User's Guide

US Highway 101 Conditions Report

Introduction

The US Highway 101 Conditions Report was developed for the Oregon Department of Transportation. The electronic report is a compendium of information about US Highway 101 in Oregon between mile posts 0 and 363. The Conditions Report provides an assortment of information about the corridor in variety of formats including text, and video. It is intended to provide a simple way to access the large volume of information contained in the report using a web browser.

The electronic report interface was created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). All of the report content (text, tables, and maps) is provided in HTML format. Maps and related graphics are provided in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), a universal file format that preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of a source file, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files are compact and can be exchanged, viewed, navigated, and printed by anyone with free Adobe Reader software. In addition to the typical "printed" report elements, users have access to drive through video by direction. Navigation to all content is handled via a web browser enabling the user to easily jump from chapter to map to appendix and back. The report itself can be stored and accessed by a single user on an individual computer, by multiple users via storage on an internal network (LAN) or Intranet or directly from the Internet using the appropriate URL.

The size of this report is huge. With appendices, there are hundreds of pages of information, excluding the video and mapping data. Consequently, it is recommended that you do not attempt to print a full hard copy, although individual pages, maps, or discrete sections can easily be printed, as needed, using your web browser or Adobe Acrobat print commands.

Using the Online Conditions Report

The home page menu contains three navigation options specified as:

1. Acknowledgements
2. Table of Contents / Segment Index
3. User's Guide
4. Links

All the navigation topics are linked. Click on the link to go to the page.

Acknowledgements

The acknowledgements page recognizes members of the project team and other contributors responsible for producing the US Highway 101 Conditions Report.

Table of Contents/ Segment Index

The Table of Contents / Segment Index page provides navigation to all of the report content and provides the user with direct access to report chapters, maps for the mainline and/or specific intersections as well as the video content. Please refer to the Video Clips. To access specific content, simply use your mouse to select (click) the desired content radio button for maps, text, or video.

Table content varies depending on the radio button selected. After selecting the desired content, the user is transferred to a new page displaying the selected content. In all cases, the new page is displayed in the split screen (2-frame) browser window. The top frame contains the selected content. The bottom frame is used for navigation.

Maps

How to use the maps section
Readers have the option to select from 12 unique map themes. Each of the segment titles are hyperlinked to a pop-up window where the reader can find more information about the map theme content. To access individual maps, the reader clicks on the radio button next to the theme title and a list of the maps will appear below organized by county and mile point. The mile point index changes depending on which map theme has been selected. As the user mouses over the mileposts (MPs) in the map table, the cities within the milepost range will appear in the upper right of the screen. The individual MPs in the maps table are hyperlinked and will take the users to the appropriate map.

How to view the maps
Once the user clicks on a milepost range in the maps table (e.g. MP 0-5), the user will be taken to the next page where the map is displayed. All of the maps have been converted into Portable Document Format (PDF) to reduce the download time. Adobe Reader® software is required to view these maps. The detailed map page is divided into two frames: map section (top frame) and the navigation section (bottom frame). Once the map is open, the user can use all the functionalities of Adobe Reader® such as, printing, zooming, mailing the map, etc. The map should open in the top frame with a report navigation menu in the bottom frame. If the map (in PDF form) opens in a separate browser window, refer to this Knowledge Base article on how to open the PDF map in the same window.

Note: An interactive map reader application is provided with the standalone version of the report. Use the "Feedback" link on the main page to send an email request to ODOT for a DVD copy of the report that includes the map reader.

Text

The text section of the report is divided into two main sections: Mainline Conditions and Intersection Conditions. The mainline segment reports describe a variety of information for roadway sections within the segment. The intersection conditions text is focused on the conditions and characteristics at the intersection location. Both the Mainline and Intersection titles are hyperlinked to a pop-up window where users can find detailed information about the analysis methodologies used in the evaluations of the mainline and intersection conditions reports.

Upon selecting the radio button next to the Mainline or Intersection title, a complete list of the mainline segments or intersection, organized by county, will display below. Selecting (clicking) on a segment or intersection name will transfer the user to a new page with the respective report content.

