Good afternoon, everyone. I would ask you to please mute your phone lines. We have gone through a transition of phone carriers, recently, and for today, we have a live telephone line. So we would appreciate if you could please mute them. Is it muted? We would appreciate that you listen to your -- listen to the sound through your speakers. Good afternoon, and to today's Talking operations -- [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] (Due to participants muting their phone line and/or logging in to the event, the audio is cutting in and out). Please be advised that our seminar is being recorded. Let me ask you, once again, if you are on the phone, please mute your phone, we have a live telephone line today. [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] We have a new future. And you can now hear the audio for your webinar through the computer or over the phone. If you wish to hear it through your computer, you must have your computer speakers turned on. And if you don't -- if you are unable to hear it on your computer, you can contact the number shown for technical support. [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] Everyone will be provided the the information regarding this seminar. [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] Which including the audio recording, the presentation and powerpoint -- the PowerPoint presentation, and the Closed Captioning. Let me introduce Bob, Rupurt Rupurt. [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] He represents the traveler program, as well as the traveler programmer. He has been involved with numerous transportations, systems, projects since joining Federal Highway in 1987. Bumper to -- Bob, would you like to start us off? Absolutely. Good afternoon, good morning, everyone. Appreciate everyone taking their time to participate in the webinar today . As I mentioned, -- mentioned, briefly, we will go over the background, the genesis of this regulation, and then we will go in to the possessions of the rule itself, the changes of the proposed rule, and quickly, the rule summary, and then emphasize the request for comments, and then go through the next steps that we have as we are rolling out the program in the next few years. This program started in the SAFE TEA-LU. And a little more on the background, the approach. The legislation, while it didn't provide any new and specific funding for the program, it provided the explicit eligibility for the products -- projects under the system, the three big programs that allot the funding to the state's formula. The technology and detailed approach for agnostic technology. We are allowing a lot of flexibility to the states and the local agencies in the implementation's program on how they gather, process the data and the information that is required under the regulation. We also looked at the existing systems that are out there. Most of the states have some, but not all of the information that is required under the regulation. Certainly, we want build off of the existing systems. Most states currently have some information. And building off of that, we would be looking at the probably applications of information, and one of those is the real-time performance monitor, and then -- monitoring, and traveler information. Certainly, part of that will be in the rule itself. Within the rule itself, it is code fiscal yeared in the tile -- code filed -- codified for the implementation of the system. It will be all -- all interstates within four years, November 8th 2014. By 2015 would be placed by all of the interstice that are provided around the company. Other metropolitan "routes of significance" as identified by the states in collaboration with local agencies. And it would be within 6 years. November, late, 2016. What we are looking at the requirements of the regulations. And we are looking outside of the metropolitan areas, construction lane closures, road-or-lane blocking traffic incidents, hazardous conditions and road or lane closures due to adverse weather with -- -- weather. The winter weather coming up, a lot of times there are roads closed due to winter weather, smoke, or fog. In the major metropolitan areas, we are look ago t the travel times. All right. Let me break in here, Bob. Sorry. We have a live phone line today, so we are asking that all of the participants please mute your phone lines, thank you. Thank you. The metropolitan is defined as greater than 1 million. And that is essentially the top 50 metropolitan areas in the country, and those areas that we are talking about, they carry on about what is in the rule, the time limits of the information, and that is sort of how quickly, how soon the information should be updates, and that is from when the event is verified or confirmed, and the constructions and incident information within 20 minutes, and that is for the lane closures, then within 10 minutes in the Metro areas. And adverse weather conditions within 20 minutes. And travel times within 10 minutes. We have received the comments of these, and generally, the travel times are -- times are too high -- too long to be useful. But we still think this is a regional approach than before, and hopefully all of the systems will be performing better than that. We have the quality measures in the regulation, and that will be in the accuracy of 25%, and that is in the error rate of observation which is available 90% of the time. And these originated from a study that came from the travelers information and the quality metrics for the lowest level of good for the travel information. And these are the parameters that are agreed upon then. And so what were some of the changes of the proposed rule that came up? One, the time frames were added -- increased by two years, and the proposed times are 2 and 4, we have 4 years, interstate, and the other six years is for the routes that are selected. We have the number of comments that are about the regional architect which you ares -- architectures. And those are by adding two years across the board, and it should be able to capture the updated information on the architecturals that