Inrix to help ODOT with weather events

Inrix is collaborating with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to help the state use ‘big data’ to return travel conditions to normal, following snowstorms and other weather-related events. ODOT will use the company’s traffic information and cloud-based analytics to further the agency’s aim of clearing roads statewide within three hours after major storms. Response time measurement is one of ODOT’s ‘Critical Success Factors’, which are used to assess performance at both state and district level. ODOT will use information from roadway weather information stations and Inrix traffic speed data to determine the time required to clear roads and return travel conditions to normal on more than 400 key routes statewide.

In addition to major weather events, ODOT will also use the company’s traffic speed data and analytics to assess ‘Travel Time Reliability’ on key corridors throughout the day. Inrix will help ODOT identify hours between 05:00 and 21:00, when speeds are below the speed limit, in order to assess operational strategies and pinpoint locations that would benefit most from highway improvements. Ted Trepanier, senior director of public sector business at Inrix, commented, “Restoring travel to normal conditions as quickly as possible not only improves public safety, but keeps people and commerce moving across the state. We’re providing Ohio with an objective, data-driven approach for assessing the performance of their weather response efforts for every storm, on every route statewide.”

25 July 2012