HighLight Heading
June 2006
Intersection, evacuation research featured at ITS Minnesota annual meeting
Craig Shankwitz
Shashi Shekhar
ITS Minnesota’s 12th Annual Meeting and Information Exchange featured a range of presentations highlighting new technologies under development to improve safety and efficiency. CTS is a founding member of ITS Minnesota, the state chapter of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
The day-long event featured presentations by researchers and professionals from the University of Minnesota, Mn/DOT and other state transportation agencies, and the Federal Highway Administration. In addition, attendees had the opportunity to meet with vendors and consultants involved in ITS-related transportation fields throughout the day.
The first session of the day focused on the federal government’s Vehicle Infrastructure Initiative (VII), which aims to integrate in-vehicle sensors and displays with infrastructure-based systems to improve safety. Craig Shankwitz, director of the Intelligent Vehicles Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, showed a VII application in the Intersection Decision Support (IDS) system being developed by his group in cooperation with other state departments of transportation. Greg Larson of Caltrans highlighted VII efforts under way in California, and Dick Schnake of technology vendor TransCore outlined technical issues involved in making VII a reality.
The next session explored the implications of the new federal transportation package, SAFETEA-LU, for ITS research and operations. Jim McCarthy, traffic operations engineer in the FHWA’s Minnesota office, was joined at the podium by Assistant County Administrator Marthand Nookala of Hennepin County.
In the luncheon presentation, ITS America chairman Martin Capper praised the Minnesota ITS community as a national leader in developing new tools and techniques and putting them into practice on a statewide level.
After lunch, evacuation planning and traffic management took center stage, with University of Minnesota computer science and engineering professor Shashi Shekhar explaining his newly developed evacuation planning algorithm, which promises to make emergency evacuations of large numbers of people faster. John Barton of the Texas DOT gave a firsthand account of the tremendous challenges faced by state agencies on the Gulf Coast during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Finally, Daryl Taavola showcased the latest developments in Minnesota’s evacuation traffic management plan, including the incorporation of Shekhar’s recent findings.
In the final session, three Mn/DOT speakers reviewed implementations of ITS technology under the Minnesota Guidestar program. Nick Thompson gave an update of the successful MnPASS automated tolling system now in use on I-394; Mark Nelson presented ITS deployments in several Mn/DOT districts outside the Twin Cities metro area; and Ray Starr told how Mn/DOT is participating in several federal ITS initiatives.