How Tampa Was First to Launch an Ambitious Connected Vehicle Deployment for USDOT

How Tampa Was First to Launch an Ambitious Connected Vehicle Deployment for USDOT

The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) provides local, toll-based transportation services in the Tampa Bay community. More than 100,000 travelers rely on their transportation solutions every day. THEA designed and operates the Selmon Reversible Express Lanes (REL), the world’s first reversible tollway. It’s an innovative solution that reduces rush-hour congestion in downtown Tampa. Innovation has always been important to THEA.

It was the REL that helped Tampa to become one of three sites in the nation to be selected for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program. Every morning 8,000 to 10,000 commuters use the REL from Brandon (a bedroom community) to downtown Tampa, providing a liable participant base. The program seeks to spur innovation of connected vehicle applications. The other two sites were New York City and the Interstate 80 corridor in Wyoming.

THEA assembled an implementation team that included HNTB, Siemens, the University of South Florida Center for Urban Transportation Research, Global-5 Communications, and Autostrata. Other key partners include the Florida Department of Transportation, the City of Tampa, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) and Hillsborough Community College.

Goals

The Tampa Connected Vehicle Pilot aimed to improve traffic safety for vehicles and pedestrians, and to decrease the commute time in Tampa’s Central Business District (CBD). THEA wanted to determine if connected vehicle technology could play a major role in reducing collisions and improving traffic flow during peak hours in the areas that transition from expressway to surface streets.

Traffic Conditions

The deployment program was designed to address several traffic conditions in Tampa’s CBD. Several of the conditions centered around one road that is unique to the city: the REL and Meridian Avenue.

The REL was designed to address urban congestion during morning and evening commutes. The section of highway is a big sweeping curve that ends at a busy intersection in downtown Tampa. REL traffic flows downtown in the morning and reverses in the afternoon.

Morning backups

Traffic backs up about a mile on the REL during the morning commute, causing significant slowdowns that result in rear-end collisions. The collisions create further delays, compounding the problem.

Wrong-way entries

Because the lanes are reversible, drivers sometimes enter the REL the wrong way. Even with warning signage posted, drivers turn onto the lane and go in the wrong direction at the wrong time of the day. These wrong-way collisions are nearly always fatal.

Public transportation

Downtown traffic congestion can prevent transit buses from reaching their stops on time, causing them to fall behind schedule. Drivers in a hurry often turn in front of Tampa’s electric streetcars — multi-ton vehicles that can’t stop to avoid a collision.

Traffic flow

While the REL has improved traffic flow, downtown Tampa becomes highly congested during peak hours. Traffic backups have economic and environmental implications that affect the Tampa Bay area.

Approach 

The Tampa Connected Vehicle Pilot involved installing onboard units (OBUs) in over 1,000 participant vehicles, including private cars, buses, and streetcars. The OBUs communicated with other vehicles and with roadside units (RSUs) that were installed in 44 downtown locations. The goal is to show how to prevent collisions and improve traffic flow by implementing ultra-fast dedicated short range communication (DSRC) between vehicles and RSUs.

We deployed several applications in participant vehicles, designed to inform drivers of traffic conditions or warn them of dangers. The applications included:

• Forward collision warning (FCW)
• Emergency electronic brake light warning (EEBL)
• Intersection movement assist (IMA)
• End-of-ramp deceleration warning (ERDW)
• Wrong-way entry warning (WWE)

Autostrata was brought in to lead the OBU integration and installation. This involved validating, integrating and installing the onboard units. Autostrata also sourced all of the OBU hardware and conducted a battery of tests with the suppliers, to ensure that the technology would work in a real world setting.

Technology Solutions

Visual warnings

In all prior national CV deployments, OBUs only used tones for notifications. Every notification used the same tone, and drivers didn’t know what the warnings meant — if they were about to get rear-ended or if they were making a wrong turn.

Autostrata saw an opportunity to create a visual display for the driver, so they would know exactly what the warning was about. We developed visual notifications that displayed on original-equipment grade replacement rearview mirrors. The displays mimicked standard traffic signs (speed limits, wrong-way, etc.) so that drivers would immediately recognize the warning without needing to learn a new system.

This opened up a whole new type of driver feedback for connected vehicle deployments.

Forward collision warning (FCW)

FCW warns the driver of an impending rear-end collision with another vehicle ahead. The application uses data received from other vehicles to determine if a forward collision is imminent. FCW advises drivers to take action to avoid or mitigate accidents.

Emergency electronic brake light (EEBL) warning

EEBL enables a vehicle to broadcast a self-generated emergency brake event to surrounding vehicles. Receiving vehicles determine the relevance of the event and, if appropriate, provide a warning to the driver to avoid a rear-end crash. This application is particularly useful when a driver’s line of sight is obstructed by other vehicles or bad weather conditions.

