Standards: For Transit, By Transit

1. Standards: For Transit, By Transit Eva Lerner-Lam, PresidentPalisades Consulting Group, Inc. Presentation at the1999 Fall Conference of the New York Public Transit Association Saratoga Springs, NY November 17-18, 1999

2. Why Are ITS Standards Important to Transit? • Reduce capital and operating costs (increase benefit/cost of technology) • Increase flexibility (plug-and-play compatibility) • Assist in meeting future funding eligibility requirements

3. What’s Happening to Help Make Transit ITS Standards a Reality? • National Architecture for ITS • “Base” and “Critical” Standards • National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocols • Center-To-Center • Dedicated Short-Range Communications • Location Referencing and Messaging Standard • International ITS Standards • Transit-specific standards: • Bus Vehicle Area Network • Transit Communications Interface Profiles • Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards • Smart Card Standards

4. TCIP is . . . • A “FRAMEWORK” AND A “SUITE OF BUSINESS AREA DATA OBJECTS”. The framework defines how TCIP fits into the ITS and other standards arenas, and the data objects can be specified in procurements by transit agencies to enable data exchange between transit departments and among transit and other traffic and transportation management agencies. • TRANSIT INDUSTRY-DRIVEN. Consensus-based standards developed by the transit industry, facilitated by technical support consultants with both transit and ITS expertise.

5. TCIP is . . . • MOVING QUICKLY. Recently approved for balloting as Recommended Standards by Standards Development Organizations (ITE, NEMA and AASHTO). • IMPETUS FOR A TRANSIT STANDARDS CONSORTIUM. User subgroups were a strong foundation for a permanent consortium.

6. Status of TCIP Standards

7. What does TCIP do? • Refines Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) data flows • Defines a Transit Data (Interface) Dictionary (composed of relevantdata objects) • Defines a Transit Message Set (composed of transit business objects or entities) • Allows flexibility by providing a mechanism for “marshaling” data flows

8. History • Funded by US DOT FTA and Joint Program Office for ITS in October 1996 • Developed as an ITS standard under auspices of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) • The Transit component of the National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol (NTCIP)

9. Unanticipated Odyssey • Began as an “ITS standard”; now firmly rooted in the transit arena • Because of the “information engineering” focus on transit as a business enterprise, and acknowledgement of the different user groups within that enterprise, the project team had solid buy-in on the effort from the transit user community, vendors and agencies alike.

10. PAIS Personal Information Access RTS PMS Parking Intermodal Transportation Parking Service Remote Traveler Transportation Planners Management Provider Support Service Provider PS PS Planning Subsystem ISP EM EMVS Information Emergency Financial Emergency Service Vehicle Institution Management Provider Subsystem TMS TRMS RS Government Transit Traffic Roadway Administrators Subsystem Management Management TRVS Multimodal Transit Vehicle Crossing Subsystem Transit Vehicle Other TRM (J1708/J1587) Tr GMS Transit Garage Management System Recommended by Transit Industry. APTS ITS System Architecture

11. Transit’s Interface Problem APP APP APP APP APP APP

12. TCIP Solution APP APP APP APP APP APP TCIP Object Bus

13. TCIP Architecture C ORE Business Data Scheduling System Control Center On-Board Bus Stop Time Pt. Runcutting/ Dispatch Annunciator GIS Planning Route Architecture Incident Fare Collection Spatial Analysis Blocking Management Unit Rolling Stack VIP Network Analysis Work Rule Policies RT Display Passenger Unit/ Map Database/ Display/Mapping Procedure Radio Network Schedule Adherance APC VMS Roster Comm. Center TCIP "Object" Bus

14. Business Area Subgroups • Passenger Information (PI) • Scheduling/Runcutting (SCH) • Incident Management (IM) • Vehicle On-Board (OB) • Transit Control Center (CC) • Fare Collection (FC) • Traffic Management (TM) • Spatial Representation (SP) • Common Public Transportation Objects (CPT) • Rail Transit Vehicle (RTV) • Paratransit [as yet unfunded] • Dynamic scheduling/transfer connection protection [as yet unfunded] • Transit garage management [as yet unfunded]

15. Integrating TCIP with the ITS National Architecture Transit ITS Data Flows and Deliverables A. Public Transit Vehicles B. PTV to/from TrMS and other transit facilities C. TrMS to/from Other ITS Centers (TMC, EMSC, ISP, selected transit facilities, financial organizations) D. TrMS to/from Kiosks

