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Volpe Journal Winter 2000Previous Section | Contents | Next Section 
 Across the country State and Local Agencies are applying innovative technologies and methods to tough transportation challenges. As a national center for innovation, the Volpe Center will be a valuable partner. The Maryland State Highway Administration is grappling with the future. Amidst a booming economy and a growing population, the Maryland highway system has experienced a 60 percent increase in use over the past 20 years, resulting in paralyzing roadway congestion. State planners estimate that the future growth in traffic will be so great as to outpace any realistic hope of expanding capacity solely through the construction or expansion of roadways. Consequently, the state has intensified its efforts to increase the efficiency of the existing road network through the application of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)-an array of traffic sensors, connected to a statewide operations center, that allow state highway personnel to monitor traffic conditions, respond to traffic incidents, and alert travelers to roadway congestion and hazardous travel conditions. When the state began to explore ways to expand its existing ITS infrastructure, it found that, while the rapidly emerging field of ITS presents a wide variety of options, many of the private firms offering solutions were also potential vendors. Concerned with objectivity and critical thinking, the state desired impartial input from experts outside of the contractor community. "We needed independent thinking," said Alisoun Moore1 of the State of Maryland, "That was critical." Maryland found the independent thinking it needed at the Volpe Center. The Center's Policy and Technology Analysis Division helped the state develop a comprehensive ITS strategy that makes the best use of existing resources while anticipating future developments. Capitalizing on the growing demand for telecommunications infrastructure, the state issued a solicitation allowing communications firms to locate facilities, such as fiber-optic cables, within a highway right-of-way, in exchange for communication infrastructure or services to the state ITS network. Using its knowledge of ITS, communication networks, and telecommunications industry deregulation, the Center helped the state to customize this solicitation to encourage industry responses. When the time came to solicit concepts for a statewide traffic management center, Maryland again turned to the Volpe Center, this time to participate on a proposal evaluation team that also included representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, the University of Maryland, and the Southwest Research Institute, an independent nonprofit organization. Under the direction of State Highway Administration Program Manager Mike Zezeski, the evaluation team assessed alternative design concepts, submitted by two contractor teams, against broad system requirements and studied how desirable elements from alternative proposals might be combined. The state called the cooperative development of comprehensive system requirements among state and private partners, "very successful," due in part to the Volpe Center's involvement. "The Volpe Center proved to be an excellent partner," says Moore, "very detailed, extremely helpful."
New Challenges The ITS project in Maryland is not an isolated example. Throughout the United States, the transportation landscape is changing. Emerging technologies-Intelligent Transportation Systems, for example-provide new tools for addressing local transportation challenges. Meanwhile, recent changes in Federal legislation have increased the autonomy of state and local transportation officials, allowing them to pursue innovative solutions to transportation problems. As a result, state and local governments are now transportation leaders, and the projects they implement serve as crucibles of innovation. State and local agencies now have a growing influence on the Nation's transportation system-developing new partnerships, finding new ways to do business, and sharing their experiences to point the way for others. These agencies are in the best position to understand and meet emerging transportation challenges, because they know how those issues relate to the social, physical, and economic fabric of their communities. This familiarity is an important asset to the implementation of new concepts and technologies that bear great promise; but the implementation of those innovations takes hard work and collaboration. Increasingly, transportation community leaders recognize that only by sharing ideas, information, and resources will any agency-Federal, state, or local-realize the full potential of any innovation. To this end, many state and local agencies have been broadening and strengthening their relationships with their transportation community peers and with private industry. While public-private partnerships can complement existing agency capabilities in many areas, collaborations with other organizations dedicated to the public interest can help state and local agencies to more effectively fulfill their new public sector roles. As a result, many agencies have established new partnerships with public sector resources-resources with experience, objectivity, and a broad perspective. New Opportunities for Partnership This is where the Volpe Center can play a role. For thirty years, the Center has been a partner in innovation. By mandate, it is a national resource available to all: Federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector. Historically, the Center's resources have been tapped primarily by Federal clients, such as the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, the Volpe Center has developed a unique intermodal perspective and an unparalleled understanding of advanced systems technology. Even more, the staff at the Center understands the process of innovation. States and localities appreciate this fact in growing numbers, and are taking advantage of what the Center has to offer: technical know-how, a network of public and private expertise, and solid advice. When those agencies call upon the Volpe Center, at any level of effort, they tap the cumulative knowledge and experience of the past three decades. Lessons learned on previous projects are routinely transferred to new challenges and different modes. As the Volpe Center's Leisa Moniz put it, "I can take what I've learned in Seattle and bring it to Atlanta."
