USING VM and FPS TO PREPARE
A FRAMEWORK FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF A
COMPREHENSIVE TRAFFIC VOLUME
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Presented by
Lucie Parrot, eng. CVS
Tom Fletcher, P.Eng., CVS
Thomas W. Fletcher, P.Eng., CVS
 29
year career at the Ministry of Transportation,
Ontario (MTO) including Senior Value Engineer
 established the Fletcher Group in 1999
 past president of the Canadian Society for Value
Analysis.
 currently director responsible for business liaison
with SAVE International.
Lucie Parrot, eng.,M.eng., CSI, CVS
 industrial
engineer with over 25 years of
experience
 involved in product development projects
 award for her “outstanding contribution” from the
Canadian Society for Value Analysis.
 with the society since its beginning
Agenda
 Context
 Mandate
 Approach
 Methodology
 Results
MTO context
 successfully
used the VE Methodology, since 1998
on design projects of highways
 savings in excess of $100 Millions
 limited use in other business areas
 develop a new framework for an expanded and
updated Traffic Volume Information System
(TVIS2)
Mandate
 analyse
the functions of 6 existing legacy systems,
 incorporate new required functions
 eliminate redundant functions
 evaluate potential options / FPS
 highlight weaknesses in current business processes
 Decide: acquire or develop of new system.
Network
 16
477 km of highways
 collection of data is done on a few specific road
sections on a continuous basis
 remainder of the sections according to a three year
program.
 One of the most important statistics AADTAverage Annual Daily Traffic.
Responsibilities
 Head
Office :
 the

permanent counting program
publication of traffic volume data and statistics.
 Regional Traffic
 collecting
Offices:
and processing of sectional traffic data on
highway network
 review of the preliminary data prior to the publication
by Head Office.
Conceptual
Traffic Volume - Processing Systems
Daily Counts
24hrs/day
365days/yr
PDC Data Processing
Seasonal Variation
Curves
( 14 pattern
types )
PDC Stations
Traffic Data Processing
Sample Counts
( 1/3 of the hwy
network per yr,
3 times/yr. totalling 13 days
of count data)
- Short Term Count Stations:
Manual Counts, Turning Movement Counts,
Request Counts
- Other Studies:
Radar Speed, Ball Bank, Travel Time Delay,
Observance/Compliance
- Future Requirements:
GTA Cordon Count and Commercial Vehicle
Surveys
Prepared by Peter Gaboury Mar 2001
Revised by Zoe Lam Sept. 2002
File: TVP Conceptual.ppt
Regions
Head
Office
Customers:
Traffic Volumes
Accident Rates
•Transportation
Planning Branch
• Program
Management Branch
•Regional Traffic
Offices
•Regional Planning
Offices
•Head Office Traffic
Actual systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Inventory Count Management System (ICMS)
Regional Traffic Information System (RTIS)
Noon-to-Noon File Management System
(NNFMS)
Permanent Counting Stations (PCS)
Matching Program (PCSFIT)
Traffic Volume Information System (TVIS)
Situation
 antiquated
and need to be replaced.
 written in 16-bit DOS, FORTRAN, dBaseIII+, and
Better Basic
 Some are mainframe applications while others are
for stand alone PC applications that will not work
in a modern computer environment
Comparison
 publication
of current traffic statistics is delayed by
over 1 year.
 US DOT’s are required to publish federally
reported traffic data within 90 days of year end.
Approach
Arrange Stakeholder workshops and user interviews
facilitated by a CVS resulting in a functional tree and
draft FPS
 Prepare final Functional Performance Specification
 Prepare a detailed questionnaire based on the FPS to
interview 15 selected transportation agencies
 Short List and visit 3 agencies for detailed analysis
 Prepare report on findings and preferred solution
from agencies / FPS
 VE of business processes

Methodology
 Analyze
the functions of current processing
systems in order to identify what needs to be
included in the next generation system.
 Identify functions of a higher level, by looking at
the outside influence factors that have an impact
on the design of the new TVIS2 system.
(environmental analysis)
 Organize functions in a functional diagram & FPS.
Design strategy
ADVISED
CLIENT
MARKET
RESEARCH
V
PRODUCTION
L
NEED
FUNCTION
ANALYSIS
FUNCTIONAL
PERFORMANCE
SPECIFICATION
A
DETAIL
ENGINEERING
CONCEPTUAL
DESIGN
U
E
DESIGN TO COST
E
FMEA
N
EVALUATION
G
Functional diagram
TVIS2
DETERMINE THE NEEDS
 creation
of a program schedule according to rules
set by frequency, dates, duration and method of
collection including time intervals
 maintenance or construction work must be known
 inventory of sensors and equipment
 add ad-hoc count requests
 query and revision of the program
COLLECT / RETRIEVE DATA
 programming,
collecting/recording and retrieving
of data recorded by monitoring equipment
 upload and download information
 stamp for time, location and type of equipment
used, for traceability and for quality of data
purposes
 data entry screens
ENSURE QUALITY OF PROCESS
 assessing
integrity and quality of the acquired data
 errors and anomalies are identified and edited
 New: authentication of data and tracking of level
of confidence
PROCESS DATA
 calculations,
statistics, spreadsheets and graphs are
prepared
 match data to curves by pattern types
 Projections done for uncounted locations
 Estimates are also prepared
 warrants are calculated
MAKE RESULTS AVAILABLE
 preparation
of reports
 export of data
 publication of information
 help the users make good decisions
 Real time data should be available
ENSURE RELIABILITY AND
CONTINUITY OF SYSTEM
 respect
standards and MTO architecture
 Support users and owners
 manage the system
 legacy data need always to be available
 make sure no suspicious or malicious activities
take place
Cost analysis
Item
 Collect-retrieve data
Cost
$
752 000
% of Project
33,6%

Make results available
$
572 000
25,6%

Process edited data
$
306 000
13,7%

Ensure quality of process
$
267 000
11,9%

Planning/ Determine the needs
$
190 000
8,5%

Ensure reliability and continuity
$
$
148 000
2 235 000
6,6%
Example from FPS
Number
Function
Criteria
Level
Flex
Comments
1.1.1.1
Keep
track of
counts
history
forever
F0
It is important to be
able to eventually go
back to any year
archives
After 20
years
F0
Anything before that
is available at any
time
View of data
15
minutes
F1
Communicat
ion achieved
Yes or no
F1
Number of
best choices
5
F1
3.1.2
4.5.3.3
Monitor
collection
process
Select
best
suited
curve
Functional diagram
TVIS2
Candidate Agencies
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Province of Alberta
California Department of Transportation (CalTrans)
British Columbia MOT (BCMOT)
Chaparral Systems **
Florida DOT (FDOT)
Maryland (MSHA)*
Minnesota DOT (MnDOT)
North Carolina DOT (NCDOT)
Ohio DOT (OHDOT)
Pennsylvania DOT (Penn DOT)*
Quebec MOT
Texas DOT
City of Toronto*
Vermont Agency of Transportation (VAOT)*
Virginia (DOT)
3 options
1.
2.
3.
Utilize a current US-DOT Traffic Monitoring
System as a basis for the new TVIS2 System
Purchase a Commercial Off the Shelf Traffic
Monitoring system
Develop a new system based on the FPS
developed for this project
System’s Integration
First opportunity for system IT staff to evaluate
FPS as tool.
It was concluded that this provided many valuable
opportunities to bridge the gap between user and
application developer.