California DOT’s new monitoring systems to speed traffic flow

California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has started installing a system of 204 new sensors on I-215, I-15, I-10 and Highway 91, which state and county transportation officials say will help speed traffic flow and avert jams.

Electricity generated by solar panels will power computers on series of poles, linked to magnetometers embedded in all lanes and a system of radar sensors installed along the freeway shoulders. Both units will collect information on car and truck speeds and size, as well as traffic congestion.

The information is sent to the California DOT's traffic management center in San Bernardino, which will be able to issue traffic updates that can be accessed via onboard navigation systems and computers, specifically www.commutesmart.info, which already offers real-time traffic information for much of the freeway systems in Southern California. Expected to cost about US$5 million, the project will be paid for with state bonds and Measure A transportation funds and should be complete by June.

The data will also be used by the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California at Riverside. Center director, Professor Matt Barth, says, “We are laboring to quantify how much fuel is wasted and how much pollution is generated when traffic thickens to a crawl. More data enables engineers to better meter traffic on freeway ramps. Better management of traffic flow can result in a 40% reduction in fuel use.”
 

25 March 2009