As recognition of these advantages grows, state and local governments are embarking on many new partnerships, working with the Volpe Center to do everything from strategic planning to project evaluation. The State of Florida asked the Center to help it assess the strategic advantages of a spaceport authority; Corpus Christi, Texas is working with the Center to demonstrate an advanced paratransit concept; and the State of New Mexico recently entered into a 25-year partnership with the Center to evaluate the economic benefits of a new approach to road building. In each of these instances, the Volpe Center tailors its approach to account for the capabilities of the client agencies and to complement their existing relationships with other agencies and the private sector. The Center's involvement in such partnerships may also spur a broader type of collaboration. As an information broker, the Center can help transfer knowledge among state and local agencies nationwide; it can also facilitate important interstate cooperation among states and municipalities. Partnerships among state and local governments are becoming increasingly important as they strive to achieve compatibility across neighboring jurisdictions, reap savings by consolidating their buying power, and cooperate in the ongoing enhancement and maintenance of their transportation systems. As a national resource-an information broker, a partner in innovation-the Volpe Center can foster and support these partnerships. Already the Center has contributed to many projects where state and local governments are taking the lead in innovation. Volpe Center efforts have helped state and local agencies to apply lessons learned across the country to specific problems; staff members have systematically evaluated pioneering efforts for the benefit of all; and the Center has facilitated the implementation of innovative new technologies and systems. The project summaries presented below describe some recent partnerships, but the most important innovations may be ahead of us. The following pages are the introduction to a new era-an era of collaboration, cooperation, and partnership.
Cleveland, Virginia, New York, Los Angeles Putting Smart Cards to Work Many of the Center's recent collaborations with state and local agencies involve the implementation of "smart cards"-wallet-sized cards with embedded silicon chips capable of storing information and communicating with external devices. Smart cards store value and information, allowing the user to purchase products and services or enter controlled access networks and facilities. Because most smart cards actually store value and do not require authentication, they may never replace credit cards for large purchases; however, their simplicity and ease of use makes them especially useful for small, everyday transactions that often require the use of exact change: transit fares, parking fees, pay phones, tolls, and food purchases. Because the elimination of cash transactions can significantly reduce the administrative and accounting costs of fare collection, transit providers throughout the country are looking at making smart cards the basis of cashless fare systems. From D.C. to L.A., transit riders may soon be able to leave their coins at home and board a bus or train by simply waving a card in front of an electronic sensor. Unlike turnstiles or fare boxes, there is no design standard for transit-related smart card systems. While this variability makes it complicated for transit agencies to implement a system, the technology allows for a tremendous flexibility in relation to localized conditions. One city might allow commuters to use smart cards for the payment of ferry charges, while another might incorporate transit, toll, and parking capabilities on a single card. Cleveland University Students Ride Smart The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority recently began a partnership with Cleveland State University to develop a multi-use smart card system. The organizations envisioned one card that would work both as a transit pass and as a way to pay for student charges. Because the technology is so new, and is changing so fast, the RTA found it difficult to determine their needs and write a comprehensive scope of work; as with many projects involving new technology, a failure to establish comprehensive system requirements before hiring a private contractor can result in an unintended expansion of the work, or "scope creep." To ensure they developed an efficient, regionally oriented, and cost-effective system, the Cleveland RTA contacted the Volpe Center's Infrastructure Protection and Operations Division for assistance. They came to the right place. The Division has extensive experience with the implementation of regional smart card systems, and Division Chief Mike Dinning chairs the Transportation Work Group of the Smart Card Forum, an industry-wide group that includes over 200 organizations in the public and private sector. Not only do Dinning and his colleagues know smart card technology; they also understand the institutional and economic factors that contribute to successful implementation in a public-sector context. Their clients in Cleveland have found this experience to be extremely valuable, and are on their way to developing a multi-use smart card system. In the future, a CSU student might use a single multi-purpose card to ride the bus to the