Skip to main content

PB designing infrastructure for connected vehicle project

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has been selected to design and supervise deployment of technology infrastructure for a US Department of Transportation (US DoT) pilot programme to study the potential of operating connected vehicles on the streets and highways of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Called the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment project, the $15 million research effort is being undertaken by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and its partners on behalf of the US DoT.
April 24, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
2693 Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has been selected to design and supervise deployment of technology infrastructure for a 2364 US Department of Transportation (US DoT) pilot programme to study the potential of operating connected vehicles on the streets and highways of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Called the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment project, the $15 million research effort is being undertaken by the 5186 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and its partners on behalf of the US DoT. The programme will deploy connected vehicle technologies in Ann Arbor and data from the model deployment will be used to evaluate the potential for this technology to revolutionise automobile safety.

The advanced technology will be tested in a year-long study, which will involve the installation of wireless devices in up to 3,000 vehicles, to allow communication among the vehicles, and between the vehicles and the surrounding roadside equipment. During the deployment US DoT will evaluate the effectiveness of connected vehicle technology to prevent crashes in an everyday environment. Connected vehicle communication is based on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC).

PB’s role will be to oversee  the infrastructure elements of the project, ensuring that all 29 roadside equipment installations are planned, engineered, procured, installed, integrated, and remain operational according to an extremely aggressive schedule.

Infrastructure will include roadside radio transmitter equipment at 21 signalised intersections, three curve locations, and five freeway sites, a robust communications backhaul network using both wireless and fibre, and facilities to process data and to showcase the system. Infrastructure also includes the replacement of signal controllers and specialised converters along two major corridors that will broadcast signal phase and timing data to vehicles via the DSRC network.

At the conclusion of the model deployment test, Parsons Brinckerhoff will assist the US DoT and UMTRI in any follow-up experiments and/or decommissioning of the roadside equipment.  The project is scheduled for completion in December 2013.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Accurate weigh-in-motion technology
    June 21, 2016
    Weigh-in-motion technology is ensuring increasingly accurate, and flexible, weighing stations. Weigh-in-motion specialist manufacturer Axtec says that its space-saving dynamic weighbridge is accurate to within ±0.5% and is the most precise system in the world. From its Runcorn, UK manufacturing facility, Axtec undertakes research and development of new technologies, as well as software testing, fabrication, construction and installation of WIM products. Axtec’s axle weighing platform design is intended f
  • Siemens designs data communications solution for UK city
    March 19, 2012
    Leeds City Council in the UK has placed a contract with Siemens to provide a new city-wide IP-Communications network that will initially be used for a new urban traffic management control (UTMC) system and offers future expansion capability to support both CCTV as well as the extension of UTMC to more than 1,000 sites.
  • Tackling India’s road safety will reduce crash rate
    February 19, 2013
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ
  • More electric charging stations for Ireland and Northern Ireland?
    December 13, 2012
    A new network of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles is planned for in Ireland and Northern Ireland. EU co-financing is providing over €2 million from its TEN-T Programme to research a comprehensive network of fast charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The study will have far wider implications too than Ireland and Northern Ireland as it will provide important data policymakers can use when making decisions on the nationwide roll outs of EV infrastruct