will take place. And it will also institutionalize the information that has been provided throughout the states. And that will be provided throughout some of the states, change times for compliance from 2 to 4 years, for initial interstate routes phase, and from 4 to 6 years for phase 2, other routes of significant as identified states and locals. Ait lows the time to examine regional ITS architect which you ares and transportation plans to accommodate the financial relief in that regard. Also, I received a number of comments about the weather provisions, and in the proposed rule, it is all of the weather requirements -- weather conditions that have change -- change roadway weather requirements from all conditions to hazardous conditions and road linebacker lane closures, which is consistent with the construction and the traffic incident information. And there is also hazardous conditions, and you might think about that, and some of the situations are changed through the required provisions, the snow passes, things like that. And some of that would be merited by getting the real time information out. And that, real-time with the weather information and constructions, and it is also part of the required cost of the N and -- infrastructure requirements. Probably the other changes that we have, we had a number of comments asking about the quality measures, and how is the quality going to be measured ability the information, and realizing that the states are going to be the one they are installing, the technology, they are using, and also, the flexibility that is used in this regard also. And the claims and the changes that are made are in coordination with the FHWA division offices, and it is going to be used for identifying melt odds and processes used to ensure quality of information meets minimum requirements. Travel times only required for limited-access routes, measuring the quality and the metrics, and then once they agree of the processes, they will be checking the processes over time, and working on the same page. And we think it is important to go through that process. Changes from the NPRM, require states, -- travel times only required for limit-access routes, and some of those were iffy at this point in time, and some of that is required for the unlimited access roads, the toll roads, or the in limited -- limited access roads, and the travel time, and the travel is more usable. And that is in the other programs and activities. Finally, -- we also had a number of questions asking about -- what was meant by the local workers and the institutional partners. And trying to highlight that, the issue tuitional -- institutional partners here are trying to deal with the public sift and the M d such ever -- safety and the MPOs in the metropolitan areas. And we want to be clear that the rule is not in place or trying to be in place for the new organizations. It is building off whatever the current arrangements are. It is varying as you go around the state and the different metropolitan areas. It's however your current working relationships are, we want to leverage those relationships, and we want to implement the program, but not trying to put any new -- new roams in place, or any new requirements on top of those partnerships. What is not in the rule? Again, there is no specific requirement for disseminating this information to the general public. We got a number of comments of the proposed rule, and it was, does it require the implementation of the specific technologies or applications or programs, and the answer is no. The final rule is: In the essence of establishing the base, if you will, that is out there, the database of the real-time information, but it does not require any particular dissemination system on top of it for the general public. Hopefully that is -- won't be a problem for a number of states to go ahead and provide this to the public. There is no specific technologies or techniques discussed or related to the measuring quality. Again, that is going to be dependent on the types of system, or however the information is gathered. It could be gathered by the private sector and vendors, perhaps, and that will be bringing in different types of measurements for the quality. And then the quality metrics will be looked at. Again, we are not assessing the quality metrics. We are also not adding any new enforcement actions with this program. And whatever the current, however the current federal aid program is being overseen and using the stewardship with the states and this falls in line with the federal regulations. And there is no specific remedial reaction or anything like that. And it is part of what is required in the regular. It is quote of what is unusual oversite that took place and there is no rule that takes place for implementing that. So in summary, the rule, program requirement is for establishing information, and not for delivery of the information itself. You want to think about it as a pull-push type of thing, this is establishing a pull-type of environment, as opposed to pushing the information out. We are also looking at -- trying to highlight the high potential of using privately provided data in the meeting requirements. It's out there Z and again, we are not being specific in any of the technologies, so the door is open for those that are out there. The rule has been extended two years for compliance. Self-certification and for information of quality and the metrics, how they will be gauged and measured for the quality and the information. And the travel time in the Metro areas of the other routes and significance, it will be beyond interstates, but for right now, it will only be required that it is part of the regulation. So that statistics is kind of the rule in a nutshell. I flow we have a number of questions. People are canning -- people are asking, is there a guidance on the significance? I want to point out there is no strict criteria on the [ inaudible ], there is some new rules such as the evacuation routes that may come to mind, the construction routes, recurring routing, congestion routes, and it is -- it will be left