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ODOT Tests Information Aid for Motorists A new travel-information system has been implemented in Ohio. By Karen Adelman for Office.com Nov. 28, 2000— The Ohio Department of Transportation has launched a new automated information system, Travel Time Prediction System, intended to reduce traffic congestion at a construction site on Route I-75 in Dayton. If successful, TIPS could serve as a model nationwide. TIPS gives motorists real-time predictions of how long it will take to drive through an upcoming construction zone. The information is displayed on a series of changeable message signs, the first of which is positioned about 10 miles before the road construction begins. Subsequent signs are placed before exits to give drivers the opportunity to opt for alternate routes. "We don't tell them what to do," says Prahlad Pant, professor of civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati and developer of TIPS. "We just give them the information they need to make a choice for themselves."
TIPS works by monitoring traffic volume with microwave radar sensors over each lane of the road. Each monitor transmits data every 30 seconds at 220 MHz. The information is received by a computer located in the maintenance garage of the Ohio Department of Transportation. The computer processes the data, says Pant, with "an algorithmic model (that) estimates the travel time from any Point A to any Point B along the freeway. It's constantly calculating." The travel time prediction is then sent back by radio to the changeable message signs. The software is sophisticated, but the computer that runs it is a standard PC running Windows NT. The entire system is automated, requiring relatively little human intervention, and the sensors and radio interface are powered with solar panels. So far, TIPS seems to be working well. "We've been checking the results with a stopwatch, making hundreds of runs, comparing the actual travel time to the highway display," says Pant. "It's been accurate by plus or minus two minutes."
Roger Dunn, research coordinator for ODOT in Columbus, concurs that the system is performing well. His department ordered an objective evaluation of the program last month. The evaluation, performed by Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is testing both accuracy and perception. "(Ohio University) will have people who drive on the interstate for three days," says Dunn. "There will be a driver who measures the accuracy and a passenger who takes down license-plate numbers of people who are driving through. We'll process the license numbers through the Public Safety Administration, get names and addresses, then send them surveys." Other state highway departments, says Dunn, have already shown interest in TIPS, and one of the attractions may be cost. Although enhancements, such as public access to travel-time information via the Internet, are underway, the bulk of the R&D, which ODOT funded at about $700,000, is already complete. |
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