Central Florida Regional Integrated Corridor Management System (R-ICMS)

Case Study Overview

Aimsun helps the Florida Department of Transportation predict and mitigate regional highway congestion

The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is under contract to design, develop, integrate, deploy, and support the Central Florida Regional Integrated Corridor Management System (R-ICMS) for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

The R-ICMS will interface to several other FDOT contracts. The aim of the project was to predict the effectiveness of response plans to mitigate highway congestion at a regional level.

Solution

Decision support is key to the Central Florida Regional Integrated Corridor Management System (R-ICMS); decision support means helping transportation control center operators to detect current incidents and congestion on the regional network, and to develop proactive, on-demand response plans. These response plans can be evaluated against predicted conditions and reviewed for deployment across the central Florida transportation network.

As part of the decision support system, the Aimsun team developed the predictive engine to help operators manage recurring and non-recurring congestion conditions. Requests for evaluations are simulated in real-time and then scored and ranked based on different traffic performance metrics so that operators can choose the best response plan. The simulations find the best responses by evaluating the benefits of the different combinations of re-routed traffic along pre-defined routes.

The Signal Optimization Tool allows Traffic Engineers to test and optimize the signal timing plans and corridors throughout the network. Prior to approval, the system runs simulations in an offline environment for a final analysis of the new timings, which includes incurred demand associated with the optimized timings and improved travel times.

The project is initially centered on Interstate 4, a major east-west corridor which travels cardinal northeast-southwest in the region. It will develop a modular approach that is initially focused on the Orlando region, but it will be scalable to the whole of FDOT District 5.

As the set of rules by which the data from local agencies are converted into actions, the decision support system reviews and evaluates current and predicted traffic conditions in the central Florida transportation network. This helps traffic management center operators make smart decisions in managing both recurring and non-recurring congestion conditions.

DSS components include an Expert Rules Engine (ERE), a Predictive Engine (PRE), and an Evaluation Engine (EVE).

The Aimsun solution, also referred to as the Predictive Engine or PRE, analyzes and predicts the effectiveness of suggested response plans.

The core responsibilities of the DSS are as follows:

• Monitor, evaluate, and respond to reoccurring congestion along the arterial network.
• Evaluate and respond to non-recurring congestion on Interstate 4 within the identified network.
• Evaluate and respond to non-recurring congestion on arterial roadways within the identified network.

ICMS functionalities and objectives are the following:

• Receive live and historical data from traffic and transportation-related systems and operations in the region.
• Provide the status of devices and performance of roadway and transit network within the region of interest.
• Analyze infrastructure status data to determine the availability of infrastructure components and/or systems to use in corridor improvement strategies and response plans in the region.
• Analyze collected data to determine transportation performance, potential corridor improvement strategies, and responses to traffic events and congestion.
• Evaluate the potential benefit of implementing corridor improvement strategies and associated response plans through simulation in real-time and offline.
• Evaluate the impact of enacted corridor improvement strategies and associated response plans in real-time and offline.
• Provide stakeholders with the capability to provide and receive transportation-related data.
• Present stakeholders with transportation-related analysis, and corridor improvement and response plan recommendations in an interactive real-time manner.