up to the loans since the -- locals since the need of this would be primary. We want to be descriptive of what the criteria would be. I want to provide the request of comments that are included in the rule. This is the opportunity to provide administration with the request for comments. This is perhaps, publishing the commands for the separate documents, and because of the comments, the questions that were asked, and the questions posed for the intricate involvement itself. The rule is final, and it is published, and it will be active on December 23, and it will be [ inaudible ] on December 23rd, but as you might imagine, it will be particularly part of the benefits information, and that in the abstract is challenging to say the least. We want to ping the community as much as we can to let you know how helpful you could be in this program. We want to publish the final rule, and the comments and the questions must be submitted, and they are submit used through the website www.regulations.gov. They are available until -- They are available until December 23rd. So the 23rd is probably not the complete drop-dead date, the docket will be open after that date if you wish to submit the comments. The suggestions and the comments must be submitted by the documents and it is not really being looked at via this webinar, but hopefully we can help -- help educate you, inform you, and make you more aware of what the questions are so we can provide better information about the docket, and I will look at it as a substitute as part of the docket, and we will quickly go through the proposed questions of the final rule. And the first question is looking at the costs and the benefits for each of those provided under the rule, and then we are looking at the provisions that are provided. And that is the overall Corp. Those are the type of provisions that we are looking at. Do you have information about the costs and benefits of the provisions on the rule and also, if the provisions are resulting in the net costs, the benefits that are lower than the costs that it would take to implement it, could it be part of the revisions of the increase of the benefits. That's the nature of the first question, and that is looking at the provisions within the regulation itself. And the second is closely related to it, but it is not part of the individual regulations, but it is part of the original impact of the metropolitan areas, and those are part of the country significantly when you are looking at the overall costs and benefits. What are the impacts of the required provisions for the states and the metropolitan areas, are there net costs, benefits, and the second part of the question is similar to the second part, and if there is costs, could there be benefits to increasing the benefits again? And the third question relates to the basis for our regulatory cost [null] -- cost analysis, and we have done a study that is done on the navigator system, and we have looked at the work in the at listen a taxpayer area -- Atlanta area. And that was the basis for our regulatory analysis. Are there other alternative approaches that are out there: It's essentially challenging to determine the benefits and the information. That is part of the information. -- information, the stud dis, what is more recent and the innovative approaches that people may be questioning . These are the purposes of the question, and those will help us to get a better handle on what the current techniques that are out there. And hopefully being able to help what is going on in the program, and the other uses around information in the program, and that is to ensure that they are using the best method, and those are for method for the area, and those are the most effective method that is out there. And everyone knows that the technology is moving rapidly. There are some -- in looking at that, the six parts of this question, the technologies, what they -- what technologies are currently used, which ones are used for disseminating, which ones are available for gathering, and the first one looks at the number of challenges, and we know the number of systems and the interoperability, and the third question looks at the challenges that are there, the technologies and what the states are looking at, and those are part of the interoperabilities that are submitted and are they part of the technology? And the 4th question is, are there any structural information in the provisions and the technical information that is in the rule. We want to make sure we are not necessarily putting the constraints on the low costs that are out there and where they would arise. We are asking for your input on that one, and the 5th question, and probably a number of you are aware. And that is part of the intelligence Department of Transportation program is interested in pursuing the 9. 5 gig -- gigahertz, and it is look at the information for that technology, or addressing the requirements in this regulation -- regulation. And as I stated there, it could be used to helpful fill the requirements of the rule, the input of relate to the 5.9 regulations for this. And then the last question, there is a lot of legacy technologies in place, the new technology, the horizons, and a lot of things that are in place and how to make sure that what we have today are not inadvertently locked in to a box around have those taken advantage of, merging the technology, and making sure they are sustainable over time. There is a lot of fairly detailed questions, but we think there is a lot of knowledge out there in the community as we are moving forward. And that is including the ITS program also. And finally, the last question, the rule uses a million population as determining the major metropolitan areas, and it will have the greatest impacts, the greatest affects, and the others would be the criteria that is appropriate, or that is better in determining which -- what areas would have the greatest effects on. What is that? How would one determine the structures in those area. That is it. I have seen a number of questions of the guidance, the guidelines that are coming out. I