South East Florida Regional TMC Operations

SEFRTOC members meet bi-monthly to facilitate open discussion, make decisions regarding day-to-day operations and develop policies and procedures to maximize the utilization of ITS resources in South East Florida. Some of the regional topics of discussion are as follows:

• Interagency Communication: A goal of the committee is to improve center-to-center communication and assist one another when necessary during Incident Management activities. Note: Each agency's internal procedures for notification schedule and DMS messaging procedures must be followed.



• Shared Resources: Dependent upon internal policy and resource availability, each agency agrees to help identify and share resources during major incidents.

– Road Ranger Patrols
– Dynamic Message Signs (DMS)
– Highway Advisory Radio (HAR)
– Incident Response Vehicles


• DMS Messaging Structure: DMS messaging is based on two main criteria: structure and content of messaging text. The committee agrees to develop and use consistent messaging that will allow quicker recognition by motorists. Structure and content are based on what can be read by the lowest denominator, in this case, the motorist driving at the highest rate of speed.



• Documentation:
  – Standard Operating Guidelines
  – New Meeting Minutes
  


• Criteria and Strategy: It is the strategy of the Committee to invite all South Florida ITS Coalition Agency Members to participate in order to facilitate open discussion and develop policies and procedures to maximize the utilization of ITS resources in South East Florida. All South Florida ITS Coalition Committee members who are currently operating/or plan to deploy a Traffic Management Center are invited to participate in the committee.



• Performance Measures: Used to determine progress toward specific committee objectives enabling SEFRTOC to set additional goals and standards, detect and correct problems, improve processes, and document accomplishments. Performance will be measured based on information collected during the debriefing process. Types of Performance Measures include:
  – Operations Review
  – DMS Utilization
  – Road Ranger Utilization
  – Regional Affect Planned
  


• Hurricane Response Plan: The committee will continue to meet prior to potential hurricane threats to discuss strategies, schedules, TMC assistance, and DMS and other ITS device usage, before, during and after the storm.



• Standard Operating Procedures: Developed to address and document all of the topics above and to assist with meeting the objectives and mission of the committee. The guidelines are intended to clearly identify the partners and partners’ resources and to specify the individual roles and responsibilities with regard to interagency communication, DMS messaging structure, resource sharing, documentation, performance measurement and review process.

For additional information contact Dee McTague at the SMART SunGuide RTMC.