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Advanced Traveler Information System for Hyderabad City

Article in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems · April 2005

DOI: 10.1109/TITS.2004.838179 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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26 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

Advanced Traveler Information System

for Hyderabad City
Praveen Kumar, Varun Singh, Student Member, IEEE, and Dhanunjaya Reddy

Abstract—The advanced traveler information system (ATIS) is transportation infrastructure. Policy makers, transport planners,
a type of intelligent transportation system application areas that traffic engineers, and the private sector engaged in developing
implements emerging computer, communication, and informa- new transport technologies are constantly looking forward to
tion technologies to provide vital information to the users of a
system regarding traffic regulation, route and location guidance,
find solutions to lessen the energy consumption, land usage,
hazardous situations and safety advisory, and warning messages. congestion, casualties, and money required to build new trans-
ATIS requires a large amount of data for processing, analysis, and portation infrastructure. As a result, developed countries have
storage for effective dissemination of traveler information to users. shifted their priority from infrastructure- and capital-intensive
A geographical information system (GIS) allows large data to be transportation strategies to more balanced and sustainable trans-
effectively processed, stored, analyzed, logically associated, and portation solutions. This is where the intelligent transportation
graphical displayed. Thus, GIS-based ATIS provides a convenient
and powerful tool for storage and graphical representation of system (ITS) comes into play. It implicitly holds the promise of
information, which can be useful users. Further, by availing the sustainability. ITS is an integrated system that implements ex-
powerful GIS functionalities, a user can conceive a problem and isting or emerging computer, communication, information, and
allow the appropriate software to assist him in the decision-making vehicle-sensing technologies to coordinate transportation sys-
process regarding optimum route selection and trip planning. In tems in a safe and efficient manner, monitor traffic conditions,
this paper, the authors present a GIS-based ATIS for Hyderabad
City, India. Development of this GIS-based ATIS has been carried
control traffic flow, and provide information to the motoring
under the ArcView GIS environment. This user-friendly system public about traffic conditions. ITS includes a wider applica-
provides comprehensive information about Hyderabad City, such tion of technology to transit systems as well as private cars and
as road networks, hospitals, government and private offices, highways. Benefits given by ITS deployment to any transporta-
stadiums, bus and railway stations, and tourist places within the tion system are improved safety, improved traffic efficiency, re-
city limits. This system can be used effectively in bus stations, duced congestion, improved environmental quality and energy
railway stations, airports, and tourist information centers, as well
as in personal computers to provide information to travelers and efficiency, and improved economic productivity.
to facilitate travel. The advanced traveler information system (ATIS) is one of
the most widely used ITS. ATIS implements a wide range of
Index Terms—Advanced traveler information system (ATIS),
geographical information system (GIS), intelligent transportation technologies, such as Internet web sites, telephones, cellular
system (ITS), route planning. phones, television, radio, etc. to assist travelers and drivers in
making informed decisions regarding trip departures, optimum
routes, and available modes of travel. ATIS provides both pre-
I. INTRODUCTION trip and en route information to the users, both of which offer

