DENVER METRO—Starting tomorrow, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will expand its travel time information by displaying 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.

CDOT will display travel times on three electronic message signs located on 6th Avenue. The westbound 6th Avenue sign at Sheridan Blvd. will provide information on travel time to Kipling, Simms and I-70. The eastbound 6th Avenue sign at Wadsworth Blvd. will provide travel times to Federal Blvd., I-25/Alameda and I25/Colfax. The eastbound 6th Avenue sign at Union will provide the travel time to Wadsworth, Sheridan and I-25.

The system collects data from speed input devices including ramp meters, side-fire speed sensors and toll transponders. CDOT does not have access to any personal or identifying information on a vehicle and information is deleted from the system within two hours. Speed, volume, and road segment travel data is calculated and the estimated travel time between two points is then posted on an electronic message sign. A travel time message will display a destination or highway exit, along with the current estimated time it is taking for vehicles traveling at actual speed up to the speed limit to get to that destination.

Travel times are not predictive but provide a snapshot of current highway traffic and conditions. Travel time messages and information will not be available during times traffic is stopped or a major incident results in a highway closure.

Go to Milepost 61 to see the entire blog entry.

Under the plan, a billboard company would replace existing digital displays that show traffic updates and abduction-related Amber Alerts with sophisticated color screens that also show advertising. The state currently operates 708 electronic boards on highways.

The proposal faces significant hurdles, particularly obtaining a U.S. Department of Transportation waiver of federal highway regulations. The governor sees the plan as a way to generate revenue and improve the technology of the warning signs, but critics fear the new signs would distract drivers and lead to more accidents.

Go to the Sacramento Bee to see the entire article.

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 Fort Collins traffic map as of 4:15 pm Wednesday showed a high level of congestion on eastbound Mulberry and northbound College.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

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.

The system integrates data from those sources to translate traffic data onto the city map. Take a look at it live here. It’s been online for nearly three years.

Britney Sorensen, Fort Collins’ traffic systems engineer, said the project was the brainchild of the city’s former traffic engineer, Eric Bracke, who has moved on to a job for the city of Greeley.

“Eric was instrumental in getting funding for our entire system,” she said. He worked to obtain a grant from CDOT through federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds. This program, pronounced verbally as “See-Mack” for C-M-A-Q, has been a valuable resource for innovation in ITS programs. Use of ITS can help traffic engineers squeeze more use out of existing capacity on the roadway network.

You can read about CDOT’s own efforts using ITS and the travel time savings it has brought starting on page 37 of CDOT’s 2009 Transportation Deficit Report.

As to Fort Collins’ FCTrip, 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.

FCTrip reports on traffic along the major north-south and east-west arterials in the city. Although there are still some gaps that can be filled in as money allows, the streets in the program are Mulberry, Prospect, Drake, Horsetooth and Harmony Road, on the east-west axis, and Taft Hill, College, Lemay and Timberline on the north-south.

But the usefulness of FCTrip doesn’t stop at reporting traffic levels on city streets.

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

The site requires a good working relationship between the city’s Traffic Operations and Management Information Services departments. The operations people install and maintain the equipment that collects and transports the data, while the information services people program and maintain the web site.

“The congestion data comes from two different sources,” Sorensen said. “Video detection and in-pavement sensors. Both types of detection measure traffic volumes, occupancy (length of time the vehicle is present), and speed.

“Currently there are 20 video detection count stations and 20 in-pavement count stations with a total of 120 in-pavement sensors. There are also 18 intersections that use the video detection system to provide vehicle detection to change the traffic signal. These cameras, which are located at the intersection, also provide some count, occupancy and speed data.”

“The video detection system used in the City of Fort Collins is the Econolite Autoscope system, which detects pixilation change caused by vehicles in the image,” Sorensen added. “The cameras for the count stations are mounted approximately 500 feet away from the intersection.

Looking south on College at Harmony Road.

The camera images accompanying the map come from the city’s 28 closed-circuit camera system on major arterials.

“The CCTV cameras are controlled by software that takes snapshots every 5 to 10 minutes,” Sorensen said. “These images show multiple directions at each of the locations and are posted on the website.”

Fort Collins’ project cost $447,000. It included installation of 16 closed circuit cameras – the city has 28 total on the arterials – 20 video detection count stations, 20 in-pavement count stations, four servers for video and data processing, and networking equipment to communicate with the detection equipment.

More coverage is on the way.

City permits for roadway construction are used to compile work zone information on the map. The Traffic Operations Department issues these permits, giving it all the information it needs. In addition, information regarding upcoming projects is obtained from the city engineering department and plotted on the map.

“Prior to Mr. Bracke leaving the city, he applied for and was awarded another CMAQ grant to enhance the FCTrip webpage,” Sorensen said. “That project is currently in the design stages and should include 10 additional CCTV cameras and more vehicle detection equipment.”

Rather than an annual road tax for their cars, drivers will soon pay a few cents for every kilometer (mile) on the road, in a plan aimed at breaking chronic traffic jams and cutting carbon emissions, the Cabinet decided Friday.

The GPS monitoring system could be a test case for other countries weighing options for easing crowded roads. Some cities like London have created congestion charges to control traffic in downtown areas, but only Singapore has a similar scheme for charging according to the amount of travel.

When the plan takes effect in 2012, new car prices will drop as much as 25 percent with the abolition of a purchase tax and the road tax, which now totals more than euro600 ($900) per year for a mid-sized car.

Instead, an average passenger car will pay euro0.03 per 1 kilometer ($0.07 per mile), with higher charges levied during rush hour and for traveling on congested roads. Trucks, commercial vehicles and bigger cars emitting more carbon dioxide will be assessed at a higher rate, the Transport Ministry said.

Go to the Associated Press report on Google News to see the entire article.

Transport experts who gathered at the city’s university were told the continuing development of in-car technology meant that levying motorists for the number of miles they drive could become a reality by 2020.

Frederic Bruneteau, one of the speakers at the Intelligent Transport Systems conference, said that increasingly over the past 18 months motorists have been buying sat navs or smart phones with a two-way connection.

But, he said, by 2020 it is predicted they will be the norm, which could allow governments to charge motorists variable road tax depending on how far they drive.

Go to The News to see the entire article.

The latest concept, part of the EU’s Safe Road Trains for the Environment initiative, groups cars with similar destinations into road trains over long stretches of highway. The lead vehicle will be driven by an experienced motorist — it may even be a bus that regularly travels the route — while the functions of each following vehicle will be automatically controlled and tethered to the actions of the lead car so that individual drivers can hammer out e-mails or eat breakfast. Despite the project’s name, cars can exit at any time.

Go to Wired to read the entire article.

Read the entire article at the Summit Daily News.

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.