The Smart Pedestrian Crosswalk 9.2

The Smart Pedestrian Crosswalk (SPC) seems like a promising solution to improve traffic safety on unregulated pedestrian crosswalks. It’s great to hear that the device is designed to comply with all the necessary requirements for roadside C-ITS applications. This could potentially be a significant step towards creating a safer and more efficient transportation system for everyone.

It’s interesting to note that applications like route planning, navigation, and remote tele-driving require wide area communication. This makes sense since these applications operate at a strategic and planning level and require a broad range of data to function effectively. Having access to reliable and efficient communication networks can help ensure that these applications are working optimally, which could ultimately lead to safer and more efficient transportation systems.

The Architecture Reference for Cooperative and Intelligent Transportation (ARC-IT) provides a common framework for planning, defining, and integrating intelligent transportation systems. It is a mature product that reflects the contributions of a broad cross-section of the ITS community (transportation practitioners, systems engineers, system developers, technology specialists, consultants, etc.).

ARC-IT is a reference architecture: it provides common basis for planners and engineers with differing concerns to conceive, design and implement systems using a common language as a basis for delivering ITS, but does not mandate any particular implementation. ARC-IT includes artifacts that answer concerns relevant to a large variety of stakeholders, and provides tools intended for transportation planners, regional architects and systems engineers to conceive of and develop regional architectures, and scope and develop projects.

What’s New in ARC-IT Version 9.2

ARC-IT Version 9.2 is a significant update of the US National ITS Architecture Reference focusing on improvements that support Multimodal Accessible Travel (MAT), the Management of Electronic Traffic Regulations (METR) and other new concepts and refinements. The most significant enhancements for version 9.2 are:

• Multimodal Accessible Travel: Concepts supporting complete trip, integrated payment, safety for vulnerable road users, and pathway/indoor navigation use cases. Most obviously impacted service packages:
  • SU15: Vulnerable Road User Device Transition Support
  • TI03: En-Route Guidance
  • TI04: Trip Planning and Payment
  • TI05: Integrated Multi-Modal Electronic Payment (previously PT18)
  • TI06: Shared Use Mobility and Dynamic Ridesharing
  • TI08: Personal Wayfinding
  • VS12: Vulnerable Road User Safety
  • VS18: Vulnerable Road User Clustering
• Major enhancements to VS17 Traffic Code Dissemination based on developments in the Management of Electronic Traffic Regulations (METR) standards being developed in ISO/TC 204. This includes details of how METR systems are expected to operate by collecting, managing and disseminating road regulations.
• Other new or significantly enhanced Service Packages:
  • MC12: One-Way Convoy Driving — all new, inspired by operations in Norway but implemented similarly in some snow-heavy US states
  • ST05: Electric Charging Stations Management — modified to better accommodate information sharing and management entities
• Updates to all views to reflect changes in technology and standards development
• Many new physical objects supporting MAT, METR and other new and refined concepts, such as the Micro-Mobility Vehicle OBE, Electric Charging Management Center and Shared Use Transportation Center
• An upgrade to the physical database model to better support notions of hierarchy. This hierarchy’s primary purpose is to enable inheritance, which should help RAD-IT and SET-IT users develop more succinct architecture descriptions while also enabling flexibility for architects at all levels. In practice, ARC-IT users will see the ‘Light Vehicle OBE’ in many places where a Vehicle OBE was previously noted, and also note that functional objects originating at one higher level object (e.g., Vehicle) appear in lower-level objects (e.g., Light Vehicle OBE).

If the term “ARC-IT” is new to you or it has been a few years since you’ve visited the National ITS Architecture, you may find the Key Concepts document helpful