T RANSPORTATION functions are an indispensable basis

for any county’s development and have the ability to pro-
vide benefits to the society. Generally, there is widely accepted
distinctive advantages. Table I gives an overview of ATIS [22].
The availability of pretrip information drivers enhances
their self-belief to use freeways and allows commuters to
link between economic well being and good transportation. Ex- make better-informed transit choices [22]. En route informa-
port and import, industry, agriculture, defense, social services tion and guidance saves travel time, helps a traveler avoid
(such as health and education), general administration, main- congestion, can improve traffic network performance, and
tenance of law and order, exploitation of resources, mobility is more efficient than paper maps or written instructions. In
of persons and goods, etc. are some of the many areas of ac- a 1999 survey, people using the Advanced Regional Traffic
tivity that are very closely linked to the availability of adequate Interactive Management and Information System (ARTIMIS)
telephone traveler information service in Cincinnati, OH, rated
Manuscript received November 12, 2003; revised July 15, 2004 and August the ARTIMIS as a beneficial service. More than 99% of people
10, 2004. This work was supported by the All India Council for Technical Edu- surveyed in that city said that they benefited by avoiding traffic
cation (AICTE) for the project on intelligent transportation system. The Asso- problems, saving time, reducing frustration, and arriving at
ciate Editor for this paper was F.-Y. Wang.
P. Kumar is with the Transportation Engineering Section, Department of destinations on time and 81% said that they had recommended
Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, UA 247667, India the service to someone else [24]. Some of the existing traveler
(e-mail: [email protected]). information systems are as follows:
V. Singh is with the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Tech-
nology, Roorkee, UA 247667, India (e-mail: [email protected]). 1) telephone information lines (prerecorded messages for a
D. Reddy was with the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of selected area or corridor);
Technology, Roorkee, UA 247667, India. He is now with Abhinava Info Sys- 2) invehicle navigation systems (global positioning systems
tems Pvt. Ltd., Gunwahati 781028, Assam, India (e-mail: dhanu_yemi@rediff-
mail.com). and dynamic route guidance);
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TITS.2004.838179 3) dynamic message signs (drive-time systems);
1524-9050/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 27

TABLE I planning by private automobile, mass transit, and ride sharing.

OVERVIEW OF THE ATIS The ystem was developed under the ARC/INFO GIS envi-
ronment and census and graphic data are acquired from the
topologically integrated geographic encoding and referencing
(TIGER) files from Union County, NJ.

B. GIS-Based Transit Itinerary-Planning Decision Support

System (GIS-TIPDSS)
Li and Kurt [18] developed a GIS-TIPDSS for assisting pas-
sengers with itinerary decision-making. GIS-TIPDSS was de-
signed and implemented within the MapInfo, Troy, NY, GIS en-
vironment. GIS-TIPDSS was implemented on a personal com-
puter and intended for potential transit users.

C. GIS-Based Decision Support Tool

Wu et al. [16] developed a GIS-based decision support tool
for modeling dynamic network congestion and conducting
minimum cost routing. The system predicts network flows at a
detailed level of temporal resolution, capturing dynamic con-
gestion propagation effects. System works under ARC/INFO
GIS software and custom Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA)
module written in C .

D. Road-Management System for Europe (ROMANSE)

A GIS-based traffic monitoring and analysis system (RO-
MANSE) has been developed for Hampshire and Southampton,
U.K. ROMANSE uses ArcView GIS extension, namely
4) Internet (congestion maps and client–server applica- the Strategic Information System Client, for displaying an
tions). overview of transport environment using information from the
5) radio and television broadcasts (pretrip and en route). urban traffic control (UTC) [9].
Further advanced information technologies, such as the ge-
ographic information system (GIS) can be effectively imple- III. GIS-BASED ATIS DEVELOPMENT
mented in ITS to improve the efficiency and safety of the trans-
portation infrastructure. GIS is the type of integrated informa- A. Methodology
tion systems that consists of an organized collection of computer Developing ATIS under the ArcView GIS environment was
hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to the objective of current project. In this ATIS, GIS-enabled mod-
efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and dis- ules for the shortest path, closest facility, and city bus routes
play all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS have been included. Besides these features, location-wise infor-
can be used effectively for route guidance, en route driver infor- mation and intercity traveler information, such as bus, train and
mation, and identification of an incident location. GIS-based ad- airways timing, are also included. Methodology involved in the
vanced traveler-information systems assist individual and fleet development of the system is described in later sections.
drivers of changing traffic conditions en route by using wireless 1) Route Planning: Route planning is a process that helps
technologies and spatial databases. GIS-based ITS applications vehicle drivers to plan a route prior to or during a journey. In the
acquire real-time traffic data from global positioning system shortest-path scheme for route planning, the objective is to se-
(GPS) units, video cameras, and road-monitoring units for en lect and implement vehicle routing algorithms for intercity and
route traffic-information dissemination. intracity route planning while addressing the following issues
[9]:
II. OTHER GIS-BASED ATIS APPLICATIONS
1) shortest distance;
Commonly, GIS applications to ATIS are for solving tac- 2) quickest route;
tical logistical problems of vehicle routing and scheduling and 3) vehicle traffic restrictions;
traffic-data dissemination. This section portrays some of the 4) driver’s travel preferences.
GIS-based applications to ATIS, specifically in the field of route In the current ATIS, route planning is carried out by using
planning and traffic-data dissemination. a graphical user interface of the system. For the shortest path
computation, length and speed limits of the road segments on
A. GIS-Based Multimodal ATIS (MATIS) that road are stored in a digital database and the travel time was
Mouskos et al. [15] developed a GIS-based MATIS that calculated (distance/speed limit). The calculated travel time is
provides travelers with access to information concerning route used as travel cost in the performance of path optimization. The
28 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

