Current ITS
Lab I – Product Description
Chris Coykendall
Old Dominion
University
CS410 Spring 2012
Prof. J. Brunelle
May 1 2012
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |1
Table of Contents
1.0
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2
2.0
Current ITS Product Description .............................................................................. 4
2.1
Key Features and Capabilities ............................................................................... 5
2.2
Major Components (Hardware/Software) ............................................................ 7
2.3
Target Market/Customer Base ............................................................................ 12
3.0
Current ITS Prototype Description ......................................................................... 14
3.1
Prototype Functional Goals & Objectives ............................................................ 14
3.2
Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software) .................................................... 15
3.3
Prototype Features & Capabilities ....................................................................... 16
3.4
Prototype Development Challenges .................................................................... 18
Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 19
References ......................................................................................................................... 20
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |2
1.0
Introduction
The city of Norfolk and its surrounding Hampton Roads counterparts are currently
buzzing over the newest transit system to enter the region: The Tide. At over seven miles
long, The Tide is the first public light rail transportation system in the entire state of
Virginia. It is operated by the Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) which also operates many
other transit services including bus, ferry, and shuttle. Unfortunately, much of the
discussion about HRT and The Tide currently revolves around The Tide’s lack of
profitability and declining ridership numbers. Surrounding cities are apprehensive to
having The Tide tracks expanded into their areas for these reasons, but many of the
factors that influence these reasons are the passengers themselves.
Imagine a regular commuter walks up to one of the many stations for The Tide, and
there are no other passengers at this stop waiting. Aside from a kiosk to buy tickets and
a few maps with standard times, there is no dynamic signage at the stop to indicate if
the vehicles are still in operation, if there is a special event, or if there is a delay. Unless
this passenger has a smartphone to visit the HRT website to see that there are earlier
closing times for that particular day, they could be waiting for hours. The more critical
issue is that they are now stranded. In this scenario, we have assumed that the
passenger already knew what they were riding the light rail for, and that it was capable
of transporting them to their destination. More commonly, potential customers do not
know in advance what the system can take them to unless they search the Internet to
read street maps in advance to their trip. This entails more complications than most
people want to deal with. Surveys taken from over 1,000 Norfolk residents indicated
that 75% of residents felt schedule information was an important problem that needed
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to be addressed (Southeastern Institute of Research, Inc.). The same study also showed
that 70% of downtown workers didn’t know the stop locations and 69% also felt that
having stop information was critical.
HRT is currently reporting in their monthly commission meetings that The Tide
ridership numbers are exceeding their average goal ridership numbers. While this is
true, a less popular fact is that while The Tide ridership numbers are meeting their goal,
HRT has been losing over 1,000 passengers each month since its inception (TDCOH).
With no way to address customers in real-time, no way to track vehicle positions in realtime, and no way to communicate with operators besides radio, HRT and other fledgling
transit authorities are hindering their maximum ridership numbers (Messina).
Consequently, HRT is not realizing their maximum profit potential, and there is
minimal return on tax dollars to riders or businesses. Given that HRT’s budget outside
of operating revenue comes solely from federal, state, and local funding, the lack of
return is troubling (Hampton Roads Transit). The lack of complete information
prevents transit organizations and local businesses from maximizing the potential
benefits of light rail systems in general. With such a complex system of dependencies
involving light rail and its effects on local economies, what can be done?
Current Intelligent Transportation System (Current ITS) is a product that can
incorporate all aspects of light rail monitoring to unify the barrier between local
businesses and the transit authorities. With Current ITS, riders can receive real-time
updates on the status of vehicles, delays, and special events on the fly. Passengers can
also have a direct form of feedback communication to allow transit authorities to
capitalize on what their customers like or want. Current ITS will also allow transit
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |4
organizations to effectively predict what their ridership numbers will be, and give
historical trending data to make well-informed business decisions. Local businesses will
be able to tie themselves closely into the light rail system via an advertisement platform
and thus realize benefits as well. The product will be released initially as a slimmeddown prototype, and eventually as a complete, real-world product.
2.0
Current ITS Product Description
Current ITS will make information accessible via mobile applications, the
Internet, as well as electronic signage at stations where riders can make spur-of-themoment decisions on where to go, and which routes to take. Transit authorities will
have the ability to push out information in real-time to their passengers via an alerts
system. Local businesses will be capable of registering themselves with Current ITS
through an intuitive interface to run advertisement campaigns and promote their
brands. Businesses will also be able to receive feedback on how their advertisements are
doing and obtain ridership information through a web-based GUI designed specifically
for them.
