WZDWG Semi Annual Meeting, 2021 11 02 - usdot-jpo-ode/wzdx GitHub Wiki

Virtual Attendees:

• Adam Carreon ArizonaDOT
• Alex Demisch
• Alexander Lemka
• Amos Castillo
• Ashley Nylen, CDOT
• Benjamin A CDOT
• Brandon Patocka (City of Omaha-Parking & Mobility)
• Brandon Saylor
• Catherine Huebsch
• Chris Lambert
• Christina Bennett
• Christopher Poe (MHI)
• Chuck Felice (UDOT)
• Clayton Burke
• Craig Moore
• Daniel Rowe
• Daniel Smith
• Daniela Bremmer
• David Fosbroke
• David Rush
• Derald Dudley
• Eric Kolb Google Google
• Esayas (Colorado DOT)
• Faisal Saleem
• Frank Winters
• Garrett Schreiner
• Greg Matthews
• Hadrian Merced Hernandez
• Heather Hilgers - CDOT
• Hua Xiang
• Jacob Larson (City of Omaha, Parking and Mobility)
• Jennifer Petrario
• Jenny Gashasy(Google)
• Jeremy A (HAAS Alert)
• Katherine Smutzer
• Kristin Virshbo, Castle Rock Associates
• Maaza Mekuria
• Mark Mockett
• Martha Kapitanov
• Meredith Nelson
• Michelle Moser
• Milford Ulven
• Mischa Kachler
• Molly Behan
• Muyi Zhou
• Nate Deshmukh-Towery
• Neil Boudreau
• Peter Stresino
• Praveen Edara
• Ross Sheckler - iCone
• Russell Holt
• Sabrina Mosher (SwRI)
• Sinclair Stolle
• Steve Sill
• Timothy Fiato
• Tony Leingang
• Willy Sorenson

The slides from this meeting are available here.

The recording of this meeting is available here.

Purpose:

• Provide updates on the WZDWG Subgroups’ progress in working towards publication of WZDx Specification version 4.0 over the past six months
• Facilitate discussion on the near-term action items for the WZDWG membership, including subgroup activities proposed for the next development cycle
• Provide updates on the future of the WZDWG and WZDx governance
• Learn about currently available and forthcoming WZDx data feeds

Intended Outcomes:

• Review and vote on proposed changes for inclusion in version 4.0 of the WZDx Specification
• Solicit interest in subgroups and co-chair positions for the next specification development cycle

Agenda:

• Sign-in and Welcome – WZDWG Co-Chairs
• Specification Update Subgroup Report-Out – Specification Update Co-Chairs
• Specification Extension Subgroup Report-Out – Specification Extension Co-Chairs
• Worker Presence Subgroup Report-Out – WP Co-Chairs
• Smart Work Zone Subgroup Report-Out – SMZ Co-Chairs
• Scheduled Break
• Technical Assistance Subgroup Report-Out – TA Co-Chairs
• Near-Term Action Items for the WZDWG and Re-Chartering – WZDWG Co-Chairs
• WZDWG Governance and WZDx Future Planning - WZDWG Co-Chairs
• WZDx Data Feeds Update – WZDWG Co-Chairs
• Announcements, Next Steps, and Q&A – WZDWG Co-Chairs

Discussion Summary:

Sign-in and Welcome – WZDWG Co-Chairs:

• Nate Deshmukh-Towery and Dave Craig opened the meeting and went through the housekeeping/agenda items, along with the 2 initial polling questions.

Specification Update Subgroup Report-Out – Spec. Update Subgroup Co-Chairs:

• Skylar went through the milestones and accomplishments of the subgroup
• Jacob Brady then detailed PRs #209 and #188.
  • WZDWG membership/meeting attendees didn't have any comments or feedback on PRs #209 or #188.
• Skylar detailed PRs #198, #196, and #199
  • WZDWG membership/meeting attendees didn't have any comments or feedback on PRs #198 or #196 or #199.
• Jingwei Xu detailed PRs #175, #174, and #177
  • WZDWG membership/meeting attendees didn't have any comments or feedback on PRs #175 or #174 or #177.
• Dave Craig detailed PRs #176
  • _WZDWG membership/meeting attendees didn't have any comments or feedback on PRs #176
• Dave Craig went over the future of the specification update subgroup and highlighted the intention of braking backward compatibility at most once per year
• Jeremy A at HAAS asked if for those starting to publish WZDx compliant data starting 4.0 and the co-chairs recommend using v4.0 if possible. The current data producers are using a mix of 3.1 and 3.0 versions.
• Jacob Brady mentioned that from a software development perspective the update from 3.1 to 4.0 is not significant and the 4.0 release will be accompanied by an update guide.

