TRADAS (TRAffic DAta System) is the core product and data warehousing software system provided by Chaparral Systems Corporation. This data warehousing software solution provides clients with a comprehensive suite of automated tools for managing their travel monitoring program data. Focusing on motorized and non-motorized traffic data solutions has enabled Chaparral to become the leading travel monitoring data warehousing and management software solutions provider in the industry. Below are a few frequently asked questions and answers about the TRADAS product.
TRADAS is a data warehousing software system for collecting, editing, summarizing, and reporting a wide range of traffic data. As a fifth generation product, TRADAS has evolved, adapted, and changed with both technology and federal, state, and local traffic data requirements. Since TRADAS is a fifth generation product, the latest in software development tools such as Silverlight are a part of the overall TRADAS product software solution. Deploying the TRADAS product for over 20 years, Chaparral continues to satisfy client requirements and stay ahead of federal requirements through Chaparral's input-driven product development model. As TRADAS clients' provide the product development team with product enhancement requests, and as these requests begin to duplicate across clients, product features are prioritized according to the greatest needs. When new features are developed in the product, every TRADAS client benefits by receiving semi-annual core product upgrade, which is a standard maintenance contract feature.
"TRADAS 2006" was written in Microsoft Visual C++®, Microsoft Visual Basic 6® and Visual Basic .NET 2005®, and the Oracle® RDBMS (up to 10g), which was the fourth generation of the TRADAS product. TRADAS is now on its fifth generation, using web-based and mapping software development tools such as Silverlight and Google Maps. TRADAS is also now compatible with Oracle® 11g.
TRADAS offers many functions and has an in-depth and rich feature list that is unmatched in the traffic data warehousing solutions market. The list below highlights some of these features:
- Calculation of site-specific highway performance monitoring system (HPMS) statistics
- Support for turning movement counts, weigh-in-motion (WIM) data, and short-duration as well as continuous count data
- New annual phase 4 "site AADT” calculations that maintain current-year statistics for all sites, regardless of count year
- Enhanced support for the modification of site attributes such as storing global position system (GPS) locations to map site locations
- Optional Count Scheduler that provides a count schedule, field sheets, and up-to-date status information about the short-term count program
Yes, TRADAS is designed to meet the data processing requirements of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials' (AASHTO’s) Guidelines for Traffic Data Programs. These guidelines incorporate the recommendations of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Traffic Monitoring Guide and the Highway Performance Monitoring System Field Manual. As these guidelines and reporting requirements change over time, the TRADAS product development team incorporates these changes into the core product. This gives TRADAS users a chance to focus on traffic data by not having to worry about software coding changes. Since the TRADAS system maintains statistics at a variety of aggregation levels, making both detailed and summary information immediately available to the user, other data requirements are easy to fulfill through data exports. For example, Chaparral, with its exclusive focus on traffic data, keeps the system current with new requirements for pavement design engineers by ensuring the TRADAS product provides vehicle weight and classification data exports which meet the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide software requirements.
TRADAS processes nearly all types of mainline traffic data (e.g., roadway volume, speed, vehicle classification, length classification, and weight). Data from both permanent sites and short-term counts are accommodated. The system performs a wide range of services to assist the client in producing high-quality traffic data. These include automatic detection of device type, five levels of quality control (device, channel, count, monthly statistics, and annual statistics), data summarization, data and statistics status management, standard and ad-hoc reporting, and database management.
Yes, as a part of the TRADAS system, there is a series of "Public Database" views. These views provide TRADAS user's with a mechanism for the controlled dissemination of traffic data in a simple format. This format is an Oracle database that can be easily accessed through a variety of other formatting software tools. For example, many clients prefer using the Microsoft Office product line for this purpose. Chaparral staff have developed a series of views that can be used in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access to make Public Database access a simple task.
Chaparral has been providing traffic data warehousing and software consulting services for over 20 years to DOT agencies. The importance of traffic data expertise and experience cannot be over-emphasized. Chaparral has been exclusively in the traffic data warehousing and software consulting services/research business since 1988.
Yes. Since Chaparral has been implementing TRADAS for over 20 years, our staff have already identified the most common agency-specific DOT customizations or "trigger points" that are addressed during the first year of implementation. An example, one known customization trigger point is to identify how an agency references traffic stations - this is known as the agency specific naming convention trigger point. During the first year of implementation, 90% of the TRADAS product is an "out-of-the-box" and "off-the-shelf" solution with 10% of the product requiring customization/integration/data migration. Over the past decade, there have been several efforts to develop custom solutions for traffic data processing that have had only marginal success due to the problem of communicating traffic expertise to software developers. This is the leading reason for the high development risk in developing either an in-house or 100% customized solution. TRADAS is an "out-of-the-box" solution with customization opportunities that can extend the product where necessary that has been tested and used at DOT agencies for over 20 years. At Chaparral, our programming staff is expert in both software technology and traffic data. The TRADAS product exemplifies that Chaparral staff have leveraged this experience into a user-friendly and comprehensive product that clients can install with no development risk.
All TRADAS clients have a support contract in place to receive product support that also includes data analyses, software customization services, and user group meeting attendance. Chaparral has a highly skilled product support department to provide long-term customer service for TRADAS users. Product support staff members are knowledgeable in both the TRADAS software product and of traffic data (requirements) in general. This allows the product support team to respond to a wide range of data challenges that can require more traffic knowledge than software knowledge and vice-versa.
The strength of our product, combined with our excellent support, make TRADAS the ideal foundation for most traffic data collection and analysis programs. If you would like to purchase the TRADAS solution, Chaparral Systems Corporation staff will be happy to provide an on-site or web-enabled detailed demonstration of TRADAS. Just contact Chaparral at 1-877-230-2974 ext. 1103 or e-mail us at info@chapsys.com to arrange a demo, or to get more information about our capabilities. With minimal customization, the TRADAS core product can be installed an operational within 12 weeks of contract award.