The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE) for Orange County and operates the County's Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) service.
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OCTA worked with the vendor through the term of the agreement to manage and improve the system's performance; however, the AVL system was retire on December 31, 2012.
OCTA contracted with a vendor to develop and support a mobile data collection and automated vehicle locator (AVL) tracking system. The system was envisioned as a means to provide near real-time tracking of tow vehicles and the collection of service data.
While it is difficult to quantify the cost savings or emission reductions that directly result from this project, the OCTA FSP program that the system supported provides a significant cost savings for motorists and significant emission reductions. Historically, the OCTA FSP program provides on the order of $7.50 in congestion relief benefits for each dollar invested in the program.
The AVL system encountered several issues with the GPS tracking feature and connectivity to the database throughout the project. There were also issues in mounting full-size laptop computers in two vehicles, as well as durability issues of operating a hard drive equipped laptop in an "on the road" environment. Despite its shortcomings, the system did provide valuable near real-time tracking of tow vehicles and the collection of service data.