Specification Extension Subgroup Report-Out – Specification Extension Co-Chairs:

• Frank Winters went over the activities and milestones of this subgroup and the PRs that they have been involved with.
• Eric Kolb described the prototype activities of Google with NYS DOT for low bridge clearances. Google will work with state DOTs to get more low bridge clearances data feeds. For any DOT's that would like to begin engagement with Google on WZDx data ingestion, they can reach out [email protected]
• Frank Winters discussed the balance between keeping Work Zone feed simple while expanding value conveying non-work zone data.
• Derald Dudley covers PR #205 related to a new road restriction feed.
• _WZDWG membership/meeting attendees didn't have any comments or feedback on PRs #205
• Weimin covered the future plans for this subgroup

Worker Presence Subgroup Report-Out – WP Co-Chairs:

• Kristin Virshbo talked about the activities and milestones of this subgroup and invited members to join this subgroup. The focus of this subgroup has been on PR # 206 to create new worker presence data structure. The confidence property has been added based on Waze scaling first then moved to low/medium/high. Additionally, the MN tool for reporting worker presence is currently under development.
• Tony English commented that for workers present, consider adding longitudinal location of begin/end (start location / end location) of workers present, can be useful for many things like reduced speed when workers are present
• Serge shared data consumer outreach activities of subgroup and they have a list of companies and have prepared survey questions for the data consumers.

Smart Work Zone Subgroup Report-Out – SMZ Co-Chairs:

• Ben went over the activities and milestones of the smart work zone subgroup and highlighted PR#208 that is being proposed to add field device feature and specific field device objects in new SwzDeviceFeed
• Todd walked through the Data flow diagram and specific changes of this new feed. New objects and their descriptions were also described by Todd.
• Jennifer Hoerz asked if the smart work zone data feed would provide information on when construction starts and stops? - Neil Boudreau answered: we will cover how the SWZ feed can capture the start and end points for the work if that type of data is dynamically captured in the field
• Ross Sheckler mentioned that the list of objects still is missing portable signals, AFADs and flaggers - Jacob Brady answered: they are covered by LocationMarker, which we'll describe shortly
• Jacob Brady provided detail description of all the objects in the new feed - specifying that the bolded objects are required fields and others are optional.
• Neil covered the action items and next steps and asked members to review PR#208 and vote on the PR. If the PR is passed, they will release SwzDeviceFeed 1.0 in December 2021.
• Ross Sheckler from iCone expressed interest in being a co-chair - Ben answered - Ben mentioned You can self-nominate for the position and people will vote on the nominations before we start work again in December.
• Poll question: What other field device types would you like to see included in the specification?
  • Tony Leingang - consider Truck Mounted Attenuator (position, deployed or not, etc.) as a smart work zone device.
  • Maaza Mekuria - emergency equipment
  • Ivo Kushkiev - For the Traffic Sensor devices you should be able to specify which directions the sensors are monitoring
  • Katherine Smutzer: Do field devices currently tell you if they are functioning? Of give you an email?
  • Russell Holt - I think GREAT work SWZ team so far; the other field device type I'd like to see covered would/will be CVs themselves (outside of any FAP or DMS mounted on a WZ veh, that can already follow WZDx) - but really no need for me to mention as you've already noted CVs and AVs for future

Technical Assistance Subgroup Report-Out – TA Subgroup Co-Chairs:

• Curtis Hay described the activities and milestones of this subgroup focusing on creating an institutional buy-in and supporting early adopters as well as developing business rules for the new objects of the specification.
• Chuck Felice went over the institutional buy-in early adopter guide. Chuck highlighted that the current specification is relatively stable and most updates are being made to clean up confusing or redundant fields.
• Ross Sheckler - iCone - Can I suggest we start 'keeping score' with a monthly or daily total of active jobs that are made available through a WZDX feed. If we can start to show progress we can build momentum.  Our guess is there is roughly 50,000 daily lane closures in the construction season.
• Jacob Brady - Following the previous discussion of this subgroup, I began working on a software library, specifically a .NET class library for WZDx v4.0 that defines all models and feed generation. I plan to release it open source, which would reduce development effort for new producers and consumers.
• Nisar Ahmed - Do you have a timeline for .NET library. We could potentially use it in our project.

