The FAST Dashboard (Performance Monitoring & Measurement System) is a software program totally designed, developed and written using in-house staff in the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada’s (RTC), Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation (FAST) division.  It provides an easy-to-understand web-based user interface to enable the public to pull and depict real-time and historical freeway network monitoring and performance information in a wide variety of user-selectable and user-customizable displays.  The FAST Dashboard builds on the enormous storehouse of raw data automatically gathered by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) has implemented on its freeway network in southern Nevada, plus incident-specific data logged by FAST’s technicians. By integrating these data, the FAST Dashboard not only develops maps, charts and graphs showing trends and ‘report cards’ on freeway performance, but also enables the user to quantitatively characterize the discrete traffic flows. For the public, it can provide basic travel time related information and camera snapshots; for FAST and NDOT technical analysts, it is rich-featured analytical tool whose primary output is the magnitude of traffic delays experienced for various alternative study scenarios; for other transportation professionals, it is a platform to obtain meaningful transportation information.  As a result, the FAST Dashboard satisfies the various demands from the public to transportation professionals and the decision makers.

The main objectives of the FAST Dashboard include (but are not limited to):

·         Visualize huge amount of ITS data into various plots, charts, graph, and maps that people can easily understand;

·         Provide real-time traffic information/advisories to public in timely and easy-accessible way through map, image, text/email alert;

·         Monitor, track, and report freeway traffic congestion levels and travel reliability trends by corridor, direction, month, hour and day type;

·         Enhance the number, richness and quality of traveler information services;

·         Convert unprocessed freeway data into easily-grasped and truly meaningful information for various audiences;

·         Convey roadway performance to the public, media, transportation professionals and decision makers;

·         Provide data that improves responsiveness and efficiency in calibrating and maintaining freeway flow detectors;

·         Evaluate the effectiveness of operational strategies (both conceptual and post-implementation);

·         Help in allocating resources and prioritizing implementation from an operations’ perspective.

Comments about, and critiques of, your experience in using FAST Dashboard are very much welcomed, so as to guide our improvement and enhancement of the FAST Dashboard over time.  Click on the Contact Us menu to leave your comment.

The FAST Dashboard is an on-line website totally designed, developed and written by FAST staff. It is developed with free Visual Web Developer Express 2010, and it incorporates other free platforms, technologies and tools such as Microsoft .NET platform, Silverlight, Bing Map and VLC media player to capture snapshots or stream live videos from the traffic cameras. The only cost is the computer which hosts the website and runs the supporting software tools. It has been proved to be a cost-effective solution and has been easily migrated and deployed to City of Mesquite and NDOT Reno area.

The FAST Dashboard immediately yielded great time and cost saving in the processing of raw data.  It has been extensively utilized to convey live traffic information to the public or fleet dispatchers, download traffic counts, generate graphs and plots for university research/teaching purposes, present improvements for decision making, and monitor ITS device health. During several recent presentations, training sessions, and meetings, FAST Dashboard has been praised by local and national private and public sector transportation professionals and elected officials.

 

FAST, a division of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC), is the sole regional traffic management agency serving the travelers using both the freeway and arterial networks.  FAST staff members have been providing traffic signal coordination timing plans (development, implementation, management, fine-tuning, and logistical support) to the region’s four local governmental entities for over 20 years.  The current wide-area single regional traffic signal system is the Siemens i2 package and Trafficware’s ATMS.Now Central Control Software.  FAST provides this coordination timing as a service to the four entities, and this effort is 100% funded by the RTC.  Freeway operation is a companion service provided by FAST staff commenced in 2005, and this effort is 100% funded by NDOT.  All of the field ITS devices (traffic flow detectors, CCTV cameras, dynamic message signs, ramp meters, etc.) are constructed by NDOT, but are both operated and maintained by FAST (as NDOT’s "partner").  The freeway management system software that manages and controls all of these field devices is the Kimley-Horn KITS package.  The combined FAST operation (AMS plus FMS) is housed in a state-of-the-art Traffic Management Center (TMC), jointly occupied by the southern Nevada command headquarters of the Nevada Highway Patrol.  The TMC’s operations theater (with large video wall) has NHP dispatchers working alongside FAST technicians to provide an optimum proactive response for traffic crashes on the freeway network.