Moving Forward with Intelligence
Reducing Urban Congestion and Commuting Times

Making public transit more convenient and increasing ridership

Enhanced public transit is critical to the continued economic well-being and quality of life in our urban centres. ITS offers a number of opportunities to help make transit more attractive, convenient and reliable for people in communities across Ontario.

Real time scheduling can ensure multi-modal transit schedules work together to reduce travel times for transit users.

A key first step to making public transit more convenient is the launch of an integrated ticketing system using smart card technology. This will make payment for transit use - especially cross-jurisdictional travel - easier and faster for both riders and local transit systems. When combined with location monitoring technologies, it also offers the potential to make route integration easier - again making systems more convenient.

The City of Toronto has made great strides in transit signal priority operations. This work should be expanded towards broader integration of transit operations with traffic management. The integrated model being developed under the following “Expanding and evolving traffic management” section should be expanded to include transit operations as a key driver of traffic management.

The Ministry of Transportation is developing its high occupancy vehicle (HOV) program. Similar programs exist in a number of municipalities. Use of high occupancy lanes by unauthorized, low-occupancy vehicles has been a traditional problem. Moreover, the ministry needs to further investigate the use of managed lanes and broader ramp metering, to keep traffic moving on its highways. ITS opportunities to automate the enforcement of HOV lane use need to be explored.

Expanding and evolving traffic management

Changeable or Dynamic Message Signs provide information to motorists on conditions beyond the next ramp, interchange or transfer lanes, allowing motorists to make informed travel decisions, such as selecting an alternate route.

Services such as COMPASS and RESCU highway traffic management, and traffic signal control systems need to continue to operate and grow into areas currently not covered. The safety and capacity benefits provided by these systems are critical to maintaining current levels of service in Ontario's urban centres.

To address the growing demand, however, these systems will need to evolve from independent to integrated operations. In the Greater Toronto Area, COMPASS and RESCU are currently linking control centres to share information. This work should be continued and expanded to develop models for integrated area-wide management of our road network. A major rewrite of the COMPASS software is underway. One of the cornerstones of this work is the focus on multi-centre interconnection. The opportunity exists for the City of Toronto to also adopt the software once complete - which would fully support the seamless integration of the centres. It will also be available to other major urban centres such as Ottawa.

Improving traveller information

Information is the hub of intelligent transportation systems. It highlights existing conditions on our transportation system that we act on. It highlights historical patterns used for planning the system. And it leads to travel choices for the traveller.

Traveller information brings the traveller into the decision process. We need to evolve our current approach to make it easier for the traveller to get this information and make decisions.

Both the public and private sector can help. This strategy focuses public sector actions on the collection and dissemination of mass information. The private sector role is focused on value-added information targeted at individual users or groups. For example, MTO provides general information through its web site on highway conditions, while the private sector would notify individual subscribers of incidents on their planned route and offer alternative routes.

Further development of the Travellers Road Information Project (TRIP) will provide a single window into the growing variety of traveller information we have - traffic, road, weather and construction. Border and tourism information can be added to provide broader coverage and improved service. TRIP should also help better link other public sector organizations so they can share information, and with the private sector so it can provide better service to the public. To do this, the ministry can standardize information licensing agreements and system interfaces.

Public and private sector organizations need to work together to find the best way to get information to the traveller. One possibility is to work with ITS Canada to designate 511 as a national traveller information number. Similar to 911 as a link to emergency services, 511 could provide travellers with ready access to specific traveller information.

An improved and interconnected traveller information system will make it easier for the traveller to get information and make decisions.
What is the best mode and departure time for this trip? Weather conditions? Construction? Better to take the subway? Trip Time estimate?		Is my regular route clear? If it is, continue as normal.		If not, what is my bes t alternative? When should I change routes? How long will my route be slow for?

ITS can combine local road and weather monitoring stations (back- ground) with automated spray systems (foreground) to prevent dangerous road conditions from occurring.

Reducing the impact of maintenance and construction

The ministry and other road authorities have made great strides in increasing road safety and minimizing the impact of road maintenance and construction activities.

The ministry has worked with muncipal, private and federal partners on a network of road and weather condition monitoring stations - known in Ontario as the Advanced Road Weather Information System (ARWIS). ARWIS helps us understand current ground level weather impacts and when combined with atmospheric forecasts, can be studied to develop road condition forecasts to help plan winter road treatments.

ARWIS can be broadened with additional stations and can be taken on the road by using vehicles equipped with sensors for broader geographic coverage.

Ontario will continue to work with its partners on maintenance decision support systems that increase the effectiveness of our maintenance services.

The use of technology to help manage major work zones on our roadways holds great promise to increase traveller service. A priority should be finding ways to avoid conflicting construction and maintenance closures. The ministry can further explore the use of ITS to monitor in real-time, the impact of construction work zones. This could include measuring time delays, as well as the performance of contractors with an eye toward penalties in contractor agreements.

The safety of work zones also relies on drivers obeying signs and speed limits within the zone. When fixed speed reductions are put in place, regardless of actual construction and maintenance activities, research shows drivers often ignore them leading to dangerous differences in speeds among vehicles. ITS applications can be used to monitor conditions and control variable speed limits. The ministry will look at using variable speed limits and automated signs to enforce them.