Public Works and Transportation
Pilots Innovative Technology Projects
Arlington’s Public Works and Transportation Department (PWT) is leading a
number of innovative projects to help make Arlington’s roadways safer and
more efficient for all users.
Using a grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments and in
partnership with Waze, the City shares roadway construction and closure
information with Waze users. Road closure information is shared with Waze to
provide real-time road condition information, and all City fleet construction
vehicles are shown in Waze when they are blocking lanes or performing
construction. Additionally, Waze alerts from users can also be captured by
the City to make signal timing adjustments, allowing traffic to flow more
smoothly during incidents.
Incident management is also a priority along key roadways in the City, and
PWT uses their state-of-the-art Traffic Management Center to collect and
monitor conditions. A system deployed on Highway 360 service roads,
Cooper Street, Collins Street, Division Street, and Pioneer Parkway allows
automatic detection of incidents or congestion, which enables the Traffic
Management Center to adjust signal timing to help alleviate congestion and
clear incidents more quickly.
PWT is working with several vendors to pilot and test connected vehicle
services, allowing communication between vehicles and transportation
infrastructure, such as traffic signals. The Federal Communications
Commission recently granted Applied Information, Inc., an experimental
license for testing Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) connected vehicle
applications, which includes research here in Arlington.
Finally, the City is partnering with the University of Texas at Arlington on an
arterial performance monitoring system. This proposed system will conduct
a pilot project with four or five intersections that can be scalable in the
future. The project will provide an advanced arterial performance monitoring
system that will combine the Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures
(ATSPM) and corridor travel time data to automatically identify bottlenecks
and signal deficiency within a single system. The project proposes a secured
design where data will be securely stored within the City’s network, with
provide data analytics support from UTA, all at no cost to the City.
Arlington
Remains a
National Leader
on Autonomous
Vehicle Testing
As part of its ongoing efforts to
Enhance Regional Mobility and Put
Technology to Work, Arlington has
already managed two successful
autonomous vehicle deployments.
The Milo off-street pilot program
with EasyMile was conducted from
August 2017 to August 2018 and
the on-street pilot program with
drive.ai vehicles was conducted
from October 2018 to May 2019.
Building on this experience, the
City of Arlington was awarded a
$1.7 million grant through the
Federal Transit Administration’s
Integrated Mobility Innovation
Program to integrate autonomous
vehicles into the Via rideshare
service. This one-year pilot
program, called Arlington
RAPID (Rideshare, Automation,
and Payment Integration
Demonstration), is set to begin
in March 2021 and serve an area
around Downtown and UTA’s
campus. Through its partnership
with Via, May Mobility, and UTA,
the City also plans to add a
wheelchair-accessible autonomous
vehicle as well as provide a limited
number of free rides to university
students during the pilot program.
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