New York Implements a Centrally Managed Transit Signal Priority System

摘要

Transit Signal Priority (TSP) systems have largely been deployed using localizedcommunications between the vehicle and the intersection for which priority treatment isdesired. This has been accomplished using a wide variety of short range, wirelesscommunications technologies requiring an infrastructure at the intersection and equipment onthe vehicles. Such an infrastructure can be costly and in a City such as New York, with thedensity of intersections (there are over 12,400 intersections connected to the central system)deployment of TSP is cost prohibitive.During the past 3+ years, New York City has invested in the deployment of a city-wide,wireless network, dubbed NYCWiN, which provides ubiquitous wireless communications forboth vehicles and the traffic controllers. This paper describes a TSP system being deployedby New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) that eliminates the need forlocalized TSP infrastructure by leveraging the existing in-vehicle systems to provide locationbased TSP request generation which originates within the vehicle and is transmittedwirelessly to the Traffic Management Center (TMC). The TMC can then validate the request,apply a set of business rules developed by NYCDOT, and transmit a specific TSP requestmessage to the Traffic Controllers using the same wireless network.Since the transit vehicles are now being purchased and equipped with on-board automaticvehicle location systems, automated fare systems, traveler information systems, and vehiclemonitoring systems, adding another on-board “sub-system” to manage the TSP requestseliminates the need for the costly intersection based infrastructure.This paper describes the design of the centrally managed TSP system and the adaptations tothe National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol (NTCIP) to support thisapproach.This project started in July of 2010 and was in testing as of September, 2011, and is expectedto be completed by the end of the year - including operational tests on a route in lowerManhattan.