State of The Practice on Data Access, Sharing, and Integration

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

SUMMARY OF OVERARCHING PROJECT

In 2012, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) initiated a 3-year project entitled “Virtual Data Access (VDA) Framework” to develop a prototype framework for sharing planning and operations data between State and local transportation agencies from multiple sources within a region. The framework will bring together many types of transportation data to give planners and operators a multifaceted view of transportation performance both over time and by location. The purpose of the VDA Framework is to improve the breadth of available data and reduce the barriers to the use of those data so that transportation agencies across a region can advance their decisionmaking and performance reporting capabilities in the area of operations. Through greater access to data collected in a region, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and State transportation departments will be better equipped to conduct performance management and performance-based planning and programming as emphasized in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act.⁽¹⁾

FHWA’s project focuses on using the VDA Framework to support planning for operations, including the use of data from the framework as input to planning for operations analysis and simulation tools. Planning for operations is a joint effort of planners and operators to integrate management and operations (M&O) strategies into the transportation planning process for the purpose of improving regional transportation system efficiency, reliability, and options. In addition, the data will be used to support reporting of operational performance measures.

The prototype framework will undergo a proof-of-concept test in the Kansas City region, where transportation operating and planning agencies have a high level of collaboration, a need for easily accessible integrated transportation operations data, and the capability to use those data for planning for operations. The framework is being developed in coordination with the proof-of-concept partners, the Mid-America Regional Council and Kansas City Scout, as well as other stakeholders from across the United States. To support the proof-of-concept test, the FHWA project team is developing a Performance Measurement and Analysis Tool (PMAT) that demonstrates one of the many options for using the integrated data from the VDA Framework. The PMAT will access public and private sources of data through the VDA Framework and calculate performance measures according to user-specified parameters. The performance measures will be displayed on a map of the region, in data tables, and in charts. The PMAT will be a map-based Web application that allows users to view travel time reliability and delay as well as traffic volume throughput on arterials and freeways and to extract calculated performance data in the form of geographic information system (GIS) shape files. In addition, users will be able to export the data to Network EXplorer for Traffic Analysis (NeXTA), an analysis, modeling, and simulation data hub that was developed by FHWA to support the exchange of data among multiple resolutions of analysis, modeling, and simulation tools. The data export from PMAT will support the analysis for operations strategies in a dynamic traffic assignment modeling tool as part of NeXTA.

The VDA Framework and PMAT are being developed using primarily open-source software and will be available to other regions to leverage. The results of the proof-of-concept test will be documented and shared as part of technology transfer webinars near the end of the project.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STATE-OF-THE-PRACTICE REVIEW

The purpose of this state-of-the-practice review was to lay both the technical and institutional foundation for all aspects of the VDA Framework. The review focused on current data-sharing and integration practices among State and local agencies, example data environments, technical integration formats, and business rules for integration and sharing. It will assist the project by establishing a basis of previous experiences that can be used in defining how the framework is designed in terms of data integration and sharing. The review will help in selecting the pilot areas to propose for the proof-of-concept tests of the VDA Framework.

RELATIONSHIP TO USE OF DATA IN PLANNING FOR OPERATIONS STATE-OF-THE-PRACTICE REVIEW

This report was developed in conjunction with the project’s state-of-the-practice review on the use of data for planning for operations. The planning for operations state-of-the-practice review identified the data used or needed to perform data-driven planning for operations activities and examined the planning for operations activities that currently use performance data. The planning for operations data review will be used to inform the framework design in terms of what data should serve as input to the framework to support planning for operations, whereas this report focuses on how agencies integrate and share that data from a technical and institutional perspective.

ORGANIZATION OF STATE-OF-THE-PRACTICE REPORT

This report examines current State and local agency practices with a focus on transportation planning and operations data. It examines the state of the practice in data sharing and integration, specifically (1) current data sharing and integration practices among State and local agencies, (2)example data environments, (3) technical integration formats, and (4) business rules for integration and sharing. For each of these topics, best practices, applicability to the data sharing framework, incorporation of functional requirements for existing systems, success factors, and gaps were investigated and documented.