Regional Travel Information center adds new traffic monitoring systems
The campus-based Regional Traveler Information Center (RTIC) has introduced two new traffic monitoring systems to keep commuters abreast of conditions on two busy local roadways.
The center is now using FastLane technology to provide more accurate travel times on Route 116 between the Amherst-Sunderland town line and Routes 5 and 10 in South Deerfield, according to Paul Shuldiner, principal investigator for RTIC and professor emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The FastLane system is expected to go into use along Route 9 between Hadley and Northampton later this year, said Shuldiner. In the meantime, an automated traffic analyzer has been installed on Route 9 near West Street in Hadley to provide continuous measurements of average traffic speed at that location, he said.
RTIC makes the average travel times available to the public on its Web site, www.MassTraveler.com, along with live images of traffic at various locations in western Massachusetts.
FastLane, familiar to many regular users of the MassPike, uses a transponder to pay tolls electronically. Shuldiner says the devices are so common now that they can be used to measure traffic flow.
Using technology made available by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, RTIC can pick up anonymous transponder signals and “get a precise measure of how long it takes to travel along Route 116 between the Amherst/Sunderland line and Routes 5 and 10,” says Shuldiner.
The FastLane system cannot identify individual vehicles, but simply homes in on transponders to determine their continuous rate of progress. The system is proving more reliable than the old video-based system that has been used to measure vehicle travel times on Route 9, he said.
“It gives a general sense of how traffic is flowing and can trigger alerts to blockages,” he said. During a test of the FastLane system last December, an RTIC technician noticed travel times rise up to one hour as a large snowstorm began moving into the area. The impact of the storm “was picked up immediately,” Shuldiner said.
RTIC is a joint venture of the University and the Massachusetts Highway Department in collaboration with the regional planning agencies of western Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority. RTIC is managed by the UMass Transportation Center with operational and facility support from UMass Transit Services.
More Information
MassTraveler website
August 29, 2008.
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