The biggest advantage to transit organizations, such as HRT, is the availability of
real-time information about the light rail system. Valuable information such as
ridership levels throughout segments of the day, train speeds or delays, as well as
historical trend data will be provided through Current ITS. This level of detailed data
can then trickle down to both businesses and passengers. Passengers will be able to find
out immediately of any problems with the light rail system, and have options available
for re-routing using other forms of transportation such as buses, ferry, etc. Businesses
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will have data to more specifically relate with their customer bases and find out when
peak operation times are at their respective stops. The advertisements displayed on the
mobile application that riders see can also be targeted to business advertisement
campaigns for the stops nearest their location via GPS.
Current ITS will provide great value for all parties involved: transit authorities,
passengers, and local businesses. Passengers will be more inclined to ride and enjoy
their experience having access to all the information they need at their fingertips. This is
in addition to being able to find out about special deals and having optional routes in
case of emergencies for “peace of mind”. Transit organizations will be able to increase
profit margins with higher ridership levels and fees collected for running local business
advertisements. Local businesses in general can realize more customers through the
advertising options Current ITS provides.
2.1 Key Features and Capabilities
The key component for the primary customer, transit organizations, will be an
online web interface that allows them to monitor the light rail system for vehicles in
operation, delays, ridership numbers, trends, forecast delays/passengers and run
reports (Fig. 1).
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |6
Figure 1: Transit Authority Web Interface
Similarly, businesses will have their own interface to get ridership counts for the
stop nearest them, mobile/kiosk advertisement information, create events, and more.
Last but not least, the product will allow riders to take advantage of an intuitive mobile
application to find events and attractions, plan trips and purchase tickets. This
functionality is the same that would be embedded at station kiosks (Fig. 2).
Before presenting the information via the web, and mobile/kiosk interfaces, the
data must actually exist. Current ITS provides a real-time automatic vehicle location
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |7
(AVL) system to track the status of the light rail vehicles. The system also uses automatic
passenger counters (APCs) to track ridership numbers, and GPS receivers to provide
location. Once the sensors are in place, an embedded Linux module will transmit the
readings via 3G GSM network at regular intervals throughout the day. This will allow
transit authorities to run reports that can be more specific than just a day total. In the
background of Current ITS, the stored ridership numbers and actual schedule times will
be used to calculate a forecast of what ridership and delays may occur in the future.
Figure 2: Mobile Application
2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)
In order to encompass the problems that Current ITS aims to solve, many
components will be needed. Unlike many transit monitoring systems which consist of
solely a large software application, this product makes no assumptions of sensor
Current ITS – Lab I – Product Description |8
availability or signage of any sort. Current ITS can deliver all aspects of monitoring,
from actual sensors all the way to the end-user applications, depending on the client’s
needs (Fig. 3). By having modular hardware and software components, Current ITS can
achieve a larger target market that may even include light rail transportation systems
that have already been in operation for some time.
Figure 3: Current ITS Major Functional Component Diagram (MFCD)
There will be a large amount of software needed for Current ITS, due to the largescale nature of the project. First, it will require an embedded, on-board Linux
application that can transmit the sensor readings from the APC and GPS units for each
vehicle. The sensor readings must then be sent through the Internet and written to the
Database Server that is accessible by the transit authority. This database will not only
store the raw sensor data from the vehicles, but also the stop information, business
information, and more. The Database Server will also maintain forecast tables for the
next major component in the product: the Decision Engine.
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The Decision Engine (DE) is the heart of Current ITS, and will generate
predictions for transit authorities, as well as optional routes for passengers. The DE is
not communicated with directly, however. The front-end interface that end-users will
interact with is served by the Web Application Engine (WAE). The WAE primarily
serves the GUI that users will see, but also processes various requests including DE
predictions, checking Google Places for business destinations, and rider feedback
logging. Finally, Current ITS will also encompass an Android application that can run on
multiple platforms, including smartphones and kiosk hardware at stations. The
application will enable riders to get the information that they need to know about the
vehicles, purchase tickets to ride, as well as information on local events and businesses.
