Media Relations Contact:
Morgan Lyons
Mark A. Ball
December 7, 2009
$5.3 million federal grant awarded to DART
U. S. Department of Transportation program brings multiple agencies, many approaches to improving US 75 congestion
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) will be the lead agency in a new demonstration project of the U. S. Department of Transportation's Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) program.
The federal government is providing more than $5 million toward the $8.3 million project. San Diego is the other region receiving federal support for an ICM program.
The effort is designed to collaboratively engage the planning, technology and infrastructure resources of the various cities and government jurisdictions along the corridor from Dallas, north to SH 121 in Plano, in improving mobility along the entire corridor instead of the traditional approach of managing individual assets to solve local mobility needs. By applying ICM, the operating agencies along this section of the corridor will manage it as an integrated asset in order to improve travel time reliability and predictability by empowering travelers through better information and more transportation choices.
"The goal is to bring together in a single, easy-to-follow format, a number of independent components, like real-time travel information, DART information, parking availability and traffic monitoring," said DART President/Executive Director Gary Thomas. "We appreciate the support of the Department of Transportation in awarding us this demonstration project."
The project is a collaborative effort between DART, Dallas, Highland Park, Plano, Richardson, University Park, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the North Texas Tollway Authority, Texas Transportation Institute, University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University, Telvent Farradyne, Inc., and the Texas Department of Transportation. Dallas and San Diego were the two cities selected to conduct a demonstration of the ICM concepts and provide a first test of the ICM concept on a large scale in the United States.
» View the U.S. Department of Transportation release:
DOT Awards Funds to Dallas, San Diego for New Technology Initiative to Fight Congestion (opens in a new window)
How ICM works
In an ICM corridor, commuters could receive information that encompasses the entire transportation network to help them make better decisions about how to travel in that corridor. For example a commuter planning to use US 75 from Richardson to Dallas might choose a side road or perhaps take DART Rail instead if they were informed of a major traffic tie-up on the highway.
The grant will fund the development and deployment of a Dallas "511" real-time traveler information system and support integrated operation of the US-75 corridor. The ICM System will collect information on the current travel conditions on freeways, frontage roads, arterial streets, DART Rail, park-and-ride lots, and the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. Operating agencies will share incident, construction, and special event information among each other.
When traffic conditions change due to heavy traffic demand, incidents, or inclement weather, transportation agencies can use this information to make immediate changes to traffic signal timing on arterials and frontage roads as well as direct travelers to faster roadways or transit facilities. The corridors are monitored in real time and staff can review potential changes. A decision support system will allow transportation professionals to evaluate the best operational strategies and determine when to implement them.
US-75 INTEGRATED CORRIDOR MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SHEETS: (PDF files open in a new window)
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