university, buy lunch, purchase a biology textbook, and pay her lab fee, all without a single penny in her pocket. Smart Card Projects Nationwide Many other transportation agencies have turned to the Center for assistance with the development and implementation of smart card systems. Staff members are active participants in groups such as the ITS America Electronic Payment Systems Task Force; this participation keeps them abreast of the latest technological developments as well as implementation and institutional issues. The Volpe Center is helping the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to evaluate the regional benefits of multimodal electronic payment systems that combine transit fares, highway tolls, and parking fees. The Center's comprehensive analysis of these two projects address technology costs, transportation impacts, and implementation. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has asked the Volpe Center for technical assistance with implementing an electronic payment system for paratransit clients. The success of this project has prompted the city to study the possibility of developing a coordinated electronic payment system that includes non-transportation services such as human service providers. The Volpe Center is also providing key technical and planning assistance to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. Staff members are helping to develop a regional strategy to broaden the smart card program of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. WMATA implemented a smart card system that includes 40,000 "contactless" cards that can communicate with a sensor without being swiped through a reader or inserted into a slot. The Center's involvement will help local agencies explore potential partnerships with WMATA, so that a single card may be used for access to buildings and computers, parking, and other functions. Corpus Christi Autonomous Dial-a-Ride Transit
In Corpus Christi, the Regional Transportation Authority has been exploring ways to use technology to provide more responsive and efficient transit service. Autonomous Dial-A-Ride Transit is one way to improve the efficiency of dial-a-ride transit services. As the name implies, dial-a-ride transit is an on-demand service, often in a bus or van, for customers who telephone their trip requests to a dispatching center. Riders primarily live in low-density areas not served by fixed-route transit, but dial-a-ride transit may also be used in more densely populated areas to serve customers, such as the elderly or disabled, not adequately served by conventional transit. Because dial-a-ride services involve complex trips with multiple origins and destinations, efficient routing and consolidation of trips is essential for minimizing the per-trip cost. Since its introduction in the late 1960s, transit agencies have sought to increase the efficiency of dial-a-ride transit through the use of automated vehicle routing that would increase the number of riders per trip, thereby reducing the cost of individual service. Unfortunately, most dispatching remains computer assisted, rather than fully automated, and dial-a-ride transit services cost an average of $13 per trip, a figure that makes the service marginally competitive with conventional taxi service. In combination with other factors, there is a technical reason for this inefficiency: by the time demand reaches a level high enough to bring down the marginal cost of service, it also brings down the computer. Volpe Center analysts who have studied conventional dial-a-ride transit attribute this technical inefficiency to centralized and manually operated control centers. In contrast, Autonomous Dial-a-Ride Transit (ADART) technology, developed by Dr. Robert Dial of the Volpe Center, encompasses a much higher level of automation, consolidating scheduling, fare collection, credit verification, and vehicle routing into a single automated system. Registered users simply call the on-board vehicle computer and enter their location and destination via a touch-tone keypad; the ADART system then develops an itinerary and states a pick-up and arrival time. When the vehicle reaches that point in the itinerary, the on-board computer displays the address and directions for quick reference by the driver. Because new users must identify a payment method when they register, there is no need for on-board fare collection. More importantly, computer-generated itineraries can dramatically improve the trip productivity, especially for those trips from dispersed residential areas to a fixed-transit station, a commercial or employment center, or a transfer location. The Volpe Center's ADART design uses off-the-shelf computer and communications components to compose a system with emergent qualities of efficiency and improved service. The defining feature of ADART-the feature that enables full automation of the system-is that all dispatching, routing, and scheduling decisions are made by computers on board each vehicle, communicating with each other. These on-board computers assign trips and plan routes optimally among themselves. There is no dispatcher, and the driver's only job is to obey instructions from the vehicle's computer (and drive safely). Consequently, an ADART fleet covers a large service area without any centralized supervision. Like an army of ants, the vehicles accomplish their chore with no one in charge.