want to talk about the next steps that we are looking at. We are going to continue to roll out the final rule, the awareness, what is required in the rules and the regulations. And I have a couple of webcasts that I am doing, it will look like this one, and certainly W -- certainly, we have other information and regulations that will be coming up in the next week. We are looking at developing some guidelines and collecting some of the successful practices. And actually, we are going to be going through the contract offs, and we are going to go a -- efforts and going to go ahead and implementing the programs and we go along. And we are going to capture those and share them with everyone. We want to be able to share the good practices that people have already done. And we want to capture the techniques of the measuring quality and the various types of systems, and, again, -- I won't go so far as saying tool box, but there will be examples and ways to measure the quality, for example, that the others have used . [ Overlapping/Multiple Speakers ] It will help shape those. (we -- we are asking all of the participants to mute your lines. Thanks. [ Overlapping/Multiple Speakers ] We have the travel information, the websites, and all of that information. We sort of have an idea of where the states will be. We want to work with the division offices to work with the states, and we will be determining where we really are as far the baseline and the conditions, and it will help you to tell where the best resources are and to get the most benefits in implementing this program. Again, stay tune with that as we are moving forward. One of the other ones that are related to this program is the requirement for the data exchange formats, and in 2011, we came out with high level guidelines, and they are pulling together every standard that one could imagine, and that might be related to this . We have the systems, the data formats, and it is part of determining the standards, what they may be, and the guidelines, the tools of -- to help hold the states and the local agencies, and it will be part of implementing the data format in this program. And it is the starting of the efforts that are part -- [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] They should be useful and usable certainly in the time frame of the rules are being implemented. And that is kind of it as far as the formal presentation itself. Again, my contact information is up there, we have provided a site that is related to this program, and we have information and the regulations onsite, and we have the lightly populated rules. And we have the -- the rule making and the direct link that will be submitting the comments to the documents and the documents -- docket itself and the final rule. If you want to go online and submit your comments without having to search regulations.gov which can be a challenge, we use a link -- on our website to to get you there. I have a question, is this in the event to get through the FHWA database, or is it for the states through our own use? It's not -- you are not telling us how to get it out of the public, so what is the purpose of getting this in the data format. Thanks. It's not reporting the Federal Highways for sure. That's not us. The notion behind this is going back to the requirements, the regulations, and the statute itself in the SAFE TEA-LU. You may want to borrow a term that Microsoft uses, a cloud . This is Tom Boulder, can I ask a question? Certainly. We worked on getting the 1201 a long time ago, in the SAFETEA-LU, the deadlines that you are talking about are kicking the can down the road pretty far from 2005 . We can suggest that the states that will be moving faster in the metropolitan areas should be encouraged to use the public and the private resources to get it down forcer than waiting until the last minute, 2014 and 2016. And that is part of the collaborative discussions as you mentioned at the end of your presentation. That is the states and the Metro areas in -- and that are nearly near completing the phase 1 effort -- phase 1 and 2 programs that are up and coming . Right. Make sure you want to submit the comments on the did -- yeah, they have been submitted earlier this week. And this is Jocelyn, just for procedure sakes, for the question and answer period here, the intention is, perhaps for Bob to answer the chat questions first, and then if there is time remaining we will open up the phone lines. Bob, could you go through the chat questions first? That would be helpful for us all. Thanks . We are looking at the provisions on slide line. We have the quality and the require -- requirements. We are not going to be basing that on the same requirements and methodology. We are going to provide the state and the division with the methodologies, and they will know what they will be looking at. It will be engaging in that opportunity and quality. We will be sharing the best practices, share the best practices around the country, and as, perhaps the systems come to a -- you know, Nexus or something, maybe there will be some common methodologies to be used and sharing those around; will it be the same one for each division? Every division? Certainly, not in the short term or the near term. I think we are going to be working with the parties to make sure we have the best processes in place to ensure that quality . Are you publishing this on the web? Are you okay? And that is part of the particulars for how it is being published on the web, but I would say, in general, yes. And making that processable on the web alone is for the required information and making that available, and it sounds like it would be meeting requirement. And, I guess, someone pointed out that it is in the final rule, the SPC funds, they are actually relate today the SPR. And that is the statewide planning and research funds, and it is also mention the missing data the statute, and those are eligible to be used for the projects of implementing this program . I apologize for that, we will get that changed. If you are looking for private information, that is going to be dent entities