(light swoosh)
- [Narrator] Traffic management centers help keep traffic
moving in metro areas across Texas.
Incidents such as a stalled car
or a crash are located using cameras.
Once identified, traffic management center personnel
can begin working to clear the incident
and provide support to first responders.
But many times, traffic incidents are not seen immediately
and occasionally, incidents are missed.
The Texas Department of Transportation
and researchers with the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute have developed a system
that uses data from 911 calls to help identify
and clear incidents faster and more efficiently.
- There was a study that was conducted a few years ago.
We realized that, you know,
the traffic manual centers often locate a, you know,
traffic incident about like, 15 minutes average
after the incident occurred.
And a lot of times, they find it right
before the incident was cleared.
So we're looking for ways
to improve the incident detection times.
- One of the things that we noticed was
when someone gets involved in an incident,
one of the things they do is, well, they'll call 911.
So the thought was if a traffic management center could get
notified of a 911 call for a traffic incident,
they would be able to go and find that incident
and start working to help clear it.
- All these systems, they store
those network call data in a queryable database.
Instead of trying to figure out how to connect to the,
you know, the proprietary system, we determine that a way
to easily query the database on a regular interval
to capture the information at very little cost.
- We essentially set up a system to
collect the data and display data from the 911 centers.
We ended up talking with the TxDOT Houston district
and we asked if we could get the system integrated within
their traffic management system software.
And so in working with them, they were able
to take the data, get it into their software
so that now, it's not just they're getting data,
they're now actually connecting that data with their systems
and they're collecting the information
as they're working incidents,
this other data are coming in.
we're able to actually tie a lot of information
because of this work.
- So if we can detect
and notify traffic manual centers of these traffic incidents
so that our TMC operators could collaborate
with the first responders, we can clear the roadways
in a timely manner to reduce the likelihood
of secondary crash.
And of course, you know, the quicker you can clear,
you know, the less congestion you will experience.
- The biggest challenge is getting agencies,
working with agencies to provide us these 911 data.
911 data is considered a rather sensitive subject
for many law enforcement agencies.
It's governed by the FBI
and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
There's information that shouldn't go out.
And so we have to work with them
and to explain 'em what we're doing and why we're doing it
and how it not just benefits the traveling public,
but also benefits them as an agency in terms
of responding traffic incidents.
- We're basically interested in having this system
integrated into our ATMS Lonestar system
so the operators can be, can use this better, utilize this,
the data we're injecting from these network call centers
to help them identify instance quicker and, you know,
and get this instance cleared quicker.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publications for this project,
please visit the TxDOT Research Library
at the link shown below.