The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) is an automated data fusion and dissemination system that provides an enhanced overall view of the transportation network. Participating agencies are able to view transportation and related emergency management information through innovative visualizations and use it to improve their operations and emergency preparedness. RITIS also uses regional standardized data to provide information to third parties, the media, and other traveler information resources including, web sites, paging systems, and 511. There are three main RITIS components including:  1) real-time data feeds, 2) real-time situational awareness tools, and 3) archived data analysis tools.

An optional component of RITIS, Probe Data Analytics Suite (PDA) give users tremendous capabilities to evaluate system performance in support of planning, operations, research and other activities. PDA uses 3rd party probe data fused with other agency transportation data to provide a true “big data” analytics platform. These data are then leveraged by nine different apps to generate actionable data summaries, maps, graphs, charts and unique visualizations for detailed analyses and reporting. Clear, concise and easy-to-understand results are also perfect for publishing press releases for public and media consumption.

Where is the most congestion?

What are the worst bottlenecks?

 

How did that storm impact travel, compared to other normal days?

 

To help facilitate RITIS and PDA use and improve features and functionality, User Group meetings are held three times per year via webinar. The webinars are open to all users and interested parties from Coalition membership with demonstrated skills in using PDA in effective and creative ways. The group meets to share unique RITIS/PDA uses, exchange ideas and work collaboratively with the developers to ensure PDA apps meet current and future needs.

Quick Start sheet | RITIS Login | PDA login

User Groups About RITIS About PDA Suite Newsletters Other References

Meeting information from previous meetings

A description of all RITIS tools is available in the RITIS Tool Catalog.

Read about Use Cases (descriptions and samples) for RITIS tools here.

Real-Time Data Feeds
RITIS data feeds are services that provide direct access to real-time incident, event, detector, probe, weather, transit, and other data sources including ITS device status.  The RITIS data feeds are designed to facilitate integration of RITIS data back into legacy and third party systems and for third-party application developers that need access to real-time information for dynamic mobility applications.  The data feeds provide for implementation flexibility both in data format and retrieval method. The RITIS platform allows each agency to determine which data elements it wishes to provide in the data feed or maintain secure and secluded from other agencies or the public.

RITIS Figure 2.

Figure 2: The goal of each component is to turn data into information for operations, planners, researchers, and the public.

Archived Data Analysis Tools
All data within RITIS is archived indefinitely—meaning that no data is ever deemed “too old” to be removed from user access.  RITIS has a number of tools allowing users to query, analyze, and derive performance measures from this archive. Many of these tools are highly interactive and dynamic.  They have been developed with the user in mind and afford a high degree of freedom to explore the data with minimal training needed. Data within the archive can also be downloaded and/or exported so that users can perform their own independent analysis. These tools can allow users to identify accident hot-spots, analyze queue lengths and traffic congestion/bottlenecks at specific areas, perform after-action reviews, and evaluate the effectiveness of transportation operations strategies.

Select screenshots from these real-time situational awareness tools can be found here.

RITIS is in use by decision makers, researchers, planners, operations specialists, the military, and homeland security officials in every state. The use of RITIS has been shown to:

  • Reduce transportation research costs by as much as 50%;
  • Be a significant asset to 4,200+ Federal, State, and Local officials for real-time situational awareness;
  • Enable regional response and inter-agency coordination among hundreds of agencies;
  • Provide for transparent decision making through data-driven approaches to prioritizing and justifying projects;
  • Provide for better communication to decision makers and the public;
  • Significantly reduce agency costs while dramatically speeding up the ability of agency staff to respond to media and decision makers.

 

Figure 4: There are many tools embedded within and enabled through the RITIS platform.

Why use RITIS

  • RITIS provides for cross-agency, cross-border collaboration. No other system in the U.S. covers as many states and systems.
  • Tens of millions of dollars have already been invested in RITIS by public safety agencies, DOTs, Homeland Security, and the Military.
  • RITIS does not have complex software licensing fees or restrictions on agency usage.
  • RITIS developers have focused on usability and visualization to ensure the best possible user experience for operations, planners, and researchers alike.
  • The RITIS Platform processes, archives, and fuses more data (including sheer quantity, depth, and breadth) from more agencies than ANY other transportation system in the world—public or private.
  • We can act as a broker for agency data transmission to 3rd parties—relieving the agency of needing to worry about responding to data inquiries.
  • Because our system is hosted outside of any DOT network, our system can dramatically reduce an agency’s bandwidth needs for sharing data with the public and other agencies
  • We understand the complexities of dealing with multiple states, MPOs, local officials, etc. when it comes to MOUs, legal agreements, and consensus building.
  • We understand (and are bridging the gaps between) the operations, planning, and research communities and how they relate to decision making, public interaction, and the media.
  • New features are constantly being developed and are deployed no less than once every quarter (but usually once per month).
  • As government employees, all CATT Lab staff are public servants. We pride ourselves on the quality of our work, and remain open and unbiased towards other providers and services.  We work well with vendors, and typically remain contractually open and non-exclusive when bidding on work.  As a non-profit, we can only charge for our actual expended hours and equipment.
  • Resources and costs are shared among all agencies.  When one agency invests in a new feature or new hardware, all agencies benefit.  RITIS is akin to a pooled fund project.

