modernized if the plan is sound and carefully implemented. The first step is to conduct a feasibility study and determine what needs to be done.
Taking that step are several cities and states across the country by employing the services of a mobility consultant. As an example, Iteris will conduct a centralized traffic management system study, providing services in the areas of master plan development, procurement of central software and detailed design of Phase A of a project for the city of Joliet Illinois.
Iteris technology ecosystem for smart mobility infrastructure management is delivered through its ClearMobility Platform, which applies cloud computing, AI (artificial intelligence), advanced sensors, advisory services, and managed services to achieve safe, efficient, and sustainable mobility.
Under the terms of the two-year contract, Iteris will conduct a CTMS (centralized traffic management system) study for 130 key signalized intersections, providing services that include master plan development for the new CTMS, field data collection and inventory, project development, stakeholder outreach, software procurement, detailed design of Phase A, and assistance with the bid process and construction engineering.
The program supports the City of Joliet’s goals to significantly reduce citywide travel time, fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving safety, mobility, and overall travel experience for all road users, including vehicles, buses, bicycles, and pedestrians. By reducing delays and stops on key corridors for passenger and heavy vehicles, the project will help reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, which in turn will contribute to sustainable environmental and air quality improvements.
Iteris was also selected by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute for a smart mobility and safety initiative. The three-year, $20 million project sees Iteris join public and private partners including Continental, Ford, Toyota, Qualcomm, the City of Ann Arbor, and Purdue University. Half of the program funding is provided by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s FHA (Federal Highway Administration’s) Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment program, with the remainder provided by the participants as a shared funding program. Under the terms of the agreement, Iteris will equip more than 20 signalized intersections in Ann Arbor, Michigan with its V2X (vehicle-to-everything) detection technology as part of the connected vehicle and smart intersections program.
As part of the connected vehicle safety program, Iteris and Continental will be deploying their Vantage Fusion hybrid video and radar traffic detection technology at key signalized intersections. Vantage Fusion enables real-world V2X applications and advanced intersection visualization for safer, smarter, and more sustainable roadways. A pilot has already been deployed at the University of Michigan’s Mcity as the first step in this process.
Vantage Fusion uses information generated by infrastructure sensors to enable cooperative perception capabilities. In addition to sharing a connected vehicle’s location with other V2X-enabled devices, cooperative perception messaging could enable that vehicle to also share what it senses – a pedestrian or car, for example – with the rest of its connected environment.
The company’s efforts are paying off elsewhere, too. It has been awarded a $3.7 million contract from the OCTA (Orange County Transportation Authority) for a regional smart mobility, safety and sustainability program. According to OCTA, Orange County’s population is expected to increase 13% by 2035, resulting in more drivers on the county’s roadways. To ease growing traffic demands, OCTA, the Caltrans (California Dept. of Transportation), the County of Orange, and all 34 cities in the country are working together to coordinate traffic lights.
Since launch, OCTA’s traffic signal synchronization program has resulted in a 13% reduction in travel time, a 14% improvement in travel speed, a 52-million-gal. reduction in fuel consumption, and a 885 million pound reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Using the signal performance measures and arterial performance measures features of its ClearGuide solution, Iteris experts can monitor the health and safety of intersections, arterial travel times and reliability, identify and prioritize signal optimizations and arterial retiming efforts, identify congestion hotspots, and understand how highway traffic impacts surrounding arterials.
Iteris has designed, deployed, or equipped over one third of all signalized intersections in the United States. Recently, it’s been awarded an open-ended on-call contract by the VDOT (Virginia Dept. of Transportation) for ITS (intelligent transportation system) operations, planning and support services. The three-year contract has an unlimited ceiling and is renewable for two one-year extensions. Iteris will provide on-call technical and administrative support in TSO&M (transportation system operations and management), ITS planning, CAV (connected and automated vehicle) program support, expansion of mobile applications development and integration for data sharing, integrated corridor management development, transportation operational services, traffic analysis and safety, and related program support services for VDOT on a statewide basis.
This contract is federally approved and could be eligible for federal funds, including program budget authorized under the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) to improve the condition of infrastructure systems across the country.
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