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
Background (Show)
Lesson 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.
Application Areas
Intelligent Transportation Systems > Freeway Management > Information Dissemination > Dynamic Message Signs
Intelligent Transportation Systems > Freeway Management > Surveillance > Traffic
Intelligent Transportation Systems > Traffic Incident Management > Information Dissemination > Dynamic Message Signs
Intelligent Transportation Systems > Traveler Information > En Route Information > 511
Intelligent Transportation Systems > Freeway Management > Special Event Transportation Management > Occasional Events
States
None defined
Countries
Systems Engineering
Show the V
Concept of Operations
Systems Engineering Project/Technical Management
Focus Areas
Major Initiatives > Integrated Corridor Management Systems
Major Initiatives > Emergency Transportation Operations
Other Program Activities > 511 Travel Information
Other Program Activities > Amber Alert
Other Program Activities > Public Safety
Other Program Activities > Real Time Traveler Information
Other Program Activities > Rural ITS Deployment
Goal Areas
Safety
Mobility
Productivity
Efficiency
Customer Satisfaction
Keywords
DMS, CMS, VMS, Changeable Message Signs, Variable Message Signs, CCTV, closed circuit television cameras, road monitoring, sensors, vehicle detector, traffic detection, traffic monitoring, congestion monitoring, planned special events
Lesson Comments
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