on the processing that we -- processes that we use when we are -- going to be identified when we are processing the information. And it is identified in -- at the state level to ensure the quality and the information from the provider. What may that be? That is Bart of the guarantees -- part of the guarantees and that part that is provided. And that is part of the [ inaudible ] provided information that is derived and they will be shared in the quality measures. Particularly, when they are coming to the quality measures, we have to take that year by year. We will be learning this as we go along, hopefully as a community . How long does it take for the data transfer to -- travel information to go through the data transfer. Between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., we may have the to look at the information that is provided in the historical -- standpoints, and we have to [ inaudible ] put those out to public and so that we are not asking those to requiring the bad or historical information . Someone requested about the base -- asked ant -- the based information regarding the significance. They will likely need to work with the partners in the metropolitan areas, the MPOs, the other local agencies, whatever. And then, again, going back to the existing relationship is . In the abstract, I can say, yeah, we want to be flexible, but I also want to say, we want to look as Bradley as possible in the met -- broadly as possible in the metropolitan areas. Someone asked about the requirement -- asked about the requirements and the road lane closures. Those would be the ones we are looking at. Someone asked ability the -- someone talked about the minor lane blocking. What is the criteria for reporting them? And that relates for the requirements of the construction -- activities also. We know there is a number of construction activities and they will only be in the -- obstructing lane for 120 or 15 minute -- 10 or 15 minutes. If it is less that be the time we are asking in the regulation, for example, 20 minutes. So that doesn't need to be captured . And that is probably not the [ inaudible ] of this . Bob, would it help if I expand the chat box? That would be much better. I'm sorry. That's okay . That's providing the raw data to make sure the user data is out there. I am not sure about the goal, but it will certainly be an automatic of putting this order in place. And as far as the data, it would be part of the value sectors that are provided as well . And we want to make sure we have all of the information available around the countries. And that is part of the closures in the metropolitan areas. And must of the information is provided in the locations, but not all of the locations. What we need to do is allow those to -- as we knew this from before, advance it, and continue to advance it bring it up to the common baseline and then continue to grow on top of that . It could be part of the projects, things like that, and they work with the states to determine what they are. And then, once the data base is developed and maintained, however, the information is distributed, it is to market the availability of the database to anyone. It's not so much marketing the availability of the database, but one of the checking that we are going to be looking at as we are going to go out and check for the implemented programs. And one of those are the processes that are in place. And then is that process widely known or public sized? And that is the best way to put it. Is that marketing? I guess that is a question of technique, but it is part of accessing the information that is known . Again, we are not -- if you have comments related to how the metropolitan areas are defined, again, that is certainly one of the questions that are in there, and I encourage you to submit those to the questions an the comments, as we are try to capture those, answer those for everybody. The public of the -- the [ inaudible ] of the public is not the scope of the rule. This is not a traveler information rule. This is a real-time systematic program, and it will be part of the traveler information, but it will not be requiring the trafficker information, once it is observed, you must report it in 10 minutes, and then it will be part of the 20 minutes after it is saved . As long as it is in place are, the database and the information, if you will, and to ensure that the hazard us condition is in place, and then that is fine, but once it is clear, becomes safe, then that should be provided again. And -- let me see, one of the existing traveling websites, the criteria, and the websites, this is not reporting of the FHWA, we are looking for ways to -- make the information available. I would certainly envision that the XML scheme to make those available would be part of the guidelines for implementing the program and making that available. That will be part of hashing that through the exchange formats, and that will help us to play that out. Let me see, I have two more minutes, and then there -- did I miss something else here . I think that will do. Jocelyn, I think that will do it. Yeah, I think that is a good idea. Thank you, Bob. I will now close this out. All right. Let me close out today's with webinar with providing you information on the national transportation operations coalition or NTOC. And we encourage you to go to the NTOC website to find out more about the organizations, and the second slide here, you will see the website, and that contains information about the -- [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] -- and it also contains the website and the archives page with the slides and the previously recordings and presentations. [ Audio Cutting In and Out ] There is also two discussion forms for the high level and strategic wishes, and the other is for the high deployment and lesson's learned, and you can also check the website updates that are e-mailed monthly. I would like to say thank you to Bob Rupert and to all of you who have participated and for your questions. We hope you found this informative, and please enjoy the rest of your day. thank you. (end)