Frequently Asked Questions

• Real-time parking availability at commuter parking lots, Metro stations, and other major transit hubs, so that travelers will be able to know where they can expect to find parking when transferring to public transportation and ridesharing.
• A dynamic incentives program that encourages travelers to make informed travel choices based on up-to-the-minute information on transportation conditions.
• A predictive Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that anticipates congestion and unsafe road conditions before they happen, allowing a more effective and better-coordinated agency response that opens up the transportation system more quickly for travelers’ use.
• An analytical planning tool allowing public and private transportation providers to better plan their resources to serve travelers’ transportation needs.

All of these features are supported by a Data-Exchange Platform (DEP); a large collection of historical and real-time data about commuter parking availability, road and transit use, safety, and congestion; which will be shared among a variety of key partners, including public safety and transportation management agencies, transit providers, state and local governments, private-sector and app developers, so that they are empowered to better inform their customers.

• Travelers will experience mobility improvements as a result of suggested travel options and incentives to switch up commutes.
• Travelers depend on accurate and reliable information to plan their trips. With RM3P, their expectations will be better met with more reliable travel times.
• The more reliable and efficient transportation system created by the RM3P initiative will promote public health by reducing traveler stress and reducing the harmful emissions caused by congestion.
• Families and communities will benefit from more reliable travel, allowing them to spend more time together doing the things they want to do.

Numerous partnering organizations throughout the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Metropolitan Fredericksburg region including transit, Travel Demand Management (TDM) agencies, regional organizations, government agencies (local, state, and federal), chambers of commerce, academia, and others are involved in implementing the program through participation in a variety of working and stakeholder groups.

Through procurement and partnership agreements, RM3P will leverage private sector innovation and technology capabilities. Public sector agencies will be able to use the regional collaboration platforms.

In June 2020 the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded VDOT an Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) grant of $4.3 million. The grant supports the addition of predictive parking capabilities using AI to the Commuter Parking Information System and the expansion of the AI-Based Decision Support System to the Metropolitan Fredericksburg.

RM3P leadership is responsible for governing the overall program, providing guidance and strategic direction, as well as making key decisions. These leaders provide well thought out advice and make final decisions on scope, budget allocations, priorities among the five program elements, and procurement strategies. The leadership consists of:

• Executive Committee: Office of the Virginia Secretary of Transportation, VDOT, NVTA, DRPT, Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO), and FHWA
• Program Principal and Executive Committee Chair: Cathy McGhee, Chief Deputy Commissioner (VDOT)
• Program Sponsor and Executive Committee Vice-Chair: Monica Backmon, Chief Executive Officer (NVTA)
• Membership:
  • Bill Cuttler – District Construction Engineer, VDOT Northern Virginia District
  • Jennifer DeBruhl – Director, DRPT
  • Kevin Gregg – Chief of Maintenance and Operations, VDOT
  • Bob Osmond – Chief Information Officer, VITA
  • Hari Sripathi – Director of Office of Strategic Innovations, VDOT
  • Marcie Parker – Fredericksburg District Engineer, VDOT Fredericksburg District
  • Ian Oliss – Director of Transportation, GWRC
  • Iris Vaughan – ITS/Operations/LPA Engineer, FHWA

RM3P program managers deliver the program within scope, schedule, and budget. Ensure that the program proceeds within the specified schedule and under established budget and resources while achieving its goals and objectives. They manage stakeholder relationships and are responsible for effective communications with all program participants. The Program Manager is Amy McElwain and Deputy Program Manager is Candice Gibson. They are supported by appointed staff from VDOT, DRPT, NVTA, GWRC, and consultants.

Other groups make up the RM3P administration, including but not limited to five Program Element Guidance Teams, the Technical Working Group, the Contracts and Agreements Working Group, the Communications Working Group, Simulation Expert Group, and the Stakeholder Advisory Group.

Upon completing the planning studies, an executive-level program advisory group of representatives from VDOT, DRPT, NVTA, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), Arlington County, and FHWA saw the synergy and need to combine the two regions into a single, integrated “mega-region.”

VDOT staff have since worked on securing resources to implement two foundational initiatives of ICM for this mega-region: the Data-Exchange Platform (DEP) and the Decision Support System (DSS).

• NVTA, as one of many stakeholders involved in the planning studies, foresaw the utility of applying ICM to reduce congestion.
• NVTA submitted a funding request through the Smart Scale process for expanding VDOT’s planned initiative to add AI prediction to DSS and implement three additional data-driven applications: a Commuter Parking Information System (CPIS), a Multi-Modal Analytical Planner (MMAP), and Dynamic Incentivization (DI) under the name RM3P.

During the Smart Scale evaluation, the Office of the Secretary of Transportation took note of the forward-thinking and innovative nature of RM3P and recommended accelerating implementation of the initiative.

• The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) shared the same vision as the Secretary’s Office and approved funding for RM3P in Fiscal Year 2020.
• The original RM3P scope assumed that the DEP and DSS would be established under separate initiatives. When this didn’t happen, the scope of RM3P was expanded to encompass all five program elements.

