COTA's dispatch facility for COTA's fixed–route buses. COTA uses CAD/AVL technology to dispatch its transit fleet. The Transit Operation System allows the transportation supervisor to assign drivers and provide demand response scheduling. This center also archives and counts data from COTA's Automated Passenger Counter. The system is also providing vehicle location information.
| Functional Object | Description | User Defined |
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| Center Data Collection | 'Center Data Collection' collects and stores information that is created in the course of center operations. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| Center Data Subscription Management | 'Center Data Subscription Management' manages data subscriptions for an end user. It provides access to a catalog of available data, manages the necessary user information and rules that govern the data subscriptions, supports communications with data providers to collect data per the subscription rules, and makes the data available to the end user. It provides the local user interface through which a user can specify and manage subscriptions. It supports different mechanisms for collecting subscribed data for the end–user including one–time query–response as well as publish–subscribe services. | False |
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| Emergency Data Collection | 'Emergency Data Collection' collects and stores emergency information that is collected in the course of operations by the Emergency Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| Emergency Early Warning System | 'Emergency Early Warning System' monitors alerting and advisory systems, information collected by ITS surveillance and sensors, and reports from other agencies and uses this information to identify potential, imminent, or in–progress major incidents or disasters. Notification is provided to initiate the emergency response, including public notification using ITS traveler information systems, where appropriate. | False |
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| Emergency Environmental Monitoring | 'Emergency Environmental Monitoring' collects current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information from a variety of sources. The collected environmental information is monitored and presented to the operator and used to more effectively manage incidents. | False |
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| Emergency Evacuation Support | 'Emergency Evacuation Support' coordinates evacuation plans among allied agencies and manages evacuation and reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency that poses a risk to public safety. Where appropriate, the affected population is evacuated in shifts, using more than one evacuation route, and including several evacuation destinations to spread demand and thereby expedite the evacuation. All affected jurisdictions (e.g., states and counties) at the evacuation origin, evacuation destination, and along the evacuation route are informed of the plan. The public is provided with real–time evacuation guidance including basic information to assist potential evacuees in determining whether evacuation is necessary. Resource requirements are forecast based on the evacuation plans, and the necessary resources are located, shared between agencies if necessary, and deployed at the right locations at the appropriate times. The evacuation and reentry status are monitored and used to refine the plan and resource allocations during the evacuation and subsequent reentry. It communicates with public health systems to develop evacuation plans and recommended strategies for disasters and evacuation scenarios involving biological or other medical hazards. | False |
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| Emergency Incident Command | 'Emergency Incident Command' provides tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration for Incident Commands that are established by first responders at or near the incident scene to support local management of an incident. It supports communications with public safety, emergency management, transportation, and other allied response agency centers, tracks and maintains resource information, action plans, and the incident command organization itself. Information is shared with agency centers including resource deployment status, hazardous material information, traffic, road, and weather conditions, evacuation advice, and other information that enables emergency or maintenance personnel in the field to implement an effective, safe incident response. It supports the functions and interfaces commonly supported by a mobile command center. | False |
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| Emergency Response Management | 'Emergency Response Management' provides the strategic emergency response capabilities and broad inter–agency interfaces that are implemented for extraordinary incidents and disasters that require response from outside the local community. It provides the functional capabilities and interfaces commonly associated with Emergency Operations Centers. It develops and stores emergency response plans and manages overall coordinated response to emergencies. It monitors real–time information on the state of the regional transportation system including current traffic and road conditions, weather conditions, special event and incident information. It tracks the availability of resources and assists in the appropriate allocation of these resources for a particular emergency response. It also provides coordination between multiple allied agencies before and during emergencies to implement emergency response plans and track progress through the incident. It also coordinates with the public through the Emergency Telecommunication Systems (e.g., Reverse 911). It coordinates with public health systems to provide the most appropriate response for emergencies involving biological or other medical hazards. | False |
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| Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support | 'Emergency Secure Area Alarm Support' receives traveler or transit vehicle operator alarm messages, notifies the system operator, and provides acknowledgement of alarm receipt back to the originator of the alarm. The alarms received can be generated by silent or audible alarm systems and may originate from public areas (e.g. transit stops, park and ride lots, transit stations, rest areas) or transit vehicles. The nature of the emergency may be determined based on the information in the alarm message as well as other inputs. | False |
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| Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management | 'Emergency Secure Area Sensor Management' manages sensors that monitor secure areas in the transportation system, processes the collected data, performs threat analysis in which data is correlated with other sensor, surveillance, and advisory inputs, and then disseminates resultant threat information to emergency personnel and other agencies. In response to identified threats, the operator may request activation of barrier and safeguard systems to preclude an incident, control access during and after an incident or mitigate impact of an incident. The sensors may be in secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. The types of sensors include acoustic, threat (e.g. chemical agent, toxic industrial chemical, biological, explosives, and radiological sensors), infrastructure condition and integrity, motion and object sensors. | False |
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| Emergency Secure Area Surveillance | 'Emergency Secure Area Surveillance' monitors surveillance inputs from secure areas in the transportation system. The surveillance may be of secure areas frequented by travelers (i.e., transit stops, transit stations, rest areas, park and ride lots, modal interchange facilities, on–board a transit vehicle, etc.) or around transportation infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and transit railways or guideways. It provides both video and audio surveillance information to emergency personnel and automatically alerts emergency personnel of potential incidents. | False |
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| ITS Management Support | 'ITS Management Support' provides management of the ITS Object. This includes management of regulatory information and policies, management of application processes, management of communication system configuration and update management, communications interfaces, protocol–specific techniques to ensure interoperability such as service advertisements, communications congestion management and interference management, local device states and communications information, billing management, fault management, service level and performance monitoring. | False |
