ITS Research Program, UW

Automatic Vehicle Location:
An Advanced Public Transportation System

Sponsors:

TransNow (U.S. Department of Transportation)
Washington State Department of Transportation

Description:

This project will take real-time data gathered by both a state DOT and a city transit agency and integrate them in a Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) prototype. This system will show bus locations and freeway congestion in a single display. The prototype will combine real-time Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data from Seattle Metro and real-time freeway congestion data from the Washington State Department of Transportation's Traffic Systems Management Center (TSMC).

At the time of this proposal, Metro used AVL data soley for internal fleet management. With the completion of this project, we have demonstrated that the same source data that drives Metro's management system can be repackaged for traveler information services, without affecting Metro's existing use of the data. This model is one which, if pursued as a regional strategy, will lead to significantly enhanced regional cooperation through a rich, open network of ITS resources. The diagram below is a representation of the APTS prototype based on Metro's AVL data.