What's New in version 8.0

The following things have changed since version 7.0 of Tru-Traffic TS/PP (formerly TS/PP-Draft).

Share information with Google Earth:

• Import/Export the entire set of intersection geographic coordinates as GPS Exchange Format (GPX) or Google Earth KML files. (The 3D viewer of Microsoft's Bing Maps, also supports this but in one direction only: transferring coordinates from Bing Maps to Tru-Traffic TS/PP).
• Copy/Paste entire set of intersection geographic coordinates between Google Earth (GPX or KML) and Tru-Traffic TS/PP, either direction.
• Import/Export trip logs as GPS Exchange Format (GPX) or Google Earth KML files for playback as a movie.
• Copy trip logs and paste them in Google Earth (KML) to watch as an animation.
• Export from a Trip Log Plot to Google Earth (KML) the Instantaneous Average of the plotted Trip Logs. This shows the average speeds along the artery in Google Earth as color coded icons.

Improvements in collecting and entering geographic coordinates

• A new, stand-alone GPS coordinates recorder utility, CollectCoordinates, just saves the coordinates to a .txt file for later importing. Once tracking, a voice command or a single keystroke, any keystroke, will do both, collect and save.
• When you paste/import/download geographic coordinates, you always get the option to assign them to intersections. No need to label them in advance.
• The list of geographic coordinates now includes a map showing the location of the various sets of coordinates. This map uses the background image, if any, of the Network View.
• You may now edit geographic coordinates after entering them in the list, for correction or fine-tuning.
• When collecting coordinates with a GPS receiver, you may use a Bluetooth, USB or IR remote control to control GPS data collection (add GPS measurement, Next or Previous Intersection).
• When collecting coordinates with a GPS receiver, optionally play a confirmation sound when each point is recorded.
• When tracking with a GPS receiver, optionally play a confirmation sound when the GPS crosses the center of an intersection.

Trip Logs

• Playback trip log like a movie, as when recorded with the GPS.
• Export trip log playback as an .AVI movie file.
• When recording a trip log,
  • set directly the signal cycle start time instead of performing the clock synchronization step,
  • optionally play a confirmation sound when each point is recorded and/or when crossing the center of an intersection,
  • display a vehicle icon, instead of a circle with a speed slope bar, at the current position on the diagram.
• New properties for trip logs:
  • Notes (of indefinite length), so you can enter "There was a 4-car accident this day."
  • Period designation, e.g., AM, Midday, PM, Weekend, Off-peak, etc.
  • The thickness of the trajectory line on the arterial timings diagram (e.g., the time-space diagram).
  • Override the signal cycle start time (the clock synchronization information) recorded with the trip log.
  • Display (only) the status of a digital signature, if any (e.g., valid signature, invalid signature, or not signed). Trip logs are digitally signed only if recorded by Tru-Traffic TS/PP (starting with version 8.0) while attached to a GPS receiver.
• New options for trip logs:
  • Join together two trip logs into one long trip log,
  • Save/Load trip logs in a separate TSPPD Trip Log file, which can store multiple trip logs and preserves all properties.

Import/Export UTDF 2006 combined file

New designations for intersections

• One-way
• Signal controls one direction of travel only -- useful for divided streets and embedded superstreets.
• The Posted Speed Limit for display in the TT&D report, where it's used to calculate another measure of the delay and where it's available for use in user-defined report columns. Otherwise it's unused.

New layout options for Trip Log Plots

• to graph separately the instantaneous average (or the link average) of the Before and After (and Neither) Trip Logs. This allows you to compare the Befores & Afters on a single plot,
• to change the title on trip log plots, overriding the automatic title,
• to save the Instantaneous Average of the plotted Trip Logs to either a GPX or KML file. This shows the average speeds along the artery in Google Earth as color coded icons,
• to modify the fonts of the various text regions of the plot (e.g., Title, Legend, Axis Titles, Axis Tick Labels, etc.),
• to show today's date and time in plot title,
• to separately show the date and/or time of each trip log in the plot title,
• to separately show the date and/or time of each run in the plot legend, and
• to list the runs in either the plot title or the plot legend only when there are fewer runs than specified limits. This prevents the title and legend from dominating the plotting region when there are many runs.

