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Group Title: McTrans newsletter
Title: McTrans newsletter. Vol. 37
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Permanent Link: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00078185/00029
 Material Information
Title: McTrans newsletter. Vol. 37
Series Title: McTrans newsletter
Physical Description: Serial
Language: English
Creator: Center for Microcomputers in Transportation, College of Engineering, University of Florida
Publisher: Center for Microcomputers in Transportation, College of Engineering, University of Florida
Publication Date: July 2007
 Subjects
Subject: University of Florida   ( lcsh )
Spatial Coverage: North America -- United States -- Florida -- Gainesville
 Record Information
Bibliographic ID: UF00078185
Volume ID: VID00029
Source Institution: University of Florida
Holding Location: University of Florida
Rights Management: All rights reserved, Board of Trustees of the University of Florida

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    New products
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    Updated products
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Full Text







HCST7FTM
New Additions and Features

McTrans' latest software development, HCST7F is being
tested now. In addition to the integration with TRANSYT-7F
(featured in the last newsletter), this version will include the
new Interchanges module implementing the recently approved
Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) Chapter 26 procedures for
Interchange Ramp Terminals.










The new methodology covers the analysis of eight interchange
types, including, Single-Point Urban Interchange (SPUI);
Diamond Interchange (CUDI, CDI, TUDI); Partial CloverleafA
- 4 Quadrants (Parclo A 4Q); Partial CloverleafA 2 Quadrants
(Parclo A 2Q); Partial Cloverleaf B 4 Quadrants (Parclo B
4Q); Partial Cloverleaf B 2 Quadrants (Parclo B 2Q); Partial
CloverleafAB 2 Quadrants (Parclo AB 2Q); and Partial
CloverleafAB 4 Quadrants (Parclo AB 4Q).

The analysis is based on the procedures for signalized intersections,
but adds several components to account for the unique relationship
between signals controlling the ramps at interchanges.


Turn Radius: Adjusts saturation flow rate for the effects of
turning movement geometry on vehicle headway.
Lane Utilization: Adjusts the saturation flow rate for uneven
lane distribution due to downstream turn proportions.
Downstream Queue: Provides for additional lost time caused
by the blocking of upstream movements by the queue.
Demand Starvation: Provides for additional lost time created
when signal timing inhibits the downstream demand.
Traffic Pressure: Adjusts the saturation flow rate for the
reduction in headway created with higher demand flows.

The measures of effectiveness are computed for the various
origin-destination (O-D) pairs to completely describe operations
through both intersections. Level of Service (LOS) is provided
for each O-D and is based on control delay in seconds per
vehicle (like in Signalized Intersections), but with modified
LOS thresholds to account for the vehicle traveling through two
intersections. There are also two additional provisions for LOS F.
If either the volume-to-capacity ratio or the queue storage ratio
exceeds 1.0, the LOS is F.

HCS+ registered users will receive the new HCST7F product
automatically when released. TRANSYT-7F and HCS2000
users can avoid the price increase by upgrading now at:
http://mctrans.ce.ufl.edu/HCST7F/


Arterial


McTrans
Civil & Coastal Engineering
PO Box 116585
Gainesville FL 32611-6585
352.392.0378
Toll Free (US): 1.800.226.1013
Fax: 352.392.6629
E-mail: mctrans@ce.ufl.edu
http://mctrans.ce.ufl.edu/


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W) New Products
1 Updated Products
SAdvertising Directory

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McTrans July 2007


New Products

Visual TEAPAC Gets Addition of SCENARIO


Visual TEAPAC is now available with
SCENARIO, a powerful program to create
and manage the multi-scenario analyses
often conducted with any of the 13 other
TEAPAC programs.

What Is SCENARIO?

SCENARIO is a new Visual TEAPAC
program that can create multi-scenario data
files either from scratch or from data files of
earlier versions of TEAPAC. Users can:

select from pre-defined typical scenario
structures,
customize a pre-defined scenario
structure, or
create completely unique scenario
conditions.

