- [Narrator] Between 2010 and 2019,
there were 1700 wrong way driving crashes on Texas roadways.
Wrong way driving detection technologies
are used currently in Texas to help prevent these crashes,
but over the years, newer technologies have been developed
to address the issue.
The Texas Department of Transportation and researchers
with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute
looked at 10 new technologies and developed a test matrix
to evaluate their effectiveness.
- TxDOT has been using wrong way driving technology
to detect wrong way drivers
on their roadways for many years.
But as the technology has progressed,
different manufacturers have come up
with different sensing technologies and really,
TxDOT wanted one entity to be able to test
various types of technologies across the board
in one location.
- We had an opportunity
to look at a lot of different technologies,
the technologies come a long way.
A number of districts have been doing
a lot of different research in these areas over the years.
San Antonio has been kind of the lead on this
in many regards for the state of Texas.
But this project gave us an opportunity to test out
some of the newer technologies, which was really beneficial.
I think that's probably the critical thing.
Part of it goes back to is what's really the best technology
that we need to have available to us
when we're trying to address this particular issue.
- Most of the research was done here
at the Texas A&M Rellis campus.
We had 10 vendors bring their technologies in,
and then we tested those out on the closed course network.
We developed a matrix of tests that varied things
like the type of vehicle, the speed of the vehicle,
time of day, and several other factors.
And we basically conducted those tests, a vendor a week
for several weeks in a row.
And then we looked at the findings from those.
Another part of the effort actually looked at existing
implementations out in the field.
We collected data from TxDOT traffic management centers
on how those devices were detecting wrong way vehicles
and objects, and compiled those statistics.
- This is technology that is gonna help our agencies
be able to detect wrong way drivers
so that we can get the information out to first responders.
But even as technology is rolling out in cars today,
we can actually push this information out to those vehicles.
- So after testing all the devices,
really what we could do is create an educational piece
that showed the benefits and challenges
to different types of sensing technologies,
and also to allow TxDOT staff to know what to look for
when they're designing a wrong way driving technology
or detection component at specific ramps.
We also developed a specification that they can use
when they're bidding out for these types of technologies.
Hopefully overall, that will improve the system's functions
while they're out there and help alert
and notify folks about wrong way driving
and this improve safety.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publications for this project,
please visit the TxDOT Research Library
at the link shown below.