The advantages of ADART have prompted many transit systems to evaluate its potential use. In Corpus Christi, the Regional Transportation Authority has begun implementation of an ADART system using funds from the Federal Transit Administration and assistance from the Volpe Center. The first phase of the project, conducted by the Center's Service Assessment Division, addressed the various component technologies (navigation, communication, routing, and scheduling) required by ADART. At the end of this phase, representatives from the Center, FTA, and the RTA concurred that existing technologies met or exceeded requirements for the system. The Volpe Center is now taking ADART to the next level by producing a system capable of operating real vehicles on the streets of a real city. During Phase Two, staff members will produce a prototype version of ADART software for testing and performance analysis; the goal is to have two transit vehicles driving the streets of Corpus Christi "talking" to each other by September 2000. Once these tests have been successfully completed, the full range of ADART subsystems and capabilities will be tested in Phase Three; and full-fledged revenue service will be implemented in Phase Four. Officials at the Corpus Christi RTA are enthusiastic about ADART, and the project has stimulated a great deal of national interest. Inquiries from transit providers nationwide have prompted the RTA to establish a peer-review panel to provide ongoing evaluation. Although the full-fledged introduction of ADART service may take some time, this innovative marriage of advanced technologies-conceptualized and developed by the Volpe Center-shows real promise for improved transit service at reduced cost. And while the benefits of increased routing productivity are not visible to most users, they benefit all potential transit customers. Increased efficiency on recurring trips can help the overall financial health of a transit agency, reducing its reliance on subsidies and allowing it to expand its services in other areas. Atlanta Sharing Resources through an Electronic Redistribution Center Many state and local transportation agencies are seeking to make their systems of purchasing, inventory, and distribution more efficient. Transit agencies, for example, must constantly balance scarce resources between operational needs and the prudence of keeping an adequate supply of supplies and spare parts in stock. One solution to this challenge is an Electronic Redistribution Center, where materials can be purchased from other transit agencies. This type of electronic system facilitates the timely sharing of resources; and ultimately this can help agencies decrease excess inventory and reduce costs. The FTA recently awarded the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) $500,000 to assess whether or not a nationwide Electronic Redistribution Center is a feasible alternative source of repair parts compared to purchase on the open market. MARTA, which will conduct the feasibility study through a contractor, asked the Volpe Center to assist with contract scoping, monitoring, and guidance. The Center will also assess the results of the feasibility study and will work with MARTA and the FTA to determine whether or not further study is merited. New Mexico Highway 44: Spending Money to Save Money In the southwest United States, the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department has just embarked on a new project that may revolutionize the way American highways are built and maintained. The state has contracted a private construction firm to design, manage construction of, and-here's the revolutionary part-guarantee over 100 miles of four-lane highway in the northwest corner of the state. This arrangement, the largest ever of its kind, may save the state almost $90 million over the 20-year life of the guarantee.
The road is New Mexico Highway 44, a two-lane road that runs through table-and-mesa desert from Bloomfield to Bernalillo. Popular with tourists because it provides easy access to the Four Corners area, the road has developed a reputation for dangerous driving conditions; locals have been spotted with bumper stickers pleading: "Pray For Me, I Drive NM 44." While lawmakers in Santa Fe are extremely interested in widening the road to four lanes, state officials estimated that, due to annual fiscal constraints, a traditional construction approach would require 27 years. Instead, the state signed a contract with Koch Industries of Wichita, Kansas, to build 120 miles of four-lane highway by November 30, 2001, using an advanced pavement design that has never before been applied in the United States. For a one-time cost of $62 million, Koch will also warranty the road to sustain a "Pavement Serviceability Rating" of 3.0 along the entire length of the expansion for 20 years and guarantee bridges and drainage features for 10 years. Because the cost of traditional construction and maintenance techniques might have reached $151 million over 20 years, the state estimates that this arrangement will save taxpayers $89 million. The new pavement design is central to the Corridor 44 project. Traditional state-run highway construction projects generally utilize conservative, established designs in order to minimize the taxpayer risk inherent in experimental designs or materials. In this project, the private contractor is assuming the financial risk of the innovative design. Koch may earn a profit if the design works as expected, but taxpayers are protected if it does not. This is why the project is so relevant to highway projects across the country. It promotes innovation by allowing contractors to earn a profit on new designs, while ensuring that taxpayers do not bear the burden of poor designs. While the arrangement provides substantial cost savings, it also requires a much larger initial outlay than traditional, incremental construction of the roadway. The state will finance these up-front costs through the issuance of bonds, secured by projected future Federal highway aid. The state is also meeting its obligation to match Federal funding by using state funds to expand the 21-mile stretch of Highway 44 immediately to the south of the privately contracted stretch.
