Traffic.com Expands Coverage in Ohio

Traffic.com announced an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) that provides for the installation of digital roadside traffic sensors along expressways in the Cincinnati and Columbus metropolitan areas. (I used to live in cincinnati, and they need coverage in the areas cited below as a lot of development has pushed the traffic issues well north of the beltway.)

Traffic.com will use the real-time data collected by these sensors, combined with data gathered by operations center personnel, to distribute vital traffic information across multiple platforms to hundreds of thousands of drivers in Cincinnati and Columbus. This traffic information will include incident and accident reports, vehicle speeds, congestion levels, travel times, and delay times.

This agreement marks the 23rd and 24th metropolitan area local agencies that participate in public-private partnerships with Traffic.com for the provision of digital traffic data services. Examples of metropolitan areas currently utilizing the successful Traffic.com sensor deployments through such agreements include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and St. Louis.

The planned sensor deployment includes: in Cincinnati on I-275 (Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway), I-75 (north of I-275), and I-71 (north of Route 275), and in Columbus on I-270, I-71 (south of I-70), and I-70 (from I-71 West to I-270) and I-670.

Traffic.com is already helping area drivers in Cincinnati and Columbus deal with traffic on the roadways by delivering free real-time traffic information online, on-demand and on-the-go through services available at www.traffic.com, a toll free traffic hotline 1-866-MY-TRAFC, an SMS service with which users can text their city code to TRAFC, and a WAP site at mobi.traffic.com designed for access by web-enabled cell phone and mobile device. Traffic.com’s MyTrafficTM free suite of personalized services provide users with scheduled or on-demand traffic alerts via phone, e-mail or wireless device in HTML and text-only formats. The deployment of Traffic.com’s digital roadside sensors will expand the data available to Cincinnati and Columbus travelers making these real-time services even more dynamic.

“Traffic.com’s state-of-the-art traffic sensor network is a proven technology model based on the collection and processing of real-time, lane-by-lane, traffic speed and volume 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said David L. Jannetta, president of Traffic.com. “Our partnership with ODOT will empower drivers with reliable, accurate, and complete traffic information helping Ohioans make better decisions about when to travel ultimately saving them precious time and reducing their fuel costs.”

The expanded sensor system is being installed at no cost to the state or local government agencies. Traffic.com pays for the construction, operational costs, and ongoing maintenance of the sensors, and will also reinvest a portion of the revenue to expand the system. The real-time, lane-by-lane traffic speed and volume data collected by the new sensors will help improve work zone safety, crash responses, and highway operations. Traffic.com plans to install these sensors by this time next year.

February 23, 2007

Traffic.com Expands Coverage in Ohio