TTI, Houston TranStar® Partnership Celebrate 25 Years of Traffic and Emergency Management Service
TTI research and technical support pivotal to development and success over the years
Approaching its quarter-century birthday, the Houston TranStar Transportation Management and Emergency Operations Center (TranStar) has saved Harris County area motorists more than $5.4 billion in reduced traveler delay and fuel costs since 1997, when benefits were first assessed.
The multi-agency effort uses the partners’ collective resources to provide highly effective transportation and emergency management services to maximize safety and mobility for Houston’s traveling public. The TranStar partners include the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Harris County, and the City of Houston.
Left: Begun in 1992, TranStar®, the first four-partner agency of its kind, has evolved into a model partnership working together to serve Houston's traveling public. Right: the TranStar control room in 2014.
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) helped conceptualize the TranStar facility in the early 1990s and continues to update system software that allows multiple agencies to share information across jurisdictional and institutional boundaries. One example is the collection and processing of speed and congestion data and the software that converts those values into useful travel-time information.
Those data are distributed to the public through the TranStar website, dynamic message signs along Houston’s roadways, subscriber cell phones, and email accounts. TranStar’s real-time traffic map is the centerpiece of the website, with close to 800,000 unique users a month visiting in 2016 — a 29.3 percent increase from 2015.
“The software running at TranStar uses data from all the agency partners and provides a central location for providing traffic and emergency management information used by engineers, the media and the traveling public,” explains Mike Vickich, senior systems analyst with TTI’s Research and Implementation Office in Houston. “Using the combined resources, we can keep Houstonians better informed so they can make safer, more reliable travel choices.”
The sharing of resources — including cameras, networks and data — makes TranStar unique in the United States. For instance, Harris County and TxDOT both have flood sensors that others can access, which proved to be invaluable during Hurricane Harvey. Harris County, TxDOT, and the City of Houston use many of the same types of traffic sensors and cameras, and the partnership allows them to share the software and network resources for using information from each system.
“The TranStar partners rely on TTI to provide innovative and responsive solutions through applied research,” says John R. Whaley, TranStar executive director. “The implemented solutions not only provide key information for day-to-day commuters’ needs, but also can withstand a crisis, as proven by the more than 3 million web visitors and 30 million accesses during the peak of Hurricane Harvey.”
TranStar: A Quarter Century of Keeping Houston Travelers Informed
Original TranStar website in 1995. 1993 First four-agency consortium in US, Houston TranStar, begins
1993 Start collecting speed and travel times
Weather station on the Fred Hartman Bridge, which spans the Houston Ship Channel. 1995 Create website and real-time traffic map
2003 Begin displaying automated predictive travel times on DMSs
2006 Install hurricane route-monitoring cameras along critical evacuation routes
TranStar mobile website in 2017. 2009 Begin using Bluetooth travel-time and speed data collection system to measure traffic flow
2012 Enhance TranStar’s real-time traffic map with arterial traffic information
2016 Begin developing a mobile app to share traveler information
TTI Expertise Supports TranStar during Hurricane Harvey
During Hurricane Harvey, TranStar’s traffic management data were vitally important to connecting first responders and rescue teams with people in need. The TranStar website was accessed by 1 million people and countless local and national news media during the extreme weather event. (Photo credit: Eric V. Overton/Shutterstock.com)
If ever there was a test that proved the value of TranStar during an emergency, Hurricane Harvey was it. With the nearly 52-inch deluge of rain pouring down onto the city of Houston and its surrounding areas, the storm left the region’s transportation system largely underwater from Aug. 25 to Sept. 5, 2017. TranStar coordinated flood monitoring and traffic management of closed roads during the 10-day extreme weather event. The facility’s real-time map updates helped those returning to work navigate the city when many roads remained closed for days after the hurricane.
“The strength of Houston TranStar is never more evident than in times of emergencies such as hurricanes and other disasters, when all the partner agencies and organizations come together to respond to our community’s needs,” states Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, director of the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “We gather at a central point, sharing a common goal to protect lives and property during times of crisis. And on any normal afternoon, Monday through Friday, we also manage the traffic of almost 1 million commuters as they return from Houston to their homes in nearby communities.”