Intersection movement assist (IMA)

IMA warns the driver when it isn’t safe to enter an intersection because of the likelihood of a collision with other vehicles. This application can provide collision warning information to the driver to improve their awareness of vehicles on conflicting approaches.

End-of-ramp deceleration warning (ERDW)

As the traffic on the REL backs up during the morning commute, sudden slowdowns cause collisions, compounding the backup and creating additional delays.

The RSUs continually monitor the end of the traffic queue by listening for the messages coming from the cars. There are three dynamic speed zones of 40 MPH, 30 MPH, and 20 MPH. When the queue is long, the zones are expanded for drivers to slow down sooner. When traffic is normal, the zones are shortened.

When a driver hits one of the zones, the RSU communicates to the OBU, and the OBU displays a recommended speed limit icon in the mirror — either 40, 30, or 20 MPH — instructing the driver to slow down more gradually, reducing collisions and improving traffic flow.

Wrong-way entries

The wrong-way application on the OBU detects when a vehicle is beginning to turn the wrong way, and gives a visual and audible warning. If the vehicle continues to enter the wrong way, a second warning is given as well.

As soon as a car enters the wrong way, the RSUs broadcast warning messages downstream to approaching vehicles going the right way. This alerts drivers (on the rear view mirror) to watch for wrong-way vehicles so they can avoid a potential collision.

Over-the-air software updates

As with other software applications, OBU updates need to be regularly released to keep the software current and bug-free. To avoid the inconvenience of in-person maintenance, OBU firmware is updated over the air as vehicles pass within range of the RSUs. OBUs also send their data logs to the RSU to be collected for analysis.

The Autostrata Advantage

Installing OBUs in more than 1,000 privately and publicly-owned vehicles is an enormous job that demands automotive expertise with hundreds of makes and models of vehicles. Autostrata was a good fit for this project, because we’re an aftermarket company that specializes in integrating new technologies into every variety of vehicle. Tampa needed their sample to reflect typical rush hour traffic — they couldn’t use a
single fleet of one type of vehicle.

THEA hired Autostrata because
they needed an integrator that could be an
innovative problem solver with a vision for
achieving the end goal. “We needed somebody
who could figure out how to get these onboard
units into vehicles, get them out in the street
and get them generating data,” said Bob Frey,
project manager for the CV pilot at Tampa
Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA).
“We needed a company that could think on
their feet, work with us and avoid potential
pitfalls before we got there, as opposed to just
blindly following the scope of services.”

Unprecedented collaboration

Tampa’s connected vehicle deployment required three OBU suppliers to work together toward a common goal. These suppliers are normally competitors, and successful collaboration wasn’t a given. Autostrata created an unprecedented collaborative environment among the suppliers by focusing on the mutual benefits of a successful deployment.

At the initiative of Autostrata, key personnel lived and worked in Tampa for the duration of the project, so that they could meet frequently and have a full contextual understanding of the project’s challenges. The frequent, in-person meetings and workshops developed personal relationships that created trust and strong collaboration among competitors.

Optimized installations

Autostrata performs installations with a consistent, assembly line mentality, and we use installation time reduction studies to identify and eliminate wasted time and redundancies. At the beginning of the Tampa installation phase, each vehicle was in the shop for about three or four hours. After designing the time reduction study, we reduced installation time by 50 percent. Rapid vehicle turns are a vital capability for large scale deployments such as the Tampa CV Pilot.

The Result

THEA was determined to deploy on time and within the timeframes that USDOT had established. Tampa was the first out of three sites to deploy, and the only one to deliver on time. “Autostrata played a big part in getting that done,” said Bob Frey. “We did stuff that's never been done before, such as over-the-air updates at speeds of 55 miles an hour.

“There are a lot of companies that I've dealt with that wouldn't have been able to operate without a very detailed scope of services,” Frey said. “And for research and innovation, it's very difficult to operate under those environments.”

About Autostrata

Autostrata is the nation's leading integrator for connected vehicle deployments. We understand how vehicles interact with SmartCity infrastructures and have deep expertise and experience in connected vehicle and ADAS technologies. We don’t just provide the components — we deliver a fully integrated, data-producing ready-to-go system for vehicles of all sizes and types.

Autostrata Connected Vehicle Deployment Vehicle Integration Services

No other company is as turn-key in handling the breadth of connected vehicle services that Autostrata provides. We understand the technology and we have the experience to run an entire vehicle-side deployment from start to finish.

Consider Autostrata as your go-to resource to break it all down, and systematically handle your technology deployment from start to finish. We’ll provide you with the same expertise that has earned awards for our clients, and that makes our roads safer today.