Technology Accelerates Volpe Center’s Drive into the Future

For the last decade, CSC has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass., on technologies that are of strategic importance in taking the nation’s transportation systems into the 21st century.

A CSC-led team of 240 program/project managers, software engineers, programmers and analysts provides full life-cycle information systems and technology support to the Center’s diverse client base — which reads like a federal who’s who — under a contract known as TRIPS (Transportation Information Project Support). Among the critical areas of support:

Traffic Flow Management Systems: The research and development of technologies that help manage traffic better — on highways, airways and at the state/local levels.

CSC has made an important contribution to these technologies. For example, a CSC team helped develop and currently helps maintain the Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS), in support of the Volpe Center, which is used by the FAA to strategically manage and control air traffic nationwide [more on CSC in Air Traffic Management].

Advanced Safety Technologies and Safety Information Systems: Safety technologies and information systems that help prevent/minimize accidents.

One example is the Safety Performance Analysis System (SPAS) developed with the help of a CSC team, which gives FAA inspectors countrywide the custom tools they need to monitor the safety of air carriers and personnel.

Crash Research and Analysis: The exhaustive analysis of accidents in order to prevent their recurrence.

CSC supports the Volpe Center in its pioneering work with the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) and the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN). Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) National Center for Statistics and Analysis, NASS and CIREN pursue in-depth research and analysis into crashes, crash injuries and treatments to improve outcomes.

Environmental Measuring and Modeling: Technologies that reduce the impact of transportation on the environment, from noise to emissions.

CSC supports the Volpe Center’s Environmental Measuring and Modeling Division as well as the Noise and Air Quality branch in conducting measurements and analyses pertaining to such environmental issues.

Intelligent Transportation Systems: Next-generation devices that manage congestion, ease bottlenecks, cut down on driving time and enhance safety dramatically by providing traffic operators/drivers with real-time access to traffic conditions.

CSC, in support of the Volpe Center and U.S. state and local governments, has been closely involved in the research and development of such intelligent transportation systems (ITS), helping to develop and integrate the systems; manage the cameras; install and maintain the highway sensors; and manage traffic flow using systems developed to FHWA’s ITS standards [more about CSC and intelligent transport systems].