travel cost represents the cost of traveling over the link or the
measure of resistance to the movement of goods through the
link and depends on many factors, such as distance, travel time,
travel speed, and number of turns. Path optimization has been
carried out using ArcView Network Analyst (AVNA). AVNA
implements a modified Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm with
a -heap in combination with a custom memory-management
scheme for finding the shortest path from a given starting node
to a destination node , which has the lowest possible cost [19].
Heaps or priority queues are one of the types of data structure
that allow the insertion of elements and extraction of the least
element. The -heaps are the generalization of more commonly
known binary heaps. All nodes of a -heap have children. A
-heap requires time to do insert and decrease the
Key operation, but needs time for each deleteMin
operation. Dijkstra’s algorithm is implemented using -heaps
with the value equal to 2. Using -heap, Dijkstra’s algorithm
takes time. AVNA builds the topology,
creates a travel-cost matrix, and then run the analysis.
2) Closest Facility: In the closest facility problem, route
length and travel time (drive time) are considered as travel costs.
Different facilities, such as hospitals, bus stations, and tourist
places, have been taken as themes in the project. The closest
facility algorithm calculates all the routes from the selected
origin to facilities based on travel cost. It compares travel costs
of these routes and gives one optimal route as output [25].
3) City Bus Routes: City buses with their numbers are stored
in a database in a compressed format because there will be more
than one bus on one road segment. A search algorithm is used to
find bus service number from a selected origin and destination.
According to the bus number, road segments on the map were
selected and highlighted with different color. The schematic Fig. 1. Schematic flow chart for the ATIS.
flow chart of the ATIS is shown in Fig. 1.
often inadequate to perform analysis or display in proper align-
B. Source Program ment with other data. To establish the relationship between an
image (row, column) coordinate system and a map coor-
The source program for this package has been written in the
dinate system, we need to align or georeference the raster data
Avenue programming language. Avenue is an object-oriented
(image). The image-to-map rectification approach is used for
scripting language for ArcView GIS in order to automate tasks,
georeferencing. This approach involves the measurement of the
add new capabilities, and build applications. The source code is
image coordinates of the reference cell and their corresponding
divided into many scripts; each is used for a particular purpose.
ground control points [3].
C. Work Plan E. Digitization
The following systematic steps are followed for the develop- Digitization is the process of converting paper or scanned
ment of the ATIS: maps into digital files in order to encode geographic features in
Step 1) collecting of maps; digital form as coordinates [3]. In this paper, the georefer-
Step 2) scanning of maps; enced raster images of Hyderabad City are digitized through an
Step 3) georeferencing of scanned maps; online digitization procedure using ArcView GIS 3.1. The road
Step 4) digitization of the road network; network of the study area is digitized as line features. Lakes and
Step 5) database creation; rivers are digitized as polygon features. Bus stations, railway
Step 6) software development in ArcView GIS. stations, hospitals, places of tourist interest, offices, educational
institutions, and stadiums are digitized as point features. The
D. Georeferencing spatial data above is organized as themes in this paper.
Georeferencing is the process of registering a geographical
data set to an established coordinate system [3]. Scanned maps F. Input Data
does not usually contain information as to where the area repre- ATIS development is carried out for the Hyderabad and
sented on the map fits on the surface of the earth. The location in- Secunderabad twin cities. Hyderabad City is an administrative
formation delivered with aerial photos and satellite imaginary is and commercial center, the capital of the Andhra Pradesh
KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 29

