Freeway Performance Measurement System (PeMS), PeMS 6: Final Report for CCIT TO 15

PeMS 6 is the latest of six task orders devoted to research, development, and maintenance of the PeMS system. PeMS collects, processes, stores, and makes available online data from eight Caltrans districts (D3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12). The data are obtained from 22,067 loops1, grouped into 8,649 vehicle detector stations (VDS). These loops cover 3,154 out of 30,572 directional-miles of interstate and state highways in California. PeMS began as a research project. As the research system evolved, Caltrans determined that the information it provided was very valuable, and additional resources were then directed towards the development of PeMS. Faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate student researchers at U.C. Berkeley (UCB) conduct the research element of the project. Berkeley Transportation Systems (BTS) is responsible for PeMS software developmentand system maintenance. The UCB and BTS groups meet weekly. There are periodicconferences with members of Caltrans Division of Traffic Operations. The project isnow administered through CCIT and co-managed by the PeMS PI and the Division ofTraffic Operations. The product of the research activity is reported in professional meetings and journals and in algorithms. The algorithms are incorporated into PeMS software as part of BTS’development activity. (Generally speaking, there is a one year lag between research results and their implementation.) We now describe the accomplishments under the six tasks that constitute the PeMS 6 project.