In order to extract the information from the vehicles, they will need to be
equipped with hardware that can collect the ridership and location data. Global
Positioning System (GPS) receivers and Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) sensors
will be used to accomplish this task. Then, an onboard embedded PC will be equipped
with a 3G GSM modem that can transmit these raw readings into a usable database
collection (Fig. 4). The collection of readings will be stored to a SQL database on a Dell
R710 server system running the Red Hat Linux distribution. This same server can also
be used to host the the key software component of Current ITS: the WAE. Last but not
least, the project team will require development workstations, mobile phones, and
servers in order to develop and deliver the product.
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Figure 4: Embedded System Overview
Some of the key software milestones will require innovative algorithms to
complete. The embedded Linux reporting agent application will regularly poll the
connected APC and GPS sensors for their readings. The application will then format
these readings into a usable form, and transmit them via a 3G modem connection to
ultimately reside on the SQL database. The DE algorithms will likely be the most
complex and innovative algorithms of Current ITS. The DE software component will
take the historical ridership, time and location data of the vehicles to generate training
sets of data for prediction of delays and ridership using a machine learning algorithm.
Whenever an end-user wants a prediction forecast, the DE will run a batch gradient
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descent using the training set and respond with its predictions (Fig. 5). In the event of a
major delay or event, the DE will also be capable of determining alternate paths using an
intelligent routing algorithm.
Figure 5: DE Request Algorithm
The WAE will be capable of running processes in the background. In particular,
schedules for vehicles on the light rail system will be published via General Transit
Specification Feed (GTFS) for open, accurate information access to outside mapping
solutions, such as Google Maps. The Google Places API will also be polled for local
business destinations that may not be registered with Current ITS. The WAE will also
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have algorithms for capacity checking, retrieving schedules, accepting rider feedback,
retrieving local destinations, and the DE forecasts.
2.3 Target Market/Customer Base
Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) will be the initial client for Current ITS. With this
in mind, the initial proposal will be drawn to sell the benefits that this product has to
offer to HRT specifically. However, much of the background research can be applied to
any emerging light rail system operator. Possibly the most difficult barrier to overcome
will be justifying bringing local businesses into the system. Studies have shown that light
rail benefits the local economy in the proximity of the stations. By strategically
positioning themselves near light rail stations, businesses commonly see increased retail
sales, new jobs and development, better employee selection pools, and higher property
values (Victoria Transport Policy Institute). As most transit authorities are publicly
funded, they will indirectly reap benefits from incorporating the local business aspects
of Current ITS.
The accessibility of real-time and accurate information will enable smoother and
more efficient operations. It will also lend itself to higher levels of rider satisfaction.
Studies have proven that access to real-time information (which is a very cost-effective
measure), can reduce rider perceived wait times by an average of 10% (Dziekan &
Kottenhoff). By also incorporating two-way communications, transit authorities will be
able to not only send out communications via web and mobile/kiosk applications, but
receive rider feedback directly as well. HRT is currently pushing to expand their light
rail system, The Tide, into other areas of the region. As of right now, The Tide only
services mainly downtown Norfolk, and a few other scattered places near the border of
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Virginia Beach and Norfolk. By catering to the needs of riders and businesses, Current
ITS will enable them to achieve higher levels of adoption in proposed expansion areas if
given the chance via a trial run.
In Charlotte, over $291 million in new development was seen along their new 10mile line with another $1.6 billion expected (Transportation Riders United, Inc.).
Reports from various businesses in close proximity to light rail stations also indicate 1333% increases in sales as a direct result of light rail openings (Houston Tomorrow). The
Maryland Transit Administration estimated that 27,000 new jobs per year will be
created as a direct result of their new Purple rail line (The Examiner). These are just a
few, tip-of-the-iceberg examples that demonstrate there is a future in developing for
light rail systems. As Current ITS is mainly targeting emerging light rail transit systems,
there is a huge upside potential for revenue once these new systems are in operation.
Current ITS will not be limited to only the “newbies”, however. Through having a
modular and scalable platform, Current ITS will be able to reach a market to existing
light rail transit authorities who may be lacking some of the benefits the product has to
offer. In the United States alone, there are 35 light rail systems in operation currently,
with another 60 that are in proposal and/or developmental stages (Light Rail Now,
American Public Transportation Association).Europe, which has many public
transportation systems, operates over 8,000 miles of light rail track as well (Press
Release Distribution). Current ITS could even see global adoption, which would realize a
huge profit margin: Global Industry Analysts report that the global light rail market will
reach $7.5 billion by the year 2015 (Press Release Distribution).