SCENARIO also functions as a plugin for
all other Visual TEAPAC programs so that
every program automatically understands
the SCENARIO file structure. The primary
advantage of using SCENARIO is that all
the scenario data is saved without dangers
of duplicated data which often occur when
scenarios are managed by the typical use of
File-SaveAs.

SCENARIO can easily define single-issue or
multi-issue conditions, and any data dialog
can be assigned or re-assigned to any Issue
for as many as five independent, mutually-
exclusive Issues. For example, a simple
single-issue scenario is multiple volume
conditions for one or more intersections for
which capacity analysis, intersection design
and/or signal timing optimization would
be needed with SIGNAL2000. Initially, the
VOLUME dialog could be assigned to the
Issue named "Volume Conditions" and up to
25 different Conditions could be named and
saved with unique volumes.

Later, additional data like
PEAKHOURFACTORS and PEDLEVELS
could be added to the defined Issue for each
condition, and/or additional Conditions
could be added. Other examples of a single-
issue analysis are multiple years of traffic
count data for TURNS or WARRANTS, or
multiple years or zones of land use for SITE's
projected traffic estimation.


Multi-issue scenarios could be combinations
of any of these, where the variation of one
variable is independent of the others, such
as changing volumes based on the time-of-
day and/or day-of-week while independently
changing intersection geometrics depending
on differing funding possibilities.

Why Is SCENARIO So Important?

Multi-scenario analyses are endemic to
traffic engineering analyses. Everyone
does these types of analyses all the time.
So why is SCENARIO such a significant
breakthrough? The answer lies in the
way that most multi-scenario analyses
are currently conducted versus how it
is handled with SCENARIO, and the
ramifications these differences have on the
analyst.

The most common way to create a multi-
scenario analysis with ANY program is to
open the data file from the first analysis,
change the data that defines the second
scenario, and use the File-SaveAs menu to
save the conditions under a different file
name. This is easily done for any number of
conditions which are analyzed, and is often
extended as the project proceeds to consider
scenarios not originally anticipated.

The problem with this approach is that
typically 90% or more of the data saved in
each file is exactly the same, and if any of
that data changes during the course of the
analysis, it must be changed in every file.
This is a time-consuming and tedious effort
that is frequently omitted due to lack of
time, budget or motivation. This is where
the SaveAs approach breaks down and is
often the root cause of numerous problems
later on in the project, sometimes even in a
debilitating way.


Enter SCENARIO: for data which does
not change from case to case, SCENARIO
only saves one copy of that data, so if it
changes, the change is saved immediately
and only once. It is changed quickly,
easily and without hesitation, keeping the
entire database for all the project analyses
internally consistent for any subsequent
analyses.

Exploit The Power of SCENARIO for Third-
Party Software

While SCENARIO is easily seen as
indispensable for most any Visual TEAPAC
analysis, due to the connection of TEAPAC
to many other 3rd-party programs, use of
these other programs can also gain a huge
advantage from the multi-scenario data
management offered by SCENARIO.

For example, while in TRANSYT or
CORSIM, SaveAs is typically used to create
multiple data files with different analysis
volumes and thus huge amounts of duplicate
data for all other data entries. Creating
duplicate-free data for PRETRANSYT or
PRENETSIM is trivial with SCENARIO,
and because of the seamless sharing of
data files among all Visual TEAPAC
programs, the same data is easily used by
SIGNAL2000 for HCM-compliant capacity
analyses and timing/phasing optimizations,
as well as to compute saturation flow rates
needed by TRANSYT and CORSIM.
Other 3rd-party programs like Synchro, TS/
PP-Draft and PASSER-II are easily added to
the multi-scenario analysis by the immediate
seamless compatibility of PRESYNCHRO,
PRETSPPD and PREPASSR.




McTrans July 2007


Updates


TRAFFIC 7.9
Dowling Associates, Inc. announces the
release ofTRAFFIX" 7.9 traffic impact
analysis software.

TRAFFIX' 7.9 contains many new
features, including: a global auto path tool,
an auto allocate path percentages option,
updated output format to Synchro, a new
2-page per sheet report output format,
additional graphical intersection volume
reports and HCM updates. A Spanish
language option has also recently been
added to the software.

