County Traffic Management Centers (other) - Traffic Management Center Functionality
Subsystem Description
The 'Traffic Management Center' monitors and controls traffic and the road network. It represents centers that manage a broad range of transportation facilities including freeway systems, rural and suburban highway systems, and urban and suburban traffic control systems. It communicates with ITS Roadway Equipment and Connected Vehicle Roadside Equipment (RSE) to monitor and manage traffic flow and monitor the condition of the roadway, surrounding environmental conditions, and field equipment status. It manages traffic and transportation resources to support allied agencies in responding to, and recovering from, incidents ranging from minor traffic incidents through major disasters.
Functional Object: TMC Regional Traffic Management
'TMC Regional Traffic Management' supports coordination between Traffic Management Centers in order to share traffic information between centers as well as control of traffic management field equipment. This coordination supports wide area optimization and regional coordination that spans jurisdictional boundaries; for example, coordinated signal control in a metropolitan area or coordination between freeway operations and arterial signal control within a corridor.
Functional Object: TMC Traffic Information Dissemination
'TMC Traffic Information Dissemination' disseminates traffic and road conditions, closure and detour information, incident information, driver advisories, and other traffic–related data to other centers, the media, and driver information systems. It monitors and controls driver information system field equipment including dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio, managing dissemination of driver information through these systems.
Functional Object: TMC Traffic Management Decision Support
'TMC Traffic Management Decision Support' recommends courses of action to the traffic operator based on current and forecast road and traffic conditions. Traffic incidents, special events, maintenance activities and other events or conditions that impact capacity or demand are monitored. Historical data and models are used to compare the impact of potential courses of action and make recommendations to the operator. Decisions are supported through presentation of filtered and fused network–wide road and traffic conditions that identify network imbalances and recommended courses of action. The recommended actions may include predefined incident response plans, signal timing plan changes, DMS/HAR messages, truck restrictions, lane control strategies, metering strategies, and adjustment of variable speed limits. Multimodal strategies may also be recommended that include suggested transit strategies and suggested route and mode choices for travelers. Once a course of action is selected, traffic operations personnel implement these actions within the Traffic Management Center and coordinate the response with other centers in the region.
Functional Object: TMC Traffic Network Performance Evaluation
'TMC Traffic Network Performance Evaluation' measures traffic network performance and predicts travel demand patterns to support traffic flow optimization, demand management, and incident management. It collects traffic data from sensors and surveillance equipment as well as input from other Traffic Management Centers, emissions management, transit operations, and event promoters and uses this information to measure traffic network performance. It collects route planning information from transportation information centers and integrates and uses this information to predict future traffic conditions. The planned control strategies can be passed back to the transportation information center so that the intended strategies can be reflected in future route planning.