Glossary

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) - The automatic determination and/or tracking of the geospatial situation of the vehicle upon the earth's surface using equipment such as a GPS receiver.

Emergency Vehicle Management - A service which includes the application of fleet management, route guidance and traffic signal priority techniques to the management of emergency vehicles such as fire, police and ambulance.

Highway Advisory Radio (HAR) - A traffic information broadcasting system. Drivers are alerted to tune their car radios to a specific channel in order to receive transmitted information.

Incident Response - Detection and identification of a traffic incident, implementation of appropriate responsive actions and handling of the traffic until normal traffic conditions have been restored.

Kiosk - A structure housing a walk-up information station or posting keyboard. ITS traveler information kiosks can provide a variety of ITS services to users, including dynamic traffic and transit information, travel directions, fare card dispensing, travel reservations, and yellow pages information.

Model Deployment Initiative - The Department is participating in a public/private team that was one of four selected by the USDOT for funding under the national ITS Metropolitan Model Deployment Initiative (MMDI) program. The project will build on efforts already underway by the TRANSCOM coalition to establish a regional architecture that will link member agencies to share transportation information. The project has three main elements:

• Implement a dial-in telephone system that will provide basic traveler information to the public for free.
• Implement a fee-based personalized traveler information service that will deliver personalized traveler information to the public at home, en-route and at work via a variety of mechanisms such as telephone, pagers, and personal computers.
• Implement a Transit Itinerary Planning System (TRIPS) that will provide the public access to a regional system to plan their most direct and convenient transit route.

The project's public/private partnership vision includes the private sector acting as a broker for the distribution of the traveler information to Private Independent Service Providers as well as the sharing of revenues based on operation and maintenance costs.

Traffic Control - The use of hardware software and actual humans to manage traffic. ITS brings additional computer power and advanced sensing technologies to this traditional transportation engineering field.

Traffic Information - The provision of dynamic traffic and traffic-related information to drivers via either "collective" means (e.g. VMS) or individual in-vehicle terminals. In contrast to travel information, traffic information is generally characterized by shorter temporal and geographical spans, provided to drivers in the course of a trip.

Traffic Management - The combination of semi-automated control of traffic signs and signals, application of demand management techniques, and traffic information and advisories to achieve an optimal traffic flow throughout a defined management area (both urban and inter-urban).

Travel Information - Provision of information before the trip to facilitate travel planning and travel booking, and about required en route services. In addition to having a longer time and geography dimensions, travel information differs from traffic information in that it can be supplied from multiple and diverse sources including public transport operators, rail operators, tourist organizations, and yellow pages just to name a few.

Weigh in Motion (WIM) - A technology for weighing heavy vehicles without requiring them to stop at weigh stations.