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♪ [background music-- no dialogue] ♪♪.
Okay, now I'm going to go back to my PowerPoint.
In Charleston, you don't experience those types
of congestion situations, but in the larger cities,
that's common.
I wanted to share with you a movie to set the tone.
ITS technologies were that they chose to use to help manage
congestion were set up that it would monitor traffic conditions
metering traffic onto freeways, optimizing the timing of traffic
signals, and implementing electronic money transactions
on toll roads and faster and anticipatory responses
to traffic incidents.
Then providing travelers with information on travel conditions
as well as alternative routes and modes.
These will go pretty fast.
The first one was a call box, which is placed along the rural
roads in the areas where there is cellular telephone use
is not available or there are really believe it or not
people who don't have cell phones yet.
So, those are placed throughout along the road sides,
so that if you have emergencies you can stop
and call for assistance, next one.
Closed circuit television is located above the roadways
to watch for traffic accidents or different situations
that need to be addressed.
Those cameras can tilt, pan, and they have full control over them
and each one of them has a lightning rod on the pole
with them, so if the lightning strikes, it protects those.
The next one is a ramp meter and it is designed to maximize the
flow of the traffic on the ramps to get onto the freeways or off.
There are stoplights and so there will be two lanes
and the lights would control the traffic, but it keeps things
moving along.
Those are used where the volume of traffic are higher.
The next one is the passive acoustic device or PAD.
Those are small devices that sit on the top of the utility poles.
They detect movement and speed and density.
Then, that information is sent to the offices where they can
then set up different scenarios to control the traffic,
like to control the traffic lights or they can send out
emergency vehicles whatever they need to do.
The next one is called loops.
Those are embedded in the roadways.
I don't know if you can see them from behind, but the cars pass
over them and that reads and collects data on the speed
and the number of cars that are going through.
Then, in some offices they have colored maps that the operator
reads and makes the necessary adjustment to take care
of the traffic.
All those prior to, the information is all sent
to a controller cabinet that are along the roads and those
are sent on them.
The information and data is sent on into offices so that
the controllers can take care of that.
Those are weatherproof and built to withstand whatever elements
they are outside in.
Once that information is sent in, then they can do--go ahead
to the next one--they can send emergency vehicles out or they
can send messages to the dynamic message signs where it would say
ramp accident on exit 196, take the next exit or slow moving
traffic or I think I've seen one that says
approximate arrival time.
It calculates the speed of the traffic, so it alerts you as to
what is going on ahead of you, and you can make adjustments
to your travel pattern.
The Department of Transportation wanted to determine what
the outcomes or how the emerging outcomes were happening through
this new technology based system.
In the year, in the Fall of 1996 to the Fall of 1997,
they collected this data based on the fact that reducing
the number of crashes would directly impact everything else
that happens in movement of traffic.
This is so that the percentage of reduction increased
considerably in the measure, this is in the amount of time
it took you to get from point A to point B.
It significantly increased throughout the time,
the next one.
Then the other was the operating costs and productivity.
The first one is the electronic toll collection.
I'm old enough that I knew that when I came to a toll booth,
I had to count out the change and hand it to a person.
Then, it evolved into, you drove by and threw money
into the slot.
Now, then you can go right through.
My sister has a toll pass, and she lives in Texas.
She drives through, and they don't slow up a bit.
They just keep moving.
The cameras read or the computer reads that and charges it
to her account number.
In northern Illinois, it breaks off into four or five lanes
so that if you want to be billed or if you have the pass,
you can take the left lanes and accelerate.
You don't have to slow up.
If you want to pay, you slow down and sit in lines
and risk accidents as you go on.
The next one, which is not much of an increase, but it's the
automatic vehicle locator and the computer aided dispatching.
That's more involved with the emergency vehicle situations.
Then, the fleet management, they saw some increase in reduction.
The overall impact of the intelligent transportation
systems have greatly impacted the consumers
and the infrastructure or the cities.
It costs, and I'll back up to my notes because I missed a couple
of things here.
In 2005, there was a loss of 2 billion hours,
$100 billion in traffic delays, and $70 billion
in traffic accidents, and approximately 2 billion gallons
of fuel wasted annually.
To build additional roadways to help alleviate the traffic
congestion and to reduce waste and fuel and the release
of toxic fumes and things into our air would run
about $1 billion per lane mile to build additional highways.
Through the intelligent transportation systems,
it would cost only $50,000 per lane mile,
and by doing the intelligent transportation system,
it increases the capacities of the roads up to 20%.
So, it actually puts off having to do the major expenditures
to control traffic.