GPS Benefits For Non-GPS Drivers
…..Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to provide real-time traffic flow data for nearly 250 miles of US 41 and I-43. These main routes carry tens of thousands of cars and trucks each day between Milwaukee, Green Bay and several cities in between. WisDOT will use the information to provide real-time travel information — traffic flow, travel speeds, travel times, congestion, and incident reports — to commercial, commuter and leisure travelers to allow for more safe and efficient travel.
Currently, these routes lack a sufficient amount of traditional sensors, ….. With the near-absence of any sensor coverage on these two routes, the project will be primarily dependent upon GPS-enabled probe vehicles…. read the full article on the Wisconsin DOT traffic data project here:
I’ve mentioned this a time or two before. To save energy, save time and avoid out ever more impatient societies propensity to road rage, departments of transportation around the world have implemented, are implementing or are looking hard at live data traffic reporting systems. The idea behind all of them is to inform motorists and authorities of traffic density in near-real time so that minor peaks in usage can be mitigated, perhaps by allowing drivers to choose their own alternate routes, before jams and tie-ups become massive.
It’s a great idea. The reason we haven’t seen more of it, mainly, is that to implement a useful system in the past one had to invest heavily in some form of sensors. Infrared car counters above the highway lanes, ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) camera systems systems reporting car counts per time interval, Inductive-loop sensors in the pavement, you name it, it’s out there and it’s capable … but expensive. When you build a system correctly it can become very useful:
(Photo courtesy Robert Stack, www.rstack.com)
This is a picture of just part of a near-real time intelligent highway map that greets visitors as they clear customs at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. The roads are major highways for approximately 50 miles around Tokyo, color-coded green, amber and red to show the level of congestion as reported by infrared sensors mounted above the traffic lanes. The amber colored numbers such as the large number “50″ with the little Japanese “squiggle” next to it in the mid-right of the picture tells you that from where you are standing it will take about 50 minutes to reach that area, given present traffic conditions. The estimated times update on a regular basis as reports on traffic flow are processed.
Now it would really be nice to have one of these at the baggage claim or car rental counter at the airport in your city … or wherever you travel to, wouldn’t it? The biggest reason you don’t see systems this complex very often is the expense. No matter what you use for sensors and how you route the data to a central processor there are going to be significant start-up and recurring monthly costs.
Enter Inrix’s network. Among other data the one thing they use which ties in to my interest is anonymous reports from the hundreds of vehicles equipped with GPS tracking that will be on the roadway of interest at any one time. All this tracking data is being collected by vehicle and fleet owners for various government and business reasons and it all has to flow to central data collection pints anyway. So filter out the identifying information about who owns or drives a particular vehicle and what do you have? A live data probe, covering the ground you are interested in at virtually no additional cost, fuel or congestion penalty. nest stuff and certainly the kind of out of the box thinking instead of the “we can’t do it, it costs too much” response you usually hear from bureaucrats. Kudos to the WisDOT.