AP-G84/04 Best practice in road use data collection, analysis ... - WIM

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Accessed by AR - ARRB TRANSPORT RESEARCH on 04 Feb 2005 Austroads 2004 — 32 — Best Practices in Road Use Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting It is good practice to develop a schedule of standard data and information that are available (such as audited and processed data required for normal RA reporting purposes) and the cost of provision of those data to the public in the required formats (hard copy or electronic copy). A schedule of charges for labour and overheads should also be prepared for non-standard requests that involve utilising RA resources in fulfilling a private or commercial inquiry. Further sources of road use data are available through infrastructure deployed for other purposes. These include WIM data and other data collected under the Austroads program on national performance indicators (Austroads 2001). More recently, SCATS, freeway incident management systems and other Intelligent Transport Systems now also provide ‘cheap’ traffic data efficiently. Commercial organisations also, increasingly, have access to traffic data through the use of tracking systems such as GPS and mobile phone positioning technology. New sources of ITS data will originate, not only from RAs, but also from commercial organisations. The commercial structures of such arrangements (licensing, joint venture) will need to be examined. This may lead further down the path of disaggregating traffic counting into its component activities, i.e. collection, aggregation and dissemination. Already, out-sourcing occurs at the collection level in many RAs. Furthermore, the delivery or dissemination channels for this expanded data and information will include specialist third parties such as the media, Internet and Telematics service providers as well as mobile phone operators. In this new environment, reporting of traffic data would become highly customised and personalised, with service providers creating value by differentiating and customising traffic data for their user base. There could be complementary roles where the RAs provide the basic raw or simply processed data for internal users. The general public and the service providers undertake further analysis and transformation of traffic data for their customers. Data accessibility and its pricing will continue to be an issue facing RAs in the years to come. Policies need to be established. RTA NSW has in place manuals for the sale of data and finance manual on pricing. The development of a pricing policy especially for external users is complex and common amongst RAs. It is an area recommended for further research. The issue of data integration and public-private partnership are further addressed in Sections 5 and 6 respectively.
Accessed by AR - ARRB TRANSPORT RESEARCH on 04 Feb 2005 5 DATA INTEGRATION Austroads 2004 — 33 — Best Practices in Road Use Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting Road authorities are increasingly involved in collecting a wide range of road use data. These data types can come from a number of sources. There is also an increasing need to efficiently access the data within a RA, or from external parties including the public. This raises the issue that road use data should be better integrated for easy access. This section describes the issues involved, current practices within RAs and future directions. Data integration can be broadly defined as the bringing together of different types of road use data and other road data such as the inventory of road conditions in a central database. The integration can utilise several databases, with the capability of referencing the data using a unique referencing system such as road numbers and Geographical Information System (GIS) coordinates. By combining data, it is possible to generate further information than in its parts, e.g. the Austroads (2001) National Performance Indicators Program. However, integration should not be interpreted as a simple combination of data such as averaging data sets, merging data from different time periods of a day or aggregating data across lanes. Also, raw data should be maintained in a database as far as possible. 5.1 Road Use Data Types for Integration The range of road use and related data generally suitable for integration, and reflecting the diversity of traffic information needs, includes the following: Traffic volumes, traffic composition (i.e. classified counts) and turning movement counts; Pavement loading data from weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems and weigh bridges; Pavement condition rating; Transport demand data such as origin-destination data; Route performance data, e.g. travel time, level of service or congestion index; Traffic management data from ITS, signal systems or freeway management systems, Road crash data, e.g. exposure measure, risk or black spots; and Asset management data such as bridges, tunnels, signs and markings and guard rails. The above list is not exhaustive and other data types can be included in an integrated database now and in the future. Various RAs have already started the integration process, although there are no standard procedures, software or types of data for integration. Efficient access using database technologies will benefit a wide range of users within and external to a jurisdiction for many different needs. An example is the need for a road crash exposure indicator and one that can correlate with road crashes already stored in, say, a GIS framework. For urban roads, that exposure indicator can be a low-cost indicator available from road traffic counts in a signal control system, assuming that signal counts are stored routinely. Figure 9 shows the framework of the ARMIS database of the Queensland Department of Main Roads. The ARMIS framework covers most of the data types mentioned above, supplemented with road and bridge inventory data. These data types are entered into a database, which has an audit utility. At the core of the database is a road reference and road inventory that specifies locations for traffic analysis, road crash analysis, pavement condition, road maintenance performance contracts and construction management. After an auditing process, the data is sent to the Road Information Data Centre to support a wide range of road data users.
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AP-G84/04 Best practice in road use data collection, analysis ... - WIM

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