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| Transit Center Connection Protection | 'Transit Center Connection Protection' manages the coordination of transit transfers between routes within a single transit agency, between routes of different transit agencies, or between different modes (e.g. a bus transit route and a ferry route). This functional object also supports the capability for an individual traveler to obtain connection protection throughout a specific transit trip. This application may be implemented through peer–to–peer sharing between agencies control systems or as a central transit transfer request brokerage that facilitates the management and coordination of transfers across multiple agencies and control systems. | False |
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| Transit Center Data Collection | 'Transit Center Data Collection' collects and stores transit information that is collected in the course of transit operations performed by the Transit Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| Transit Center Environmental Monitoring | 'Transit Center Environmental Monitoring' assimilates current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information from a variety of sources, including both weather service providers and vehicle probes. The collected environmental information is monitored and used to support transit operations. | False |
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| Transit Center Fare Management | 'Transit Center Fare Management' manages fare collection and passenger load management at the transit center. It provides the back office functions that support transit fare collection, supporting payment reconciliation with links to financial institutions and enforcement agencies for fare violations. It collects data required to determine accurate ridership levels, establish fares, and distribute fare information. It loads fare data into the vehicle prior to the beginning of normal operations and unloads fare collection data from the vehicle at the close out of normal operations. | False |
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| Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations | 'Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations' manages fixed route transit operations. It supports creation of schedules, blocks and runs for fixed and flexible route transit services. It allows fixed–route and flexible–route transit services to disseminate schedules and automatically updates customer service operator systems with the most current schedule information. It also supports automated dispatch of transit vehicles. Current vehicle schedule adherence and optimum scenarios for schedule adjustment are also provided. It also receives and processes transit vehicle loading data. | False |
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| Transit Center Information Services | 'Transit Center Information Services' collects the latest available information for a transit service and makes it available to transit customers and to Transportation Information Centers for further distribution. Customers are provided information at transit stops and other public transportation areas before they embark and on–board the transit vehicle once they are en route. Information provided can include the latest available information on transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real–time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, yellow pages, and special events. In addition to general service information, tailored information (e.g., itineraries) are provided to individual transit users. | False |
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| Transit Center Multi–Modal Coordination | 'Transit Center Multi–Modal Coordination' supports transit service coordination between transit properties and coordinates with other surface and air transportation modes. As part of service coordination, it shares schedule and trip information, as well as transit transfer cluster (a collection of stop points, stations, or terminals where transfers can be made conveniently) and transfer point information between Multimodal Transportation Service Providers, Transit Agencies, and ISPs. An interface to Traffic Management also supports demand management strategies. | False |
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| Transit Center Operator Assignment | 'Transit Center Operator Assignment' automates and supports the assignment of transit vehicle operators to runs. It assigns operators to runs in a fair manner while minimizing labor and overtime services, considering operator preferences and qualifications, and automatically tracking and validating the number of work hours performed by each individual operator. It also provides an exception handling process for the operator assignment function to generate supplemental operator assignments when required by changes during the operating day. | False |
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| Transit Center Passenger Counting | 'Transit Center Passenger Counting' receives and processes transit vehicle loading data using two–way communications from equipped transit vehicles. | False |
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| Transit Center Priority Management | 'Transit Center Priority Management' monitors transit schedule performance and generates requests for transit priority on routes and at certain intersections. It may coordinate with the Traffic Management Center to provide transit priority along the selected route, including allocation of dynamic lanes and granting signal priority. It also coordinates with the Transit Vehicle OBE to monitor and manage local transit signal priority requests at individual intersections. | False |
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| Transit Center Security | 'Transit Center Security' monitors transit vehicle operator or traveler activated alarms received from on–board a transit vehicle. It supports transit vehicle operator authentication and provides the capability to remotely disable a transit vehicle. It also includes the capability to alert operators and police to potential incidents identified by these security features. | False |
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| Transit Center Vehicle Assignment | 'Transit Center Vehicle Assignment' assigns individual transit vehicles to vehicle blocks and downloads this information to the transit vehicle. It also provides an exception handling process for the vehicle assignment function to generate new, supplemental vehicle assignments when required by changes during the operating day. It provides an inventory management function for the transit facility which stores functional attributes about each of the vehicles owned by the transit operator. These attributes permit the planning and assignment functions to match vehicles with routes based on suitability for the types of service required by the particular routes. | False |
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| Transit Center Vehicle Tracking | 'Transit Center Vehicle Tracking' monitors transit vehicle location. The location information is collected via a data communication link between the transit vehicles and the transit center. The location information is presented to the transit operator on a digitized map of the transit service area. The location data may be used to determine real time schedule adherence and update the transit system's schedule in real–time. The real–time schedule information is disseminated to other information providers, which furnish the information to travelers. | False |
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| Transit Evacuation Support | 'Transit Evacuation Support' manages transit resources to support evacuation and subsequent reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency. It supports coordination of regional evacuation plans, identifying the transit role in a regional evacuation and identifying transit resources that would be used. During an evacuation, it coordinates the use of transit and school bus fleets, supporting evacuation of those with special needs and the general population. Transit service and fare schedules are adjusted and updated service and fare information is made available through traveler information systems. | False |
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| Transit Garage Maintenance | 'Transit Garage Maintenance' provides advanced maintenance functions for the transit property. It collects operational and maintenance data from transit vehicles, manages vehicle service histories, and monitors operators and vehicles. It collects vehicle mileage data and uses it to automatically generate preventative maintenance schedules for each vehicle by utilizing vehicle tracking data. In addition, it provides information to service personnel to support maintenance activities and records and verifies that maintenance work was performed. | False |
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