Starting tomorrow, CDOT will start to display travel time data on 6th Avenue in an effort to provide improved traveler information to motorists. The system uses existing electronic message boards to post estimated travel times to specific destinations. CDOT has been displaying travel time data on the electronic signs located on the I-70 West mountain corridor for several years with much success and on C-470.

Recently CoTRIP.org, CDOT’s traffic conditions website, added numerous live streaming video cameras to the site, allowing you to see actual live video of traffic conditions.

The Summit Daily News reports that the Colorado Department of Transportation plans to install at least 10 more cameras along the Interstate 70 mountain corridor in the coming months.

The road cameras, available through www.cotrip.org and www.goi70.com as well as a local television station, offer viewers glimpses of traffic and road conditions.

The new cameras are to be installed between Frisco and Vail, as fiber optics over the pass have been extended, said Rodrick Mead, operations manager with Colorado Transportation Management Center.

Go to the Summit Daily News to see the entire article.

The view looking west on Wednesday afternoon at Harmony and Timberline in Fort Collins.

Fort Collins is in the forefront of using Intelligent Transportation Systems and the internet to get real-time local street conditions into the hands of drivers and others.

FCTrip promises to help you “travel smarter” and by deploying a network of sensors and cameras that calculate congestion levels and speeds, the city has brought to the local street level a part of what the Colorado Department of Transportation, through its COTrip site, delivers for Denver metro area freeways.

It’s a glimpse into what engineers can do to help drivers make decisions that help relieve congestion. Extending real-time systems like this to regional arterial streets instead of just freeways would be a big help to commuters, delivery drivers and other motorists whose daily travels don’t just consist of freeway driving.

Highways are getting more and more high-tech as engineers work to squeeze more traffic capacity out of existing roadways that are too expensive or to impractical to widen, and to move vehicles more smoothly on the network.

So I was out driving recently and saw some new devices that had me stumped as to what they do. I knew about the little blue lights at intersections that tell the police waiting ahead when you’ve run a red light when they’re not in a position to see the red light. Obviously, I knew what about the little cameras that look like R2D2 hanging upside down from a light pole.

But there’s just so much out there that transportation engineers who work in what is called Intelligent Transportation Systems are deploying today in the effort to keep themselves informed – and you, if you get traffic alerts from TV, radio, internet or mobile device.

Check out my rogues’ gallery of roadside IT devices that I call “Highway Hardware.”

A dynamic speed bump that will lower and give motorists a smooth ride if they are driving slowly enoughis in development in Mexico, USA Today reports.

Concerns over the environment — and the utter annoyance of having to brake and accelerate frequently — have prompted one Mexican state government to embrace a “smart” speed bump that could make driving smoother, without sacrificing safety.

The device, being developed by Mexico-based Decano Industries, automatically lowers into the ground when drivers go the speed limit or slower. Drive too fast, and the bump stays up.

The technology is relatively basic: The speed bump is formed by two steel plates that form a triangle sticking out of the pavement. When a car tire touches the plate, a patented device under the triangle measures the force of the impact.

If the tire’s impact is gentle enough — that is, if the vehicle is traveling slowly — both plates immediately collapse into the ground under the weight of the car.

Read the entire article at USA Today.