Operational Test and Evaluation Approach for The City of Albuquerque's Transit Department Vehicle Location System

Dwight L. Fuqua and Linda Dowling

Abstract:	Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) is conducted to estimate a system’s utility, effectiveness, and suitability, and often to establish the need for any modifications. OT&E is conducted by actual field operators and support personnel with the types and qualifications normally expected to use and maintain the system, OT&E is conducted in as realistic an operational environment as possible. The OT&E results are used to support major procurement milestone decisions, and fielding decisions such as declaration of Initial Operational Capability (bC). Many municipalities are now exploring the potential of employing high technology systems to improve operations. A national program, the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) (formerly the IHVS) has been implemented whose objective is to provide a strategic plan for a national architecture. Program goals and objectives are described in the National ITS Program Plan, dated March 1995. The City of Albuquerque has been active in ITS and has defined a local ITS implementation architecture called the Urban/Rural Intelligent Corridor Application (URICA). The City of Albuquerque’s Transit is a primary participant in this local implementation program; the Transit Department’s effort is called the SunTransit On-board Location and Reporting (SOLAR) system. The transit program objectives include flexible routing, real-time vehicle location and tracking, automated reservations, and scheduling for the City’s paratransit vans using Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) Technology. The AVL effort is being performed concurrently with other SunTran ITS activities. Information from this effort is being used to augment other sources of data. Phase I was completed April gth, 1996. Phase II, SOLAR Component Definition and Implementation, is currently in-progress. Phase Ill will be deployment of AVL technologies on over 150 buses, paratransit vans, and administrative support vehicles. Phase IV will be an independent evaluation of the SOLAR system. Many Phase IV evaluation activities will be conducted concurrently with Phase II and I11 activities. This paper documents a dendritic OT&E methodology for evaluation of the Transit Department’s AVL activities.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1997) June 30 - 2, 1997 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	511 - 514
Cite this article:	Fuqua, Dwight L., Dowling, Linda, "Operational Test and Evaluation Approach for The City of Albuquerque's Transit Department Vehicle Location System," Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1997), Albuquerque, NM, June 1997, pp. 511-514.
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