TRAFFIX" allows users to: rapidly
forecast the impact of new developments;
conduct capacity analyses using HCM,
ICU, Circular 212 and other methods;
interactively test mitigation measures;
determine individual development projects'
traffic impact fees; generate comprehensive,
concise reports; import from travel demand
models and ASCII; and export to Synchro,
HCS, XML and ASCII, for multiple
intersections and scenarios...all from a
single file.

Visual TEAPAC

Visual TEAPAC has been updated with
major enhancements to the 1-click seamless
integration of every TEAPAC program.
Recent enhancements included in this
update are:

addition of the SCENARIO program as
a plugin for every TEAPAC program,
ability to use long file and path names,
direct integration of the software with
the new online User Discussion Forum
for TEAPAC support,
export both signalized and unsignalized
intersection data directly to the new
HCS+ program,


export/import data directly to/from the
updated TRANSYT-7F Release 11,
export/import data directly to/from the
updated CORSIM Version 6,
export/import data directly to/from the
updated Synchro/SimTraffic Version 7,
including intersection names,
export/import data directly to/from
the updated TS/PP-Draft Version 7,
including intersection names,
increased number of driveways allowed
for site developments and longer
assignment paths,
enhanced coordinate system
management features, and
miscellaneous fixes and efficiency
enhancements, and the inclusion of
continued free support for the coming
year.

Visual TEAPAC still has all the graphical,
seamless data exchange features originally
offered by the first release of Visual
TEAPAC, for the 13 TEAPAC programs
and 14 third-party programs, including:

drag-and-drop creation or editing of the
analysis network,
an optional graphics background for
ease of creating network and visualizing
results,
right-click access to all data entry and
results dialogs,
enhanced, full-color, graphical output
reports,
optional ring-based signal timing input
and viewing,
one data file for all programs, with up to
500 intersections per file/analysis,
one-click, instant transfer of control and
data from one program to another,
one-click exchange of results to each
other, such as peak period volumes,


PHFs, projected polumes, optimized
timings, etc.,
Help files that include the complete user
guide, with free downloadable manuals
in printable and searchable .pdf format.

All TEAPAC programs are available as
a new license from McTrans and Strong
Concepts either individually in 12- or
100-intersection sizes, or as pre-packaged
bundles -- use the keyword "TPAC" in the
McTrans online catalog, or look for product
numbers starting with 'TPC' or program
names ending with '/TEAPAC' in the
Product List at the end of this newsletter.
Special update and upgrade pricing and
500-intersection sizes are available directly
from Strong Concepts. The Visual TEAPAC
programs updated with this release are
SIGNAL2000, NOSTOP, PRENOSTOP,
PRETSPPD, PREPASSR, PRETRANSYT,
PRENETSIM, PRESYNCHRO, SITE,
WARRANTS, TURNS, TED and
TUTOR. The packaged bundles affected
are the Traffic Engineering Package, the
Signal Timing Analysis Package and the
Site Impact Analysis Package. Educational
discounts are available, and functional
demos are available as free downloads at the
McTrans and Strong Concepts Web sites.

Visit www.StrongConcepts.com for
more details about the new SCENARIO
program, the generic Visual TEAPAC
features and individual programs' changes,
as well as example screen-shots, an animated
slide-show, a flowchart showing the seamless
integration, and new license or upgrade
pricing which still features a standard site
licensing policy.


Update Watch


Package


Version Status


HCS+TM
TRANSYT-7F
TSIS/CORSIM
DYNASMART-P
IDAS
QuickZone
TNM
Turbo Architecture


5.21
10.3
6.0
1.3.0
2.3
2.0
2.5
3.1


Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete


Available
Available
Available
Available
Available
Available
Available
Available


Patch download
Patch download
Registered Users may upgrade
Sent to Registered users
Sent to Registered Users
Sent to Registered Users
Sent to Registered Users
Patch download


Target


Distribution




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