Classification & Data Collection

Minnesota DoT has built one of the most intensive Active Traffic Management (ATM) systems on the road today. Like many ITS deployments, the state has gained benefits but also faces many challenges, as Pete Goldin reports. Smart Lanes is the brand name of Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDoT) ATM system on I-35W in the Twin Cities Metro Area. The original system covered 16 miles of I-35W south of Minneapolis starting in 2009, and was extended by two miles in 2011. Additional ATM equipment was inst

In an effort to reduce congestion and improve passenger flow at railway stations in the Netherlands, Danish software company Blip Systems and Dutch railway consultants NPC have teamed up to monitor passenger movements using Bluetooth and wi-fi tracking. In an eight-week study at Groningen railway station, Blip Systems has installed 22 of its BlipTrack sensors which anonymously detect wi-fi and Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones and laptops. The sensors will monitor passengers and transmit the

In line with its maxim ‘infrared everywhere’, thermal imaging camera supplier FLIR expects to increase its sales within the automotive sector, particularly to companies like Audi, BMW and Rolls Royce, in order to boost manufacturing numbers and cut per unit production costs. The company has developed a new initiative with Mercedes Benz in which many of the car maker’s new S-Class vehicles will contain a FLIR thermal imager that will scan the road ahead, during the darkness of night, and alert when it sees h

Buckinghamshire-based Traffic Technology has successfully retained its traffic data collection contract with West Berkshire District Council. The company will carry out permanent traffic surveys from around thirty-three sites in West Berkshire, as well as ad hoc traffic and parking surveys, pedestrian crossing studies and journey time studies on behalf of the Council for the next two years, with an option to continue for a further two years. Data from parking surveys is used to inform future parking strateg

As part of a growing effort to use technology to manage traffic on roads and highways without building more roads, for the last six months Florida’s Palm Beach County has been using Bluetooth readers to determine how long it takes motorists to travel along its corridors. "We're adding more capacity through technology rather than asphalt," said Dan Weisberg, Palm Beach County's traffic engineer. "We can't build ourselves out of congestion. We need to be smarter about what we have and manage it." In collabor

Indian technology company Rajdeep has received an order from Oriental Structural Engineers to install an infrared vehicle classification system for a National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase V road upgrading project in Etawah Chakeri, Uttar Pradesh. The order involves two toll plazas with a total of twenty-six lanes. The new system will replace the existing treadle based classification system. All toll lanes will have weigh in motion (WIM) as well as a mix of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) lane

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is to launch its corridor management system, which will integrate traffic information from the myriad transportation agencies along the north central expressway in the region to provide drivers with up to date travel information. The US$9 million project, partially funded by the Department of Transportation, is among several integrated corridor management pioneer sites chosen because of the high travel demand and congestion brought on by the more than 266,000 vehicles that u

In a bid to prevent the overloading of trucks, the Walloon Region of Belgium is to introduce a dynamic weigh in motion (WIM) system. Sensors installed in the road surface upstream of the fixed weighing stations will detect the vehicle’s weight, while automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras will identify the its registration. Trucks identified as being overweight are then intercepted and directed to the static weighing system. WIM is already in use in the Flanders Region of Belgium. A total of fif