Meeting Tool
RITIS offers a collaborative web-based meeting tool for member agency use in planning for and coordinating activities and events.  RITIS Meeting provides users with: 1) a number of situational awareness layers (Incidents and Events, DMS, Weather (Road, Alerts, Radar) Evacuation Support; 2) a Timeline that can be used to share weather, traffic or other time-sensitive information as well as clickable links to critical documents, such as Situation Reports; 3) the ability to poll participants and get instant results; 4) automatic documentation of meeting notes, poll results and timeline entries, and; 5) a Meeting Log sent automatically to all participants.  More information can be found in these reference guides…

Video Tutorials of the PDA Suite tools are available here.

A description of all PDA Suite tools is available in the RITIS Tool Catalog – click on
“Other” and select “Probe Data Analytics.”

Why Agencies choose PDA

Open & Transparent: There are no “black boxes” with RITIS — all formulae used to calculate metrics are available for users to review. And to the extent possible, we’ve built in capabilities so that agency transportation engineers, academics, and FHWA partners may define their own criteria to satisfy local needs.

Agency Guided: RITIS enhancements and new features are continually guided by agencies through Agency Input Sessions in regularly scheduled RITIS and Probe Data Analytics Suite User Groups, as well as suggestions, comments and questions sent to our Support Team. This has ensured that user interfaces, output formats, and visualizations reflect agency priorities and needs.
Data Agnostic: RITIS tools can ingest nearly any type of data in any format. Our probe data analytics tools work with any 3rd party probe data provider (HERE, INRIX, or TomTom.) If an agency decides later to change their ATMS, ITS technologies, or data provider, rest assured that historic data will be preserved—providing seamless analysis between data providers and time ranges.
Tailored for Inter-Agency Collaboration: There is great value to “seeing” across jurisdictional boundaries. For daily operations, significant events, and regional emergencies, coordination improves when everyone has access to a single, trusted source of information. Dedicated preparedness and collaboration tools built into RITIS help agency and responder staffs plan, train, execute, and review together.
Shared Development & Pooled Fund Projects: When one agency invests in a new feature or technology, the products are shared so all other RITIS agencies can benefit. By leveraging each other’s investments, agencies accomplish more with less while helping the system to evolve.
Maintained and Improved by a Large Professional Support Team: RITIS is developed and supported by an unparalleled interdisciplinary team of graphic artists, UX specialists, transportation professionals, IT staff, software developers, and agency partners, making it a powerful national asset.

RITIS User Group / PDA Suite User Group Follow-Up – May 2019

RITIS User Group / PDA Suite User Group Follow-Up – March 2019

RITIS User Group / PDA Suite User Group Follow-Up – November 2018

PDA Suite User Group Newsletter – Fall 2018

RITIS User Group / PDA Suite User Group Follow-Up – July 2018

RITIS User Group / PDA Suite User Group Follow-Up – February 2018

RITIS User Group Follow-Up – October 2017

Probe Data Analytics Newsletter – August 2017

RITIS User Group Update – June 2017 

Probe Data Analytics Newsletter – May 2017

Probe Data Analytics User Group Update – February 2017

Probe Data Analytics Newsletter – February 2017

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – November 2016

VPP-VPP Suite Newsletter – October 2016

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – Summer 2016

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – March 2016

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – February 2016

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – December 2015

VPP/VPP Suite Newsletter – October 2015

PDA Suite Focus Groups

Work Zone PM App

Detailed Information on the Work Zone Performance Monitoring Application

Work Zone Performance Monitoring Application (WZPMA) Quick Reference Guide – Oct 2017

Work Zone Performance Monitoring Video Tutorial

iPeMS Data Tools

Meeting information from previous meetings:

April 17, 2019 | iPeMS User Webinar