state. It also is the fifth biggest city in India. Secunderabad TABLE II

is the satellite town of Hyderabad City. The total area of the DESCRIPTION OF FIELDS AND THEMES
region (Hyderabad and Secunderabad) is around 500 km
and it bounded by latitudes—17 -30 -00 N and 17 -19 -48
N—and longitudes—78 -22 -12 E and 78 -34 -48 E. The
following data was collected and used in the development of
ATIS:
• topographical maps of representative fraction (RF) of 1:
25 000 for NW, NE, SW, SE directions;
• time tables of intercity bus, train, and air services;
• speed limits on roads;
• road names;
• information of one-way road segments.

G. Themes and Database

For the current ATIS, all the important geographical details of
Hyderabad City are categorized as separate features as depicted
as follows:
• road networks;
• places of tourist interest;
• educational institutions
• hospitals and offices;
• bus stations, railway stations, and the airport;
• lakes and the river.
For the current ATIS, topographical maps are taken as data
inputs; these features are spatially represented as themes. Each
theme has discrete characteristics known as attributes that em-
phatically separate it from other themes. For example, attributes
of a street might include its name, type, length, code, number of
lanes, or pavement type. Features and their attributes are linked
to each other; therefore, a user can access or locate any feature
from its attributes. All the important information associated with
each feature was entered into its theme’s attribute table, to ana-
lyze it in a later stage. This was accomplished by adding the re- Distances from Hyderabad, departure timings, and service name
quired number of fields (columns) to the table and entering the were included in these databases, which were created in Mi-
data for all the features in their corresponding records (rows). crosoft Excel.
Table II gives the details of fields. In the road network theme,
more than 1200 roads were identified and digitized. Roads in
the city were classified as highways, major roads, and minor IV. USING ATIS
roads. This classification was done by giving separate identifi-
cation number (know as a label) to each category in the database. A. Menus
Roads that have names were identified and that data was A menu displays a list of commands that are available to the
stored in this database. More than one bus will travel on one user. Because menus make commands visible and searchable,
road. Storing all bus numbers traveling on each road segment is a user can use them to his advantage while recognizing com-
an intricate task; besides, this increases the size of the database. mands without remembering them. A menu bar, one of the most
All bus numbers in one road segment were stored in one field in common forms of a menu interface, is a special area displayed
a compressed format. Three different city bus services (metro across the top of a graphic user interface (GUI) directly below
liners, metro express, and ordinary) are available in Hyderabad the title bar. Table III gives a description of the menu on the gen-
City. A database for these three categories was created and eral view of ATIS and their functionalities.
stored in three different fields. A database for one-way road
segment length, speed limit, and drive time was created.
B. Buttons and Tools
Names of places of tourist interest, educational institutions,
hospitals, bus stations, railway stations, offices, lakes, and the Buttons and tools are used to provide quick access to specific
river were stored in their corresponding databases. A descrip- commands or options. Their name and functionality are shown
tion and information of fields in databases of different themes in a tool tip text when a user moves the cursor on them.
are given in Table II. Besides these databases for intercity bus Buttons and tools bars are shown in Fig. 2 and their descrip-
services, databases for train and air services were also created. tion is given in Table IV.
30 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

TABLE III TABLE IV

DESCRIPTION OF MENUS DESCRIPTION OF BUTTONS AND TOOLS

line draws between those two points and the distance in

kilometers is shown in the status bar.