The nontraditional approach to the Highway 44 Corridor project presents a long list of advantages: the work will be performed much more quickly than the state could do in a traditional manner; new technologies can be implemented without subjecting taxpayers to significant risk; and, because the warranty funds the long-term maintenance of the highway, required maintenance will not be deferred due to pressing needs for road construction elsewhere. Even though these advantages could be very attractive to other state and local agencies across the country, it is important to recognize that the exact benefits and drawbacks of the project will not be known until many years down the road. Because it is so novel, it will be crucial for other state and local agencies interested in this type of approach to understand the differential success of the many different project components. Recognizing the importance of the Highway 44 project, the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department recently signed a 25-year agreement with the Volpe Center to conduct an objective economic evaluation of the project. This effort, part of the state's comprehensive Road Lifecycle Innovative Financing Evaluation (RoadLIFE) initiative, will accomplish two main objectives: it will help New Mexico understand the total costs and benefits of the highway project; and it will highlight the lessons learned for the advantage of New Mexico decision makers as well as other state and local agencies interested in nontraditional approaches to road construction. The Volpe Center is currently developing an objective framework for economic analysis; over the next two decades, staff members will work closely with the state to validate the predicted cost savings and assess the effectiveness of the warranty. The Volpe Center's assessment will help states across the country to decide whether the innovative design elements, construction warranty, and financing used for New Mexico Highway 44 are worth adopting for future highway construction projects. Colorado and Pennsylvania Innovations in Environmental and Facilities Management As they take on more responsibilities, many state agencies are seeking to improve the way they manage their facilities and ensure environmental compliance. State departments of transportation, in particular, are responsible for a vast network of physical facilities and property, including buildings, roads, rights-of-way, and easements. This network of facilities presents serious challenges: agencies must maintain structures, ensure code compliance, manage and acquire real estate, and identify needs for future improvements. State agencies must also address myriad environmental issues linked to those facilities: underground storage tanks, asbestos, runoff, salt storage, and contamination. The tight linkage between facilities and environmental management has prompted some state departments of transportation to seek an integrated information management system that spans many salient areas: facilities management, real estate planning, regulatory compliance, and environmental management. The Colorado Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are two agencies taking a proactive role in facilities and environmental management. To that end, Colorado recently signed an agreement with the Volpe Center to customize the Facilities/Environmental Management Information System to meet their state needs. Negotiations are underway with Pennsylvania for a similar task. This program-developed in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service and used to manage their 40,000 facilities nationwide-is recognized as a world class facilities and environmental management system. The program integrates the management of facilities and assets; projects and contracts; acquisitions and leases; and budget and financing. It can also manage environmental activities related to compliance audits, asbestos, storage tanks, stormwater, energy, pollution prevention, and recycling. Although the existing program is largely tailored to the needs of the Postal Service, the next round of enhancements under development at the Volpe Center will result in a system with widespread application for other Federal, state, and local agencies. Significant enhancements have already been proposed. In particular, states have expressed an interest in expanded inventories of the physical, legal, and logistical parameters of facilities. Such parameters include occupancy by room, organization, and use; parking, accessibility, and security systems; zoning; land use and zoning on surrounding parcels; the condition of the building and major systems; applicable permits; and code violations. The detailed inventories will facilitate expanded real-estate management, especially right-of-way acquisition tracking. A document management component can be integrated into the system to store drawings, plans, warranties, and permits. This information will help officials determine a facility's suitability for current and future needs, prioritize repair and alteration activities, and plan for expansion of transportation infrastructure. In the future, facility data will be acquired through a stand-alone facility profile module currently under development. This module will permit a state to hire a contractor to perform the facility assessment, enter findings into the module, and deliver the results to the state. The assessment can then be uploaded directly into the integrated system. After a field inspector records a piece of information onto her laptop, no further data manipulation will be necessary. A similar stand-alone environmental module allows contractors to record field data from compliance reviews, asbestos surveys, and storage tank investigations. The module will produce a hard-copy survey report, an operations and maintenance plan, and an electronic file for uploading to the integrated system. This process will significantly increase efficiency and reduce the potential for data-entry errors. Plans also call for future integration of Geographic Information System capabilities and access via the Internet. This system, a powerful tool for facilities and environmental management, has attracted the interest of Colorado and Pennsylvania, as well as Federal agencies such