FDOT's first statewide ITS Strategic Plan
being developed

Serving as a subcontractor to PB Farradyne, CUTR is involved in the development of FDOT's first statewide ITS Strategic Plan. This plan will provide the necessary guidance in policy development to the FDOT for planning, programming, and implementation of integrated multi-modal ITS elements at the statewide, regional, and or local level.

The project is being co-managed from the FDOT's Central Office by a representative of the Traffic Operations Office and the Systems Planning Office. A Project Review panel, consisting of one representative from each of the eight Department District offices, the FDOT Public Transportation Office in Tallahassee, the Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, and the Federal Highway Administration-Florida Division Office, has been established to provide a basis for consensus-building and early "buy-in" on the Strategic Plan development.

The overall scope includes the preparation of the Statewide Strategic Plan, a Business Plan for ITS Implementation, various related public information materials and multi-media presentations, and seven ITS issue papers on topics of greatest interest to the FDOT.

Issue paper on rural Florida's ITS needs

CUTR has primary responsibility for the development of the Rural/Inter-Urban ITS Applications issue paper. The purpose of this paper will be to identify rural Florida's ITS needs and priorities and determine how rural/inter-urban ITS can be "connected" and integrated to operate as a single statewide system. As a basis for establishing the rationale for ITS applications in rural and inter-urban areas, CUTR is focusing on Enterprise Florida's "A Blueprint for Rural Florida," which represents the state's rural development plan.

Simply stated, this plan is intended to increase job creation and continue to attract business and industry to rural Florida, while still maintaining its attractive quality of life. Likewise, any application of ITS in the rural and inter-urban portions of Florida should seek to address the same objectives.

The rural development plan for Florida has identified 32 counties (primarily located in the "Panhandle" and Lake Okeechobee portions of the state) that are "rural." In addition, the Florida Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development has created the Florida Enterprise Community/Empowerment Program, enabling rural areas to receive a variety of resources to achieve their development goals. Rural Florida communities in 10 counties have recently applied to receive this designation. These counties and enterprise community areas will provide the rural geographic focus for ITS applications in the state.

Four primary areas of transportation need in rural areas of Florida have been identified:

• paratransit,
• tourist information services,
• safety and emergency management services, and
• intermodal connectivity.

Rural considerations for ITS applications

Characteristics for each of these areas reveal several important considerations, such as those noted below, when determining the most appropriate ITS application.

• In 1997, more than 32 million paratransit passenger trips were provided, with 74 percent of these trips serving 39 rural counties.
• The top three counties for paratransit vehicle miles of travel were Gadsden, Lake, and Jackson.
• Rural designated land constitutes nearly 80 percent of the state's total land area and serves more than 12 million "eco-tourists" each year that visit parks, preserves, and historic sites scattered throughout the rural counties of the state.
• One-third of the state's fatal crashes occurred in rural ("open country") locations during 1996.
• Over the last three-year period, the rural state roadways with the greatest number of recurring crashes were SR 43 (Hillsborough/Manatee), SR 44 (Volusia), SR 54 (Pasco), SR 64 (Manatee), and SR 100 (Union/Putnam).
• An inventory of the state's intermodal facilities indicates that there are 135 park-n-ride lots, 103 public airports, 81 intercity bus stations, 39 bulk cargo transfer stations, 14 seaports, and 10 rail-highway terminals.
• Florida ranks 8th among all states in tonnage of commodity shipments. Marion and Polk counties have the greatest motor freight activity in rural Florida.
• Potential ITS applications
• Based on these findings, several potential improvements can be identified:
• Paratransit tripmaking can be improved with fleet monitoring software and automatic vehicle location technology to better plan and coordinate real-time performance of intercounty trips.
• Pre-trip and en-route information on road construction detours, incidents, weather, and service accommodations can be provided to visitors via the Internet, commercial radio/TV, kiosks, roadside variable massage signs, highway advisory radio, and the Traveler Information Radio Network (TIRN) currently being implemented in Florida.
• An integrated network of closed-circuit television surveillance cameras and speed sensors/loops can be used to activate and expedite incident response activities.
• To maximize the benefits of statewide commercial fleet monitoring, the existing ADVANTAGE I-75 project involving weigh-in-motion and electronic creden-tialing for heavy vehicles, could be extended to the seaports, airports, bulk cargo and rail-highway terminals to the greatest extent possible.

Finally, an emerging concept for rural communities to advance their transportation management capabilities, known as the "virtual" transportation management center, is being identified in the issue paper.

Through a network of database servers, remote workstations, and real-time messaging, linking and sharing of traffic and traveler-related information between urban areas and adjacent rural communities can be accomplished without a large additional cost (typically associated with extensive urban area traffic management centers).

According to FDOT's project managers, Bob Krzeminski and Lap Hoang, once the ITS Strategic Plan is completed (anticipated by mid-1999), "the benefits of ITS deployments will be better understood and become a bigger consideration in the project prioriti-zation process, as we have to rely more on maximizing the operation and safety of the existing transportation system."

For more information on the Statewide ITS Strategic Plan and Rural/Inter-Urban ITS Applications issue paper, contact CUTR ITS Program Director Mike Pietrzyk at
(813) 974-9815, pietrzyk@cutr.usf.edu .

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