Everything is coming together. As cities look beyond the nearest green light to solve critical traffic challenges, they seek sophisticated, integrated systems that can help facilitate better outcomes. GTT empowers these cities with cutting-edge technology that not only delivers industry-leading priority control capabilities, but integrates tightly with existing vehicle and intersection systems to give stakeholders the critical information required to demonstrate a solid return on investment.
When you’re in charge of transporting millions of passengers on thousands of buses, introducing a new system with a broad scope can get very expensive very quickly. So, it’s no surprise that transit stakeholders in large metropolitan areas were interested when GTT offered a way to save millions of dollars with the implementation of TSP.
The infrastructure for an efficient transportation system was in place. The cities had invested significantly in public transportation and traffic management technology. The challenge for GTT was to develop highly integrated, robust, feature-rich TSP solutions that utilized existing vehicle and intersection capabilities to avoid unnecessary duplication of equipment and associated short- and long-term costs.
Based on this collaborative effort, GTT has introduced two new solutions to our Opticom™ TSP portfolio
Opticom™ Centralized:
Opticom™ Centralized is a software solution designed to run on off-the-shelf computer platforms and utilize 3rd party communication networks between the vehicle and infrastructure to provide TSP.
The vehicle software contains advanced (patent application pending) algorithms that automatically and dynamically compensate for a variety of situations (including urban canyon effects, variable and unpredictable communication network delays, time of day variations, etc.) to provide precise TSP even under the most adverse conditions. The back office software (based on GTT’s award winning Central Management Software) receives requests from these vehicles, performs the required validation based on user requirements, and then routes the requests either directly to the intersection or to the city’s Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) for further conditioning. The CMS also provides extensive reporting to measure system performance.
This system, first introduced as a proof of concept in early 2012, has been in full operation since early 2013, meeting all expectations. Stay tuned for more details.
GTT has also produced a portable version of this product for demonstration purposes. Customers simply identify the demo intersections and within a few hours are able to witness the system in operation in their city.
Opticom™ Universal Intersection:
The Opticom™ Universal Intersection is a software-based TSP solution that augments the capabilities of existing on-board transit AVL systems, utilizes existing third-party communications networks between the vehicle and intersection, and takes advantage of intersections already equipped with the Opticom™ Model 764 Multimode Phase Selector.
The Opticom™ vehicle software, designed to reside on the existing transit AVL on-board computer, acts as a gateway between the on-board AVL and the Opticom™ priority control intersection, while also managing the 3rd party communication link. The Opticom™ Multimode equipped intersection receives TSP requests from the on-board AVL over the 3rd party communication network while simultaneously processing EVP and/or TSP requests via standard Opticom™ Infrared and/or GPS receivers at the intersection in a fully integrated and seamless fashion – truly demonstrating the power of the Opticom™ Multimode platform. As with the standard Opticom™ product, the Central Management Software provides full management and reporting capabilities for the integrated system.
Additional Transit Capabilities:
In addition to the new products, the standard Opticom™ Infrared and GPS products continue to provide a rich feature set designed to meet the needs of transit agencies, including time-plans, evacuation planning, turn-signal dependent mode, vehicle logging with in-barn communication and more.
For more information on these and other Opticom™ Transit capabilities or to discuss your transit challenges, please contact your local GTT representative.