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3.0
Current ITS Prototype Description
The Current ITS prototype will encompass much of the same functionality as the
real world product (RWP). Most importantly, transit authorities will still be able to
access the information they need to make informed decisions about light rail operation.
In particular, the prototype will seek to address the needs of Hampton Roads Transit
(HRT). The capabilities of having local businesses associated with the Current ITS
system will also be fully realized. The innovative advertising campaign platform will
allow the location-based ad targets to be delivered using sample data. All end-user
interfaces will be implemented fully, including the two-way communication, predictive
monitoring, reporting mechanisms, vehicle delay/ridership checks, and local event
calendar. The mobile Android application and web end-user interfaces will also be
developed so that potential riders may learn how to use Current ITS and promote
adoption of the product. The Current ITS prototype will show proof of concept for all
innovative aspects of the RWP, saving time, money, and increasing ridership.
3.1 Prototype Functional Goals & Objectives
The web interface for the client will need to be demonstrated, as it is the main
component of Current ITS that will be used by HRT. The interface must allow HRT the
real-time monitoring of vehicles and ridership, and running reports of various sorts. The
web interface for local businesses that are registered will need to be implemented, and
allow for business owners to view reports on their advertisement campaigns and launch
new events or advertisements. Last but not least, riders will need to have access to the
website interface as well as the mobile Android application for staying up to date with
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delays, capacity, planning trips, and just about everything else except purchasing tickets
and routing. The actual vehicle sensor counts will be simulated, so the passenger counts,
locations, reports, and forecasts that are obtained from the various interfaces by all
three parties will be artificial.
Figure 6: Prototype Software Overview
3.2 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)
The major functional components of Current ITS will be modified to reflect not
having actual vehicles available to receive sensor readings from. All APC and GPS data
will be simulated information residing in the database. Therefore, the embedded onboard Linux application and related APC/GPS/3G hardware will be omitted. A test
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harness will be developed and reside on the WAE to handle simulating various
scenarios, such as vehicle problems, sensor failure, etc. The DE will be slightly modified
for simplicity of the project scope also. Kiosk/signage applications will not be realized in
order to avoid unnecessary hardware costs to demonstrate functionality that the mobile
Android application will mostly encompass. The Current ITS mobile application will be
slightly modified to omit ticket purchasing, as well as driving directions.
Rather than having a separate machine for every hardware server, the Web
Application Engine (WAE), Decision Engine (DE), and Database Server will all reside on
a university Computer Science department virtual machine. The development systems
used will mainly be comprised of university workstations, as well as various secondhand Android mobile devices that are freely available. Since the prototype will be
omitting the hardware onboard the vehicles, the embedded reporting agent application
will not be implemented. The DE will be modified to forecast only ridership and delay
trends, while intelligent routing algorithms will be omitted. The DE will still be capable
of generating training data sets from the database sensor readings and processing
prediction requests. The WAE will not be publishing to Google Maps, but will still make
a GTFS feed available for interested third parties. The WAE will serve all of the real
world product request types, with the addition of a test harness for development
purposes.
3.3 Prototype Features & Capabilities
The Current ITS prototype will provide most of the capabilities envisioned in the
real world product (RWP). The main exception is that the vehicle information will be
canned, static data that is manipulated via the test harness. HRT will still retain the
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online web interface that allows them to monitor the light rail system for vehicles in
operation, delays, ridership numbers, trends, etc. Businesses will also maintain all of the
same functionalities in the RWP (Fig. 7). The mobile application will not have ticket
purchasing and routing directions implemented, but all other functionality will be
realized, including the ability to search for local attractions, find events, send feedback
to the transit authority, and monitor their favorite destinations with associated stops. As
a prototype, Current ITS will avoid being subject to financial risks and investment issues
with HRT that would occur in the real world. There will also be no latency/accuracy
risks with sensor data, since all of the prototype data will be contrived. The static data
will need to be realistic, however.
Figure 7: Business Web Interface
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3.4 Prototype Development Challenges
Development of the Current ITS prototype does not eliminate all risks that the
RWP will face. In order to simulate sensor data, a realistic representation of
timestamps, locations, passenger counts, etc. will need to be developed on both
hardware and software levels to demonstrate the proof of concept using the test harness.