Near-Term Action Items for the WZDWG and Re-Chartering – WZDWG Co-Chairs:

• Review pull requests and cast vote via the post-meeting survey link for inclusion in WZDx Specification version 4.0
• Call for Co-Chair volunteers to help lead the WZDWG and its 5 subgroups

WZDWG Governance and WZDx Future Planning - WZDWG Co-Chairs:

• Exploring options and getting feedback from the community: hosted two Open Community Governance Meetings on August 4th and September 28th to discuss options and solicit feedback from the WZDWG
• Email [email protected] with additional thoughts/guidance on long-term governance

WZDx Demonstration Grants - Todd Peterson (FHWA):

• Todd Peterson reviewed the WZDx Demonstration Grant recipients and the overall goal of FHWA’s grant program – i.e., addressing travel management issues on behalf of both the travelers and the agencies.
  • Kelly Wells - how many applications did you get?
    • Todd - we received 29 applications.
  • Jorge Uy - Will a 2021 WZDx Demonstration Grant be offered?
    • Todd - that would be great, definitely an aspiration, but I'm unsure of that at this time.

Announcements & Next Steps – WZDWG Co-Chairs:

• Nate Deshmukh-Towery and David Craig reviewed the WZDx Demonstration Grant recipients and the overall goal of FHWA’s grant program – i.e., addressing travel management issues on behalf of both travelers and agencies.
• Live Retrospective - feedback on today's WZDWG meeting?
  • Lynne Randolph - Real, live (in-person) meetings in the future, when you're able to again.
  • Kelly Wells - our biggest challenge: limited traveler info resources and many opportunities to improve traveler info; that's why the grant would have been so great.
  • Jacob Brady - As for suggestions for expanding/refining the WZDx spec, commenting here and replying the polling question is great, but to ensure comments get addressed, please visit the WZDx GitHub page and create a new issue.
  • Faisal Saleem - It may be helpful to have agency peer-peer information exchange on internal processes.
  • Ross Sheckler - consider if we should put emphasis on getting a fully populated feed up and running? Or should the emphasis be on getting a larger number of work zones with the minimum data (location and time)?
  • Kelly Wells - get involved with Eastern Transportation Coalition (renamed to the I-95 coalition). I can recommend a presentation at a forthcoming traveler info event.
    • ACTION ITEM: Follow up with Kelly Wells for more information on the forthcoming presentation/traveler info event.
  • Tony English - We should get a nationwide feed for wzdx 3.x
    • Shane Zumpf - Thanks Tony, please look into the Situation Data Exchange (SDX) setup specifically for that reason.
  • Sinclair Stolle - Are there examples of where these data feeds are being used?
    • Nate Deshmukh Towery - Sinclair Stolle - that's one of the things that the Technical Assistance Subgroup is looking into in the next cycle.
  • Marysa Myers - Aurora Innovation: Will we be able to attend the GIS-T workshop in April to see the real world applications of the WZDx Data?
    • ACTION ITEM: Follow up with Marysa Myers to answer her questions regarding the April 2021 GIS-T workshop.

Polling - Questions and Responses Received During the Meeting:

Poll Question: Who is in the audience today?

* Contractor and/or Software Developer – 10%
* Data Broker / Aggregator – 4%
* Mapping and Navigation Industry – 4%
* State/Local DOT/Work Zone Data Provider – 60%
* U.S. DOT or Other – 22%

Poll Question: Is this your first time attending a WZDWG meeting?

* No – 82%
* Yes – 18% 

Poll Question: Are you more or less likely to consume or publish worker presence with the proposed specification change in the future? Please share your reasons in the chat.

* Not sure – 39%
* Yes – 61%

Poll Question: What would you like to see the Technical Assistance Subgroup work on in the coming cycle? (select all that apply)

* Develop video guides
* Write a user guide
* Write version transition documentation
* Develop materials for data consumers
* Perform outreach to data consumers (coordinate with Worker Presence Subgroup)

Poll Question: For data producers who are/would be implementing WZDx, what is your current perspective on developing and producing a WZDx feed?

* Currently producing a WZDx feed – 25%
* Working to develop a WZDx feed at a pilot or prototype phase; no commitment yet to timing – 25%
* Interested in developing/producing a WZDx feed, but not yet planning to do so – 8%
* N/A – 17%
* Actively developing a WZDx feed, with publication expected in the next 12 months – 25%

Poll Question: For data consumers who would be using WZDx data feeds in their current or future products, what is your current perspective on WZDx feed consumption?

* N/A – 25%
* Consuming (or actively working to consume) WZDx data in a pilot/testing/demonstration environment to inform future decisions – 75%

Update

• Final Voting results for version 4.0 proposed changes are listed below. All changes received minimum required votes.