D. Viewing the City Location-Wise

Clicking the “by location” submenu in the “view Hyderabad”
menu or the location button by using the mouse console, the user
can view information for the area, as shown in Fig. 4. The steps
are as follows.
Step 1) Click on the “location” button or on the “ by loca-
tion” submenu.
Step 2) Select an area to view.
The selected area will be zoomed with all details. For a full
view of Hyderabad, click on the “full” submenu in the “view
Hyderabad” menu.
Fig. 2. Menus, buttons, and tools.
E. Searching for Features in Hyderabad
C. Using General Functions Following are steps for searching desired features such as of-
Fig. 3 gives the full view of map with all themes in the ATIS. fices, places of tourist interest, educational facilities, health fa-
Guidelines for general usage of the map are as follows. cilities, etc., in Hyderabad.
1) Legend of the map is shown on the left side of the map. Step 1) Click on the
2) Turn themes on and off by clicking a checked box in front
it to view the desired themes.
3) Zoom in or out the map using zoom tools and buttons.
4) Click on the measure tool and any point on the map and
move the cursor to the desired point on the map. A line
drawn between those two points and distance in kilome- button or the “search” submenu in the “view Hyder-
ters is shown in the status bar. abad” menu.
5) Click on a measure tool and on any point on the map Step 2) Select the type of features from the “search for” list.
and move the cursor to the desired point on the map. A Step 3) Select the feature from the list.
KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 31

Fig. 3. General view.

Fig. 4. Location-wise view of Hyderabad City.

32 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

Fig. 5. Searching for features in Hyderabad City.

The selected feature will be highlighted in yellow in the map The shortest path will be displayed in yellow on the map and
and if the image is available it will be shown in the search’s directions from the origin to destination will be displayed in the
dialog box, as given in Fig. 5. “shortest path” dialog.
2) Shortest Path With User-Given Origin and a Given Desti-
F. Shortest Path Module nation: Click on the “shortest path” submenu or button. Select
The shortest path module for finding the shortest path with the given origin and given destination option in the shortest path
different options, i.e., either the user selects the origin or desti- dialog. Select the origin by clicking any point on the road net-
nation from the database or by clicking desired location on the work.
map, as shown in Fig. 6. In this ATIS, four options are given for Select the type of destination and, from that list, select the
finding shortest path, as follows: destination. Click the “run” button and select the travel cost (line
length or drive time).
1) shortest path with the given origin and destination;
2) shortest path with a user-given origin and destination; The shortest path will be displayed in yellow on the map and
3) shortest path with a given origin and user-given destina- directions from the origin to destination will be displayed in the
tion; “shortest path” dialog.
4) shortest path with a user-given origin and user-given des- 3) Shortest Path With a Given Origin and Given Destina-
tination. tion: Click on the “shortest path” submenu or the button. Se-
lect any “with given origin and user-given destination” option
1) Shortest Path With Given Origin and Destination: Click
in the shortest path dialog. Select the type of origin and select
on the “shortest path” submenu or on the
the origin from the given list. Select the destination point by
clicking any point on the road network. Click the “run” button
and select travel cost (line length or drive time).
button. Select any “with given origin and destination” option in The shortest path will be displayed in yellow on the map and
the shortest path dialog. Select the type of origin and, from that directions from the origin to destination will be displayed in the
list, select the origin. Select the type of destination and, from “shortest path” dialog.
that list, select the destination. Click on the 4) Shortest Path With User-Given Origin and User-Given
Destination: Click on the “shortest path” submenu or button.
Select any “with given origin and user-given destination” op-
tion in the shortest path dialog. Select the type of origin and
button and select travel cost (line length or drive time). select the origin from given list. Select the destination point by
KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 33

Fig. 6. Searching for the shortest path with a given origin and destination.

clicking any point on the road network. Click the “run” button origin to destination will be displayed in the “closest facility
and select the travel cost (line length or drive time). path” dialog, as shown in Fig. 7.
The shortest path will be displayed in yellow on the map and
directions from the origin to destination will be displayed in the H. Site Tour Module
“shortest path” dialog. The site tour module is for itinerary planning. When a traveler
wants to visits several locations in the city, this module gives
G. Closest Facility Path Module the traveler a systematic plan for travel, which is based on the
The closest facility module is for finding nearby facility (of- shortest distance to different locations from the origin. Steps
fices, places of tourist interest, educational facilities, health fa- involved for itinerary planning are as follows.
cilities, etc.) from any location on the road network. Steps for Step 1) Click on the “site tour” submenu.
finding closest facility are as follows. Step 2) Select places to visit from the places of tourist in-
Step 1) Click on the “closest facility” submenu or button. terest list in order of visit by holding the SHIFT key.
Click on the Step 3) Click the “go” button.
The optimum path for the site tour will be displayed in yellow
on the map and directions will be displayed in the “site tour”
dialog, as shown in Fig. 8.