16. Integrating TCIP with the ITS National Architecture On-Board Fare Collection TCIP Subgroups/Object Transit Control Center Message Sets Scheduling/Runcutting Passenger Information Incident Management Traffic Management Spatial Representation Common Public Transportation Objects

17. Integrating TCIP with the ITS National Architecture TCIP Subgroups/Objects Transit ITS Data Flows and On-Board Deliverables Fare Collection A. Public Transit Vehicles Transit Control Center B. PTV to/from Scheduling/Runcutting TrMS and other transit facilities Passenger Information C. TrMS to/from Other ITS Incident Management Centers (TMC, EMSC, ISP, selected transit facilities, financial organizations) Traffic Management Spatial Representation D. TrMS to/from Kiosks Common Public Transportation Objects

18. TCIP Approach

19. Transit Communications Interface ProfileProject Organization US Department of Transportation FTA/ITS Joint Program Office for ITS Standard Development Organization James Cheeks Institute of Transportation Engineers Project Director Eva Lerner-Lam Palisades Consulting Group, Inc. TCIP Steering Group NTCIP’s TCIP Technical Working Group Isaac Takyi NYC Transit Authority James Cheeks, Eva Lerner-Lam,Polly Okunieff, Isaac Takyi Working Subgroups Technical Project Manager Polly Okunieff ARINC, Inc.

20. Transit Communications Interface ProfilesWithin the ITS Standards Development Structure AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA Individual NTCIP Partner Balloting Groups NTCIP Joint Standards Committee Ed Seymour, Chair NTCIP Standards Review AASHTO, ITE and NEMA Committees Transit Standards Review Group Existing APTA, IEEE and ITE Committees TCIP Technical Working Group Isaac Takyi, Chair Other NTCIP Working Groups TCIP Working Subgroups

21. TCIP Current Status • Framework Standard and first 8 business area standards in final balloting stages (Traffic Management pending final TMDD ballot) • Series of 15 White Papers describing in detail specific approaches and issues • Participation by more than 800 volunteers on the TCIP TWG (transit staff, vendors, consultants, academics) • 6,700 volunteer hours contributed at 53 face-to-face subgroup meetings • Original work plan included 4 regional workshops; completed 11, hosted by transit agencies • All documentation posted at the TCIP Website: www.tcip.org

22. Data Interface Standards, at last • Awakening, not to the problem (which was always present and acknowledged), but to the solution • Rapidly growing sense of empowerment and self-determination by the user community • Strengthened by coordination and cooperation with IEEE Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee

23. The Future • How to fund testing of TCIP and development of more transit standards? • Transit Standards (TS) Consortium • A nationwide, grass-roots, transit industry initiative

24. TSC Mission “To provide a transit industry forum for comprehensive and integrated research, development, testing, training and maintenance of transit standards in order to improve cost effectiveness, customer service and employee satisfaction.”

25. Organizational Structure • Independent, non-profit organization • IRS-certified under Sec. 501 ( c ) 3 • Twelve-member Board of Trustees • Technical Council and Education/Outreach Council • Technical Working Groups for Functional Areas (e.g., data standards, hardware standards, reporting standards, etc.) • Task Committees for specific standards-related activities

26. Member-Driven • Equal representation at all levels of TSC • Operators • Vendors • Other • University Transportation Research Centers • State and local DOT’s • System Integrators • Etc.

27. Funding • Three sources: • Member dues • Grants from governmental agencies • Stakeholder contributions to specific functional areas

28. Status of TSC Effort • White Paper published, December 1997 • First Board constituted and corporate entity legally established, March 1998 • Interim Technical Council constituted and Interim Executive Director appointed, March 1998 • First Annual Meeting, October 4, 1998 • FTA grant for start up activities: June 1999 • Charter Membership Drive until early October 1999 • Second Annual Meeting, October 25, 1999

29. Current Activities • Assisting FTA with planning and programming of all transit standards activities, including ITS standards • Facilitating coordinated transit ITS standards activities involving JPO, ITE, AASHTO, NEMA, SAE, IEEE, TRB and ITSA • TCIP, Other Recommended Practices (e.g., Bus Stop Inventory, Y2K Aftermath, Transit Signal Priority, etc.) • Transit ITS Outreach coordination • Newsletters, email subscriber updates, teleconferences, forums, etc.

30. Future Strategic Alliances • Society of Automotive Engineers • APTA • ITS America • Object Management Group • Open GIS Consortium

31. For more information... TCIP: www.tcip.org TSC: www.tsconsortium.org