• Expand Decision Support System Capabilities to the Fredericksburg area, and
• Deploy Predictive Parking Availability Information Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for both Northern Virginia and Metropolitan Fredericksburg commuter parking lots.

Both projects will complement activities already in progress under RM3P initiative.

ATCMTD-funded efforts will augment activities under two RM3P program elements – specifically, the AI-Based Decision Support System and Commuter Parking Information System. Neither the ATCMTD/Decision Support System functions nor the ATCMTD/Parking functions can be deployed until the core RM3P DSS and CPIS components are ready. Planning and development for both the ATCMTD and RM3P will proceed concurrently, but the dependencies are necessary and inevitable.

Because the RM3P DSS will be cloud-based, providing access to additional users (i.e., agency users in the Metropolitan Fredericksburg area) is straightforward. Updating the inventory with data from the additional partner agencies’ existing systems and field assets in the ATCMTD coverage area, and the integration of these new partner’s standard operating procedures (SOPs), will be an essential part of this expansion.

ATCMTD/Parking will implement a (new) AI-based approach to provide real-time and predictive parking information for both the northern and southern tiers, and to support multi-modal decision-making throughout the region.

Currently, historic and real-time, multi-modal travel condition data are stored in different ways, depending on who collects and owns the data. In addition, existing data-sharing dissemination systems, encompass different degrees of data availability and usage rules. With RM3P, data will be acquired, processed, stored, and shared with the right recipients at the right time to enable data-driven decision-making. Data management and sharing capabilities will provide a functional data ecosystem and democratize application developments. This Data-Exchange Platform will be used by the other four RM3P program elements, as well as the various agency stakeholders, as a one-stop shop that can be scalable statewide.

Currently, transportation agencies respond to incidents that occur on their respective transportation systems and collaborate with other agencies on an ad-hoc basis. Collaboration among responding agencies is sometimes coordinated through the Metropolitan Area Transportation Operations Coordination (MATOC) program. With RM3P, responding agencies will be able to coordinate their responses through an AI-based multi-modal regional response collaboration platform. Furthermore, agencies will be provided with predicted information and will be able to respond proactively to incidents.

Currently, customers need basic knowledge of commuter and transit parking lots in order to plan trips via commuter bus or ridesharing. When customers are heading to the selected lots, the only way to know, in real-time, if the lots are full is to visit lot owners’ websites or mobile apps (e.g., WMATA, VRE) or on signs at the entrance of the lots (e.g., entrance of Ballston garage and Haymarket commuter parking lot). With RM3P, all parking data – whether static information about the lots, real-time availability data, or usage trends – will have a standard format for sharing with navigation and trip-planning private vendors. Customers will be able to search all relevant parking information, make informed trip plans, and receive real-time availability information from the navigation and trip-planning tools of their choice.

Currently, mobility service planners use their own data and tools to determine the best resource deployment to meet their prospective customers’ demand. Coordination among transit agencies for their resource arrangement helps respond to large events (e.g., WMATA track maintenance) and the decisions are made based on planners’ knowledge and experience. With RM3P, planners across agencies will use a common, data-driven platform to run scenarios and support their decision-making on the optimal resource deployment from a regional perspective.

Currently, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government (MWCOG) and major construction projects offer incentives to encourage commuters to alter travel choices on their daily commutes. Some commuters cannot routinely switch their everyday travel choices but may be able to do so occasionally. With RM3P, incentives will be offered dynamically when the transportation system is congested to encourage travelers to modify their travel activities and practices, thereby reducing the impact of the precipitating event and benefitting the overall transportation network performance for all users. This system will be integrated with existing incentivization systems managed by MWCOG and other travel demand management programs in our region.

RM3P is intended to support both agency operations and traveler information needs. In particular, the dynamic incentivization component will allow travelers to be part of the solution by enabling them to make more informed decisions about their travel. Waze, Google Maps, etc. also provide tools for travelers – to assist them in navigating their way around congestion or incidents. The Decision Support System (DSS), will be part of a toolkit available to agency operations teams, so that we can anticipate and better manage conditions as they are developing. As incidents or events impacting the network occur, the DSS will assist with laying out multi-modal response options for mitigating conditions, and then communicating these options out to our operating partners across the region. One of the responses might include a trigger for informing travelers to make different travel choices via RM3P dynamic incentivization system. Waze is valuable aid for travelers; the planned DSS will be a big-picture management toolkit for transportation operations professionals. 

This is the first time that artificial intelligence will be formally used to predict traffic disruptions and other occurrences in the Commonwealth. AI will be a new tool available to state and local multi-modal operations management teams in Northern Virginia and Metropolitan Fredericksburg. Because this is a new undertaking, we are developing a comprehensive process to evaluate performance and efficacy of the decision support system. We are also expecting to develop a scalable solution. If the system performs well, expansion to other parts of the state will be a distinct possibility.

To the best of our knowledge, the full scope of RM3P has not been deployed previously. Individual elements such as traveler incentives provided by Commuter Connections are in use. The dynamic nature of RM3P’s incentive program is unique as is the overall approach of the effort.