button given in the dialog and select any point by I. City Bus-Service Module
clicking the road network. This module is for finding city bus services that are avail-
Step 2) Enter the range in kilometers where the closest fa- able from one location to other in Hyderabad City. Fig. 9 shows
cility is to be found. The default value is 0, which the city bus-service module. The following are the steps for
means the closest facility in the whole map. searching for available city bus services.
Step 3) Select the type of facility (hospitals, offices, trans- Step 1) Click on the “metro liner,” “metro express,” or “or-
port, etc.). dinary” submenus in the Citybusroute menu ac-
The optimum path to the closest facility from a selected point cording to the type of city bus services.
will be displayed in yellow on the map and directions from the Step 2) Select the origin point from the origin list.
34 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

Fig. 7. Closest facility path module.

Fig. 8. Site tour module.

KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 35

Fig. 9. City bus-services module.

Step 3) Select the destination point from the destination list. Train name, arrival and departure times, and the train’s
Step 4) Select any bus number from the available bus num- starting station in the Hyderabad and Secunderabad twin cities
bers to view its route. will be displayed on the railway services dialog, as shown in
Step 5) Selected bus number’s route will be displayed in Fig. 10.
yellow color on the map.
L. Intercity Airline Services Module
J. Intercity Bus Services Module This module is for finding intercity airline services from Hy-
This module is for finding available intercity bus services derabad to other cities. Following are the steps for finding avail-
from Hyderabad to other cities. The following are the steps for able intercity airline services.
finding intercity available buses. Step 1) Click on the “air services” submenu in the intercity
Step 1) Click on the “bus services” submenu in the intercity menu.
menu. Step 2) Select the destination city name from the list.
Step 2) Enter the destination city name. An airline’s name, flight number, stopping details, departure
Step 3) Click on the “go” button. time, and operating days of all flights will be displayed on the
Distance and timings of buses will be displayed on bus services bus-services dialog.
dialog.
V. FUTURE SCOPE
K. Intercity Railway Services Module
The proposed ATIS can be modified further to an Internet
This module is for finding intercity railway services that are GIS-based application, so that the user can have easy access
available from Hyderabad to other cities. The following are the to it via Internet. Further, this ATIS can be provided with sev-
steps for finding available intercity buses. eral routing systems to allow users to select from one of several
Step 1) Click on the “train services” submenu in the inter- travel objectives used to direct the path search. Typical options
city menu. include minimizing travel time, minimizing travel distance, and
Step 2) Enter the destination city name. maximizing use of freeways links.
Step 3) Click the “go” button. In the future, when the integration of highway systems with
Step 4) Train numbers to destination city will be displayed. real-time traffic surveillance and control strategies will take
Step 5) Select any train number. place in India, this ATIS can be modified to provide route
36 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 6, NO. 1, MARCH 2005

Fig. 10. Intercity railway services module.

choices based on actual or predicted traffic conditions with the The developed package can be used in the following areas to
help of real-time data acquisition from equipped road networks. give information to the travelers:
• bus stands;
VI. CONCLUSION • railway stations;
• airports;
ATISs are most widely deployed ITS application areas. With
• tourist information centers;
the rapid increase of the Internet and wireless communications
• in personal computers.
in recent years, the application of Internet-based and wireless
GIS-T applications to ATIS is growing rapidly (such as the RO-
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[13] G. Ortiz, S. M. Amin, and J. R. Wootton, “Intelligent transportation sys-
ings, distance, and service name); tems—Enabling technologies,” Math. Comput. Modeling J., vol. 22, no.
• site-tour planning. 4–7, pp. 11–81, 1995.
KUMAR et al.: ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HYDERABAD CITY 37