Improvements to the Travel Time & Delay Report

• You may optionally show the median value and the standard error (as well as the standard deviation and the percent difference),
• You may optionally include or omit from the report summaries the rows for the unrepresented Trip Log types (Before, After, & Neither),
• The Details pages now include a Cumulative Reports section, showing just the arterial end-to-end numbers for each trip log,
• The results of user-defined formulas for report columns may be displayed as a character, e.g., for LOS (1=A, 2=B, etc.),
• You may create an "Agency Title" to go at the top of the reports.
• Fifteen new intrinsic columns:
  • PLSD: Delay in Posted Speed Limit Travel Time from previous Node (seconds) = TT - DL/PLS
  • CPLSD: Cumulative Posted Speed Limit Delay since beginning of Run (seconds)
  • PLS: User-specified Posted Speed Limit
  • TBT: Travel Time to First Blockage (seconds) (= TT, if there is no blockage)
  • BQT: Travel Time from First Blockage to this Node (seconds) = TT - TBT
  • TBS: Average Speed to First Blockage = TBL/TBT
  • BQS: Average Speed from First Blockage to this Node = BQL/BQT, when applicable
  • TBMxS: Maximum Speed to First Blockage (= MxS, if there is no blockage)
  • BQMxS: Maximum Speed from First Blockage to this Node (= MxS, if there is no blockage)
  • GST: Time Elapsed from Start of Through Green to Vehicle Startup (seconds)
  • CGST: Cumulative Time Elapsed from Start of Through Green to Vehicle Startup (seconds)
  • GCT: Time Elapsed from Start of Through Green to this Node Crossing (seconds)
  • CGCT: Cumulative Time Elapsed from Start of Through Green to this Node Crossing (seconds)
  • QDL: Travel Distance from Vehicle Startup after last Stop to Node Crossing (= 0, if there is no blockage)
  • CQDL: Cumulative Travel Distance from Vehicle Startup after last Stop to Node Crossing

New features for text annotations

• Background color property,
• May be assigned to specific timing plans only,
• May be added to the Network View (as well as the arterial diagrams).

Additional layout options for the Arterial Diagram

• Arterial Diagram Titles and Notes may now be of any length; they're no longer restricted to 63 characters.
• Use either the Design Speed, Posted Speed Limit, or both, for displaying green bands and flow density bands on the arterial timings diagrams.
• Show an approximate acceleration curve on bands started from the side-street (based on difference in startup lost times of arterial through and side-street turning movements).
• Improved plotting of Platoon-Progression diagrams with options to control plotting speed, style, and resolution.
• Show the volumes explicitly with text or arrow labels, similar to the splits.
• When showing the splits on the diagram, display either the total splits, green + yellow times only, or the green times only.
• Specify the thickness of the Time=0 lines and the major and minor time tick marks or grid lines.
• Specify the color, thickness, and style (i.e., solid, dotted, dashed, etc.) of the GPS time & position marker lines.

Miscellaneous

• Link shapes in the Network View may follow Bezier Curves (use Ctrl+Shift drag with the left mouse button)
• New properties for the Network View background include the background color and a transparency value for the background map image. Using a fairly high transparency helps the nodes and trip logs to stand out.
• Walk Time adds an optional constraint on the Splits and Cycle Length.
• In optimizing cycle lengths, you may now view the (soft) constraints based on the critical v/c ratios for the intersections in addition to the hard constraints based on clearance times and minimum splits.
• User Preferences and GPS settings are automatically copied from ver. 7.0 installation, if available. You may save/merge selected user preference options to/from a file for sharing between computers.

Ease-of-use improvements

• In the both the Intersection Parameters dialog and the Geographic Coordinates dialog, PgUp and PgDn now skip to next/previous intersection.
• When advancing the Geographic Coordinates dialog to the next/previous intersection, a check box gives the option whether to double-check the distances to neighboring intersections or to skip the warning messages.
• When changing the Downstream Saturation Flow, it offers to apply change to intersections further downstream.
• You may open the Diagram/Arterial Parameters window by clicking on the Name of the Diagram in the Arterial Diagram Window.
• You may open the Network Parameters window by clicking on the Cycle Length in the Arterial Diagram Window.
• Option to enforce that a file be open only once for editing, and after that for read-only until it's closed for editing.
• It's now an option whether to keep automatic backups of files when overwriting existing files.

You may order online.