ATMS Testbed Program

OVERVIEW

California has long recognized the potential of applying electronic, telecommunication and other technologies to transportation systems to address the significant mobility, environmental and economic challenges in the state and the rest of the nation. Through an aggressive Advanced Transportation Systems (ATS) Program, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are being researched, built, and tested for deployment to address today's transportation needs and those of the twenty-first century. An important element of the program is the California Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) Testbed (California ATMS Testbed ) located in Orange County, California.

The ATMS Testbed Program was initiated in early 1991 under research agreements between the California Department of Transportation and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). Impetus was added to the California ATS Program and to the formation of the Testbed with the enactment of the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991, which established a national ITS program to develop and deploy new and innovative technologies that will provide traveler information services, advanced transportation and fleet management, vehicle control and collision avoidance, transportation systems automation and intermodal services/facilities. The California ATMS Testbed is an important element of California's strategy in accomplishing these goals with the development of a real-world testbed to evaluate the potential of new technologies and strategies in the management of advanced transportation systems. The Testbed provides:

• an instrumented, multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency transportation operations environment linked to university laboratories for real-world development, testing and evaluation of near-term technologies and applications;
• a meeting ground for practitioners and researchers to try new approaches to transportation system management;
• a site for private industry to demonstrate and evaluate their prototype technologies under live traffic conditions;
• an ongoing testing ground for California and national ITS efforts.

When fully implemented, the California ATMS Testbed will:

• accelerate deployment through advanced technology research;
• demonstrate deployment readiness of advanced systems;
• implement and evaluate activities for development and operation of an integrated multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency transportation operations system.

The Testbed is an integrated approach to the development and deployment of advanced technologies in the operation and management of urban transportation and is based on real-time, computer-assisted traffic management and communication. Management responsibility for the development and implementation of the Testbed is vested in the UCI Institute of Transportation Studies. The transportation operations system that forms the backbone of the Testbed is structured to integrate network-wide traffic information (both surface street and freeway) in a real-time environment and to provide intelligent computer-assisted decision support to traffic management personnel. The Testbed facility includes area freeways, major arterials and transit and traffic operations centers, as well as dedicated research laboratories at UCI, providing real-time links directly to the Testbed and to the testing facilities at Cal Poly.

TESTBED FACILITY

UCI ATMS LABORATORIES

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