18 Oct City of San Jose Awards TransCore Real-Time Adaptive Traffic Management Contract

System to ease congestion in Silicon Valley

ORLANDO, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TransCore was selected by the City of San Jose to implement adaptive traffic control technology at approximately 50 intersections in seven areas of the City, each challenged with varying traffic congestion resulting from commutes to freeway interchanges, travel to regional shopping malls, and trips to local business and commercial districts. The system will be phased in over the coming months and is expected to be fully operational by May 2012.

The adaptive traffic control system known as SCATS (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System), operates in real-time to adjust signal timing in response to changes in traffic demand and system capacity, and provides immediate and historical traffic information. TransCore has previously installed SCATS in nearby Menlo Park, adjacent to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Santa Rosa in Sonoma Valley, and will be deploying the system for another 37 intersections in the San Francisco Bay Area City of Hayward.

San Jose, the Capital of Silicon Valley, is the tenth-largest city in the United States and the third-largest in California. Silicon Valley has the largest concentration of technology expertise in the world with more than 6,600 technology companies located in San Jose. With continued growth in the region, the City is expanding its intelligent transportation systems infrastructure to enhance operational efficiencies of the City’s roadways, as well as provide a safe and efficient travel experience for all modes of travel. By deploying a dynamic traffic management system in the areas most prone to saturated traffic flow, the City’s goal is to reduce vehicle emissions, fuel consumption, travel times, and stops. As the reliability and efficiency of the City’s roadway system improves, the quality of life, the environment and the movement of goods and services should also improve.

“An adaptive system capable of providing instantaneous analysis of traffic flow by adjusting signal timing on the spot, in real-time, is an enormous advantage to managing congestion,” said Michael Mauritz, managing director of TransCore’s Western Region.

This immediate correction results in reduced traffic congestion and travel times. SCATS is currently one of the most widely used adaptive traffic control systems around the world controlling more than 30,000 intersections globally and more than 1,000 intersections in the United States.

Mauritz added, “What makes SCATS appealing is each corridor can be configured differently, providing the best adaptive operation for that corridor. Other systems don’t have that level of configurability or flexibility.”

San Jose will be able to match each implementation to the distinct needs of the corridor since certain areas have large Silicon Valley commuter traffic while others have high shopping and retail traffic.

SCATS projects have provided marked improvement in congestion mitigation. Outside San Diego in Chula Vista, Calif., delays were reduced by an extraordinary 45 percent. In Menlo Park, Calif., bordering Palo Alto and Stanford University, travel time was reduced up to 25 percent and delays were reduced by 70 percent. The City of Santa Rosa in the heart of Sonoma Valley saw an average reduction in travel time by 32 percent.

About SCATS Capabilities

SCATS has an open architecture for communications, controllers and detection. This allows a city to utilize various manufacturers’ equipment. SCATS specific capabilities include:

• True real-time, cycle-by-cycle 100 percent adaptive control capabilities;
• Capable of being monitored from up to 30 concurrent workstations at the same time with eight varying access levels;
• Capable of being easily expanded;
• Has more than 30 years of proven field adaptive operations experience;
• Operates in adaptive mode 24/7, 365 days a year without manual intervention;
• Provides real-time and historical detection monitoring and alarm features;
• Has been field integrated with Ethernet IP communications;
• Easy to monitor and use by operational, engineering, and maintenance staff and includes city-wide, corridor, and intersection graphical displays;
• Capable of identifying system malfunctions and abnormalities and generate alarms for operators or maintenance personnel;
• Automatically records timing and detection information for 365 days for historical analysis;
• Provides pre-emption and transit priority features.

About TransCore

TransCore’s 75-year heritage supporting the transportation industry spans the development of RFID transportation applications at Los Alamos National Labs to implementation of the nation’s first electronic toll collection system. The breadth of the company’s expertise includes traffic management systems, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), systems integration, design consulting, operations, maintenance, RFID manufacturing, and extensive Web-based logistics systems. TransCore has installations in 46 countries and a vast portfolio of intellectual property. In 2011, Engineering News-Record (ENR) ranked TransCore No. 154 out of the Top 500 Design Firms.

TransCore offers an extensive suite of enterprise software applications, business process outsourcing, system integration, customer care and maintenance services to provide complete solutions, configurable to customers’ requirements. TransCore is a U.S. owned and operated company with headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa. TransCore operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Roper Industries, a Standard and Poor’s S&P 500 Index company.