as the Department of Commerce and the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. While many management programs are shrink-wrapped and difficult to customize, this system is in the public domain and is amenable to a wide variety of modifications. A user can access the basic system for free and pay only for new features and customization. If multiple agencies collaborate on the development of new features, the individual cost will be even lower, and the benefits greater. Paul Bushueff, Chief of the Automation Technology Division, sees tremendous opportunity for this type of cooperation. He envisions "a collaboration where all participating organizations can benefit from the investments of others, by pooling resources and sharing in the costs of development and maintenance." As a national resource, the Volpe Center is in an ideal position to foster this cooperation across state boundaries. Florida Spaceport Florida: A New Kind of Port Authority
Other states are looking even further into the future, exploring the potential of new modes of transportation. The State of Florida is studying ways to take advantage of anticipated increases in space-related transportation activity. Southern Florida is currently the center of U.S. space transportation activity. In addition to the historical presence of Cape Canaveral, the state possesses geographic conditions favorable to space launches: its position at a relatively low latitude allows rockets to take advantage of the velocity of the earth's rotation, which is greatest at the equator; and its location allows failed launches to crash into water rather than on land. There are limitations to the current launch infrastructure. The U.S. Air Force allocates resources at Cape Canaveral to military launches, exploratory and research missions, and commercial launches, in that priority. Future increases in telecommunications satellites, the possibility of space tourism, and the potential for other economic space activities may result in significantly increased demand for launch resources. The state is concerned that commercial launchers may desert Florida for other locations with launch capabilities, such as South America, Russia, or China. In order to maintain and consolidate Florida's role as a gateway for outer space, state officials established the Spaceport Florida Authority-modeled after existing port authorities-to promote development projects aimed at maximizing the economic potential of the state's space industry. Spaceport advocates have a vision that Florida could become the center for space travel and commerce, and the staging area for both tourist excursions and economic missions (such as space manufacturing or the development of pharmaceutical crystals in zero gravity). Because the forecast for space-related activities is so speculative, before committing to major funding the state legislature and governor's office required an independent, objective assessment of the prospects for the state's space industry. They turned to the Volpe Center to develop a comprehensive plan addressing the transportation, economic, and institutional aspects of a spaceport. The Center is currently researching future opportunities for satellite-based communications, rocket launch activities, space transportation opportunities, and other aspects of space-related industry. The end result will be a strategic plan assessing the prospects for economic development in the following areas: servicing a greater number of commercial launches from Florida; diversification into other space-related businesses, such as satellite design and manufacture; and the creation of cooperative research and development ventures between the private sector and state academic institutions, as a means of developing home-grown expertise. The strategic plan, due for completion by the end of 1999, will also address business development, infrastructure needs, space industry impacts, and the state's institutional needs for accommodating growth in the space industry. Boston Transit Tracking Technology Many state and local agencies are now studying the use of electronic tracking systems for transit, law enforcement, and other applications. Bill Baron and Scott Ardisson of the Volpe Center's Infrastructure Protection and Operations Division developed a prototype vehicle tracking system for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). The system uses Cellular Digital Packet Data communications to transmit location data to the Volpe Center's data fusion center, then displays the locations of the MBTA's vehicles on digital street-level maps through an Internet Web server. The tracking system incorporates a wide variety of advanced systems technologies: global positioning systems, cellular communications, geographic information systems, and data fusion. So how could the MBTA afford to pay the Volpe Center to develop such a complex system for a simple tracking need? Easily, because the basic components of the system had already been developed. Working with the U.S. Military, the Volpe Center had previously created a highly accurate satellite-based "global asset tracking system" to provide in-transit visibility of military goods and equipment. That system, known as INTRANSIT, can record and transmit data from moving vehicles, containers, or personnel worldwide. Subsequently, the Volpe Center has modified the underlying technology to monitor offshore fishing fleets and to manage traffic in the Panama Canal. When the MBTA approached the Center for its small-scale tracking project, Volpe Center staff members already had a mastery of system components and experience tailoring these components to more demanding needs. The Center also understands the tracking challenges specific to the transit industry, having participated in pioneering demonstrations of transit vehicle location technology in the early 1980s. The ability to leverage this previous experience allowed the Center to provide the MBTA with an advanced tracking system at a fraction of what it might have cost otherwise. This savings represents the "Volpe dividend" that arises from the ability to apply 30 years of experience to every project. From strategic planning to evaluation, The real story lies ahead. |
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