Press Releases

For Immediate Release

MTC Awards $38 Million TravInfo® Contract

CONTACTS:

Marjorie Blackwell, MTC
510.464.7884

Michael Berman, MTC
510.817.3281

Bruce Ross, PB Farradyne
212.768.1155

OAKLAND, Calif., August 28, 2000 . . . The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has awarded a $38 million, six-year contract to PB Farradyne, Inc. to operate TravInfo®, the Bay Area's real-time traffic and transit information source, and to design, build, operate and maintain an enhanced system. PB Farradyne, Inc. is a division of the Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc. engineering firm based in New York. MTC has the option of awarding two additional two-year extensions of the contract.

TravInfo® provides up-to-the-minute information on Bay Area bridge and highway conditions and offers connections to Bay Area public transit agencies, paratransit and rideshare services via a regionwide, local-access (no area code needed) phone number: 817-1717. TravInfo® was launched by MTC in 1996 as a federally funded test of an advanced traveler information system. MTC has managed the system for four years in partnership with Caltrans District 4 and the California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division, plus private firms that disseminate the information to Bay Area travelers. Currently, the 817-1717 number receives more than 60,000 calls a month.

With the recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assign a national, three-digit telephone number for advanced traveler information, 817-1717 will be replaced by the national 511 number. The Bay Area will be one of the first regions of the U.S. to undertake implementation of 511. The conversion is expected to be completed within the next two years.

PB Farradyne's TravInfo® contract calls for providing the systems and services to collect, disseminate and market timely, comprehensive, accurate and reliable travel information on major roadways and public transportation in the nine-county Bay Area. The information will be accessible via a Web site, a toll-free telephone number and other dissemination methods, such as kiosks at key locations, cell phones and hand-held computers.

According to MTC Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms, "Our major goal is to increase TravInfo®‘s usefulness to travelers and to increase the number of people using it. Collecting all the travel information does no good unless people use the service. To that end, our goal — and PB Farradyne's charge — is to have more than 10 million annual users by 2004."

Dahms added, "The rapid advance in today's communication technologies such as cell phones, personal communications services and devices, in-vehicle navigation systems, kiosks and the Internet enables TravInfo® to reach people at home, work or en route and to assist them in making informed transportation decisions. PB Farradyne will use these technologies to make transportation information available to Bay Area travelers wherever they are, whenever they want it."

MTC will allocate up to $25 million in federal and local transportation funds for the first four years of the contract. Funding for the final two years likely will be provided through reauthorization of the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century in 2003.

MTC, which is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, evaluated four proposals before awarding the TravInfo® contract to PB Farradyne.

The PB Farradyne team undertaking the project includes: US Wireless Corp.; TrafficStation, Inc.; Technology Management, Inc.; NextBus Information Systems, Inc.; GIS/Trans, Ltd.; Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.; TRANSCOM, Inc.; Z3; Pacific Rim Resources; Wolfe/Doyle Advertising; Golden Screens Interactive Technologies, Inc.; MCI WorldCom; and VODAVI-CT, Inc.

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BRIEF TRAVINFO® FACT SHEET

How the Enhanced TravInfo® System Will Work:

• Traffic and transit information (speeds, travel times, construction projects, accidents, transit vehicle locations) will be obtained from numerous sources, including freeway sensors and closed-circuit TV cameras placed along the transportation network, Freeway Service Patrol roving tow trucks, California Highway Patrol (CHP) dispatches, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) traffic monitoring centers, and transit information centers.

• The central computer system will combine or "fuse" data from all of these sources and relay it to data dissemination devices and services for use by Bay Area travelers. The primary methods of providing information will be through a single, phone number (see below) and a Web site.

• With today's communication technologies, such as cell phones, pagers, personal communications services and devices, in-vehicle navigation systems, kiosks and the Internet, TravInfo® also will be able to reach people at home, work or en route and provide real-time travel information to assist them in making transportation decisions.

• The TravInfo® no-area-code telephone number — 817-1717 — that has been in operation since 1996 will change to the newly authorized nationwide travelers' information number — 511— that is expected to be available throughout the Bay Area within the next two years.


Timeline for TravInfo® Contract:

• Year 1: Enhancements to current services will be designed. These will include incorporating new data collection methods and new ways to provide information to the public. A strategic marketing plan will be developed to build greater public awareness of TravInfo® products and services, and to increase understanding and support for TravInfo® among Bay Area transportation agencies.

• Year 2: New TravInfo® system software will interface with other transportation information systems and be integrated into the TravInfo® services. The TravInfo® Web site and wireless service providers will begin distributing real-time traffic and transit information.

• Years 3 - 6: Will focus on operating, maintaining and continuing to improve the TravInfo® system by incorporating new data sources and new data dissemination methods.

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