Lesson

Enhance traffic flow in a regional, multi-state corridor by using vehicle probes to monitor real-time traffic conditions.

I-95Corridor Coalition Experience with Vehicle Probes

August 12, 2010
United States

E-mail this Lesson  E-mail | Comment on this Lesson Post a Comment

Background (Show)

Lesson Learned

Since 2008, the Vehicle Probe Project (VPP) has been providing data to I-95 Corridor Coalition agencies. These agencies recognize the benefits of the VPP to their respective departments of transportation and traffic management centers in managing traffic and enhancing mobility. The experiences of these agencies with the VPP have produced to the following lessons learned.

Enhance traffic flow in a regional, multi-state corridor by using vehicle probes to monitor real-time traffic conditions. Vehicle probe data help manage traffic within a state but also across state boundaries, accruing regional benefits along a multi-state corridor. Examples include:
  • New Jersey through North Carolina during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. More than a million visitors converged on Washington, D.C. to attend the presidential inauguration events in January 2009 and then soon departed from the District at the conclusion of the events. Regional traffic monitoring, provided by the Coalition’s VPP, was crucial to ensure that the traffic kept moving across jurisdictional boundaries. The VPP vendor offered the Coalition an opportunity to use an enhanced version of the congestion-monitoring website, which provided an increased number of features and metrics to monitor traffic in real time. Access to the site was provided for a two to three day bracket around the event. A Coalition executive monitoring traffic on the vendor’s enhanced website during an extremely busy time period noted: During the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday/Inauguration weekend, the VPP enabled the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) monitor speeds in real time on the freeway and major arterial network in the greater Baltimore/Washington corridor for the entire weekend. Using maps that showed real-time speed data, MDSHA determined the locations with congestion problems, provided real-time information to travelers, and deployed resources for proactively managing traffic in the metropolitan area.
  • South Carolina. In January 2010, the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation conducted a prescribed burn to reduce the threat of wildfire in the Kings Pinnacle area of Crowders Mountain State Park near the South Carolina border. When winds carried the smoke westward, visibility was reduced on I-85 causing northbound traffic from South Carolina to slow down dramatically along a ten-mile stretch of the roadway in the vicinity of Crowders Mountain State Park. The South Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) responded by activating their variable message signs with the message “Low Visibility Mile Marker 5-15.” Coordination between North and South Carolina helped to improve safety and decrease traffic congestion by getting information out to the motorists along I-85.
  • North Carolina. The North Carolina DOT scanned the probe-based monitoring website for traffic flows in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee. As a result, North Carolina Traffic Management Center (TMC) staff was able to see traffic congestion building into Virginia on I-85 southbound due to a construction project. The staff checked that sufficient capacity existed on the parallel route of I-95 and then coordinated with Virginia to redirect traffic from I-85 to I-95. The detour back from I-95 included U.S. Route 64 and I-40 which ultimately reconnect with I-85.
The VPP has fostered cooperation and coordination among the Coalition member-agencies. VPP data have been useful to various state DOTs and TMCs in managing traffic efficiently along the I-95 multi-state corridor traversing the Eastern United States seaboard. The I-95 Corridor Coalition members using the VPP data have reported accruing benefits by saving money, improving travel time, reducing delay and decreasing driver frustration.

Lesson Comments

No comments posted to date

Comment on this Lesson

To comment on this lesson, fill in the information below and click on submit. An asterisk (*) indicates a required field. Your name and email address, if provided, will not be posted, but are to contact you, if needed to clarify your comments.



Source

I-95 Corridor Coalition - Vehicle Probe Project General Benefits White Paper

Author: I-95 Corridor Coalition

Published By: I-95 Corridor Coalition

Source Date: August 12, 2010

URL: http://www.i95coalition.org/i95/Portals/0/Public_Files/uploaded/Vehicle-Probe/VP%20Project%20benefits%20General%2012%20August%202010_FIN.pdf

Other Lessons From this Source

Lesson Contacts

Lesson Analyst:

Firoz Kabir
Noblis
202-863-2987
firoz.kabir@noblis.org


Rating

Average User Rating

0 ( ratings)

Rate this Lesson

(click stars to rate)



Notes

Lesson of the Month for December, 2010 !


Lesson ID: 2010-00558