Video

ODOT’s Digital Video Log has been used to create a video clip of corridor as driven in both directions. The Road Inventory and Classification Services Unit of the Transportation Development Division http://www.odot.state.or.us/tddtrandata/rics/rics.htm is responsible for the State Highway Video Log. The video clips are provided as Audio/Video Interleave (AVI) files. The AVI file format defined by Microsoft is the most widely used audio/video format on Windows platforms. In order to view the AVI files a media player is required, see Media Player for information on accessing the report’s video content.

How to use the video section
Within the Video - DVL section of the Segment Index page, the user can choose either the "North" or "South" radio button. The North section includes video clips of US 101 traveling northbound and the South section has includes video clips traveling southbound on the highway. Upon the selection of a radio button, a list of videos is displayed below. The videos are divided by counties and when the user mousesover individual links (e.g., MP 0-5), the cities within the milespot will appear on the screen in the upper-right for further location assistance. The videos have been created in five mile increments along the highway. Once the user selects a desired video, the user is taken to the next page that is divided into two frames. The video will be displayed within an HTML page in the top frame and the navigation will be displayed on the bottom frame.
NOTE: Since the video files are large, the user will have to wait until the video is completely downloaded. Once the video has been downloaded, the video can be viewed. Below is a sample of a video clip that appears in the web browser once selected.

Navigation

Selecting links in the navigation frame allow the user to move between content in the related section (i.e. table of contents grouping), back to the index page and back to the home page. The navigation bar resides in the bottom frame of the Maps, Text, and Video pages. The navigation bar is used to navigate around the related content that is opened on the top frame without going back to the "Segment Index" page as well load other related text documents or maps in the top frame. These are mouseover menus and when the user hovers the mouse over a main topic (e.g., Maps), a submenu appears below containing subtopics. Clicking on a subtopic of Maps, Text or DVL (video) will open the related file in the top frame. Selecting Segment Index will take the user back to the Segment Index page.

The two arrows (« & ») take the user forward or backward in progression of the current document. For example, if a map within the MP 0-5 range is loaded in the top frame, clicking on » will load MP 5-10, MP 10-15, in the top frame and so on. The same rule applies to the "Videos" and "Text" sections.

Clicking on the icon at the end of the navigation bar will take the user to the home page.

JavaScript is used to control the navigation within the navigation bar. JavaScript is a compact, object-based scripting language for developing client and server Internet applications

System Requirements

The section below describes software requirements and their associated hardware recommendations for use that are not included with the setup and installation of the conditions report that must be available on the computer system for installation of the conditions report to function properly. In order to access the conditions report users must have the following software installed on their computer:

• Web browser - The browser used must support HTML frames. Use of frames allow different content to be presented in multiple views in a browser window. Typically, in the conditions report, a top-frame is used to display report content and a bottom frame is used for as navigation menu. The report supports multiple browser platforms however, it has been most extensively tested using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0. The recommended system configuration to use Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is Microsoft Windows XP, NT, 2000, or Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) on a computer running with a Pentium III processor and 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM. Please refer to your Web browser software help documentation for appropriate system requirements. Web browsers are freely available and is not included in the distribution of the conditions report.



• Adobe Reader (www.adobe.com) - The Adobe Reader software is accessed and utilized internally within the web browser as a helper application to view Portable Document Format (PDF) report content. PC-System recommendations for use of Adobe Reader 6.0.1 are as follows:



Windows
• Intel® Pentium® processor
• Microsoft® Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT® 4.0 with Service Pack 6, Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, Windows XP Professional or Home Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)
• 60 MB of available hard-disk space
• Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, 6.0, or 6.1
Back to Top



Like the web browser, Adobe Reader software is freely distributed and assumed to be available on most users computers. If necessary, use the website link above to obtain a copy of the Adobe Reader software.

• Media Player - Any media player that supports the Audo Video Interleave (AVI) file format and is installed as a Web browser "plug-in" can be used to access report video clips. A plug-in is a special kind of helper application that installs itself into the Plugins directory of the main browser installation directory and can typically be opened within the browser itself (internally).

There are many freely distributed media players available to play AVI files and system requirements vary. Please consult the applicable system specifications for your preferred media player. For illustrative purposes, the following hardware and software specifications are required/recommended to use Windows Media Player 10.