We have enhanced and "tuned" SmartAHS and SHIFT to address a wide variety of functional and user needs. SmartAHS has become an important microsimulation tool for design, analysis and evaluation of AHS - and "pre-AHS" or AHS deployment - concepts and scenarios in dimensions of system performance (i.e., throughput and travel time), safety and comfort. The SmartAHS/Hybrid Systems Tools Interface Format (SHIFT) is the basis for SmartAHS, and it is the general hybrid systems simulator for user-defined AHS architectures.

The report quantitatively addresses conspicuity of highway features, particularly in work zones, from the perspective of driver detection and driver decision making. The study focuses on evaluating the detection process, selecting and exercising human perception-acquisition models suitable for quick running and larger scale microsimulations to evaluate system effectiveness of pre-Automated Highway System (AHS) driver-assist systems. The report describes this process and provides a detection example of a driver-assist collision avoidance model.

This project was originally conceived and executed to deliver a proof-of-concept of a near-term “cooperative vehicle-highway system” using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging system to significantly improve the reliability of rear-end truck-based forward collision warning (FCW) systems. A hardware apparatus was developed but proved difficult and relatively costly to design and prototype; however, one set of RFID apparatus was delivered by our Raytheon subcontractor to PATH, then it was tested at PATH. Because of range limitations it did not perform to the extent that it could conceivably enhance FCW systems.

At the time this work was being conducted, the emergent TO 5217 dealing with Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) was beginning, and an idea – curve overspeed warning – was inspired by the generalization of “look-ahead” within this project. The work under this project, therefore, was transformed into conceiving and the start of implementing such a system of dynamic road-curve assistance and, to complement TO 5217, to investigate some of the test results. In the end, this system was deemed to be practicable and was in fact further investigated in TO 5217 and TO 6217.

We report Year 1 results from a two-year project to develop a computer simulation, evaluation and visualization "toolbox", SmartBRT, to describe and evaluate operational aspects of bus rapid transit (BRT) concepts in order to aid decision-making. In conceiving and developing SmartBRT, we have maintained two objectives: 1. To provide FTA, Caltrans and local decision-makers with a rigorous and defensible, yet intuitive BRT operation evaluation method along with a general purpose BRT simulator/communication tool; and 2. To provide example applications of SmartBRT to actual BRT concepts and to document these applications in a "cookbook" manner to allow the widest dissemination of the "toolbox" to the practitioner community. In order to accomplish these objectives, our "toolbox" provides "hooks" for stakeholders - compelling visualizations for local decision-makers, interfaces to conventional traffic modeling tools for the transportation engineering community (and others on the FTA team), interfaces to planning tools for transportation planners, powerful analytical tools for BRT concept developers and researchers, and short-term results for all the potential constituency above.

This PATH Research Report covers the (Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration) VII California Development and Deployment (Task Order6217) efforts beginning in 2008 and concluding June 30, 2009. This is a successor to the report for TO 5217and reports theapplications-oriented research subsequent to that work.

The report is organized by a synopsis of the background and reasons for the VII California project, then it summarizes some of the antecedent (TO 5217) work: the "Innovative Mobility Showcase" (2005), which established the architecture and, importantly the applications (curve overspeed warning, probe messaging)) and the underlying testbed and enablers (High Accuracy National Differential GPS).

The Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance (CICAS) program is a multi-year, cooperative research program including federal, state, academic, and industry partners. The goal of the research program is to use ITS technologies to address the problem of intersection crashes. The program is funded through an 80/20 cost share, typically split between the U.S. Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) and a local state D.O.T. The program began in 2003, and has been divided into three functional segments based on crash type. The largest programmatic segment is CICAS-V (Violation) which is led by CAMP, with support from researchers at Virginia Tech, and aims to address the problem of straight crossing path collisions which tend to be the result of stop sign or stop light violators. A second programmatic segment is CICAS-SSA (Stop Sign Assist) which is led by the Minnesota D.O.T., with support from researchers at the University of Minnesota, and aims to address the problems associated with crossing or entering a high-speed, rural road from a stop sign at a minor road. The final programmatic segment is CICAS-SLTA (Signalized Left Turn Assist) which is lead by Caltrans, with support from the California PATH Program (Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways) at the University of California, Berkeley. This CICAS-SLTA segment aims to address crashes caused by vehicles making left turns at signalized intersections where there is no protected left-turn signal.

This report focuses on the activities related to the CICAS-SLTA program segment. It builds upon work that was performed during earlier segments (Task Orders 5600, 5601 and 6607) which included the previous Intersection Decision Support (IDS) project and CICAS. The CICAS-SLTA project is currently continuing research in the areas of sensor testing, field data collection, human factors data collection and testing, and warning algorithm design and simulation. The project aimes scheduled to lead to the design of a Field Operational Test (FOT) ready system and detailed FOT work plan, depending on the success of this and a subsequent effort.