The project team must also meet the development specifications outlined, and within
the time frame that will be allotted. This includes the innovative portions of Current ITS,
such as the local business integration, the real-time rider feedback, real-time GTFS, and
light rail forecasting. The development of the learning algorithms will also be a large
undertaking, incorporating advanced concepts of machine learning which may require
external consultation with a domain expert. The interfaces for HRT, businesses, and
riders across all platforms must be fully realized (as well as robust) in order to give all
parties involved the maximum advantages obtained from Current ITS.
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Glossary
3G GSM Wireless technology that is in use by many devices today, ex. cell phones.
Android A widely-used, open-source platform for mobile applications.
Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) Sensor that uses 3D cameras to count
passengers above the vehicle door.
Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) System that can send track locations of vehicles.
Batch Gradient Descent A machine learning regression algorithm that takes several
features of a problem, then iteratively finds the minimum approximation of an outcome
using linear algebra and a training set.
Database Server Hardware that stores information in an organized manner.
Decision Engine (DE) Component of Current ITS that can generate predictions of
ridership and delays.
Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellite-based navigation system that provides
location and time information from space.
Google Places Third-party source for local business locations.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Presentation of information, ex. a web page.
Intelligent Routing Algorithm A component of Current ITS that determines the
best path to take in the event of a delay or other incident.
Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Blanket term for advanced applications
in transportation.
Linux A free, widely-available open-source operating system.
Machine Learning A branch of artificial intelligence concerned with programming
computers to change behaviors based on historical data, and make predictions based off
many types of algorithms.
Structured Query Language (SQL) Language used to interact with a database
server.
Tables Logical collections of data stored on a database server.
Training Set A collection of historical, actual data used to make predictions about
future events.
Web Application Engine (WAE) The main interactive component of Current ITS
that can process various requests including DE predictions, checking delays, etc.
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References
American Public Transportation Association. "Ridership Increases In Third Quarter."
Policy Development and Research Program at APTA, Dec. 2011. Web.
<http://apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2011-q3-ridershipAPTA.pdf>.
Dziekan, Katrin, and Karl Kottenhoff. "Dynamic At-stop Real-time Information Displays
for Public Transport: Effects on Customers." ScienceDirect. Elsevier, 21 Nov.
2006.
Hampton Roads Transit. "About." Hampton Roads Transit. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://gohrt.com/about/>.
Houston Tomorrow. "The Impact of Light Rail on Local Businesses." 2 Aug. 2006. Web.
<http://www.gulfcoastinstitute.org/university/LightRail_BusinessImpact.pdf>.
Light Rail Now. "New Light Rail Transit Systems Planned." Web.
<http://www.lightrailnow.org/success2.htm>.
Messina, Debbie. "Control Room at NSU Serves as Brains for Light
Rail."HamptonRoads.com: Entertainment and Guides for Hampton Roads,
Va. The Virginian-Pilot, 31 July 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2012.
<http://hamptonroads.com/2011/07/control-room-nsu-serves-brains-lightrail>.
Press Release Distribution. "Global Light Rail Market to Reach $7.5 Billion by 2015,
According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc." 14 July 2010. Web.
<http://www.prweb.com/releases/light_rail/light_rail_transit/prweb4253534.h
tm>.
Southeastern Institute of Research, Inc. "Hampton Roads Transit: Light Rail Marketing
Research Study." Web. <http://www.gohrt.com/publications/reports/sir-lightrail-summary.pdf>.
The Examiner. "Purple Line Expected to Be Major Economic Engine, Md. Officials
Say."Washington Examiner. 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/maryland/2011/11/purple-lineexpected-be-major-economic-engine-md-officials-say/120003>.
Transportation District Commission Of Hampton Roads. "January 26, 2012,
Commission Meeting." 26 Jan. 2012. Web. <http://www.gohrt.com/public-
C u r r e n t I T S – L a b I – P r o d u c t D e s c r i p t i o n | 21
records/Commission-Documents/Commission-Meetings/FY2012/January2012.pdf>.
Transportation Riders United, Inc. "The Economic Benefits of Transit." Transportation
Riders United (TRU). 2006. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.detroittransit.org/cms.php?pageid=26>.
Victoria Transport Policy Institute. "Transit Oriented Development." Victoria Transport
Institute. 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm45.htm>.