[14] J. L. Adler and V. J. Blue, “Toward the design of intelligent traveler Varun Singh (S’04) received the M.S. degree in
information systems,” Transport. Res. C, vol. 6, pp. 157–172, 1998. computer-aided design from the Department of
[15] K. Mouskos and J. Greenfeld, “A GIS based multi modal advanced trav- Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
eler information system (MATIS),” J. Comp. Aided Civil Infrastructure Roorkee, India, in 2002, where he is currently
Eng., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 267–279, 1999. working toward the Ph.D. degree in advanced
[16] Y. H. Wu, H. J. Miller, and M. C. Hung, “A GIS based decision support traveler information systems.
system for analysis of route choice in congested urban road networks,” He has coauthored eight papers in national
J. Geograph. Syst., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 3–24, 2001. journal and international conferences. His research
[17] O. Bernhard, “Pay per mile,” Tolltrans-Traffic Technol. Int. Suppl., vol. interests include geographical information system
, pp. 41–43, 2000. (GIS)-based intelligent transportation systems, soft
[18] Q. Li and C. E. Kurt, “GIS-based itinerary planning system for multi- computing applications in traffic engineering, and
modal and fixed-route transit network,” in Proc. Mid-Continent Trans- Internet GIS.
portation Symp., Ames, IA, May 2000, pp. 47–51. He is a Student Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and an
[19] R. Sherlock, P. Mooney, and A. Winstanley, “Shortest path computation: Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers, India.
A comparative analysis,” in Proc. 10th Annu. GIS Research U.K. Conf.,
Sheffield, U.K., Apr. 2002, pp. 91–94.
[20] P. Kumar, D. Reddy, and V. Singh, “Intelligent transportation system
using GIS,” in Proc. Map India Int. Conf. GIS, GPS, Aerial, Photog- Dhanunjaya Reddy received the M.S. degree in
raphy, and Remote Sensing, New Delhi, India, Jan. 2003. transportation engineering from the Department of
[21] S. S. Jain and P. Kumar, “Application of intelligent transportation sys- Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
tems in india,” presented at the Int. Seminar Highway Safety Manage- Roorkee, India, in 2002.
ment and Devices, New Delhi, India, Nov. 1998. He is with Abhinava Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.,
[22] J. L. Campbell, C. Carney, and B. H. Kantowitz, “Human factors Gunwahati, India. His research interests include
design guidelines for Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) Geographical information system (GIS)-based
and Commercial Vehicle Operation (CVO),” Federal Highway Admin., intelligent transportation systems and computer
McLean, VA, Rep. FHWA-RD-98-057-2, May 2003. applications in transportation engineering.
[23] J. Noonan and O. Shearer, “Intelligent Transportation systems Field
operational test cross-cutting study: Advance traveler information sys-
tems,” Intell. Transport. Syst. Joint Program Office, Federal Highway
Admin., United States Dept. Transport., Washington, DC, Rep.
FHWA-JPO-99-038, Sept. 1998.
[24] R. P. Maccubbin, B. L. Staples, and M. R. Mercer, “Intelligent trans-
portation systems benefits and costs-2003 update,” Federal Highway
Admin., United States Dept. Transport., Washington, DC, Rep.
FHWA-OP-03-075, May 2003.
[25] ArcView Network Analyst Manual, Environ. Syst. Res. Inst., Redlands,
CA, 1996.

Praveen Kumar received the M.S. and Ph.D.

degrees in civil engineering from University of
Roorkee (currently, the Indian Institute of Tech-
nology), Roorkee, India.
He was with the Central Road Research Institute,
New Delhi, India, as a Scientist from 1992 to 1998.
He was an Assistant Professor of Transportation
Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, from May 1998
to February 2004 and currently is an Associate
Professor. He has published more than 100 research
papers in national and international journals and conferences. His interests
include transportation planning, pavement performance studies, intelligent
transportation systems, and geographical information system (GIS) applica-
tions in transportation engineering.
Dr. Kumar is a Member of the Six Member National Executive Committee,
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY). He was the Recipient of the
Young Teachers carrier award from All India Council of Technical Education,
April 2000; the Outstanding Research Paper (Best) Award from the Indian Road
Congress for 1999–2000; the Outstanding Paper Award, The Institution of En-
gineers (India) for 2002; Outstanding Teacher Award (Best Teacher) from the
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for 2003; and several other awards.

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