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- [Narrator] Between 2010 and 2019,

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there were 1700 wrong way driving
crashes on Texas roadways.

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Wrong way driving detection technologies

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are used currently in Texas
to help prevent these crashes,

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but over the years, newer
technologies have been developed

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to address the issue.

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The Texas Department of
Transportation and researchers

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with the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute

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looked at 10 new technologies
and developed a test matrix

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to evaluate their effectiveness.

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- TxDOT has been using
wrong way driving technology

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to detect wrong way drivers

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on their roadways for many years.

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But as the technology has progressed,

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different manufacturers have come up

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with different sensing
technologies and really,

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TxDOT wanted one entity to be able to test

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various types of
technologies across the board

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in one location.

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- We had an opportunity

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to look at a lot of
different technologies,

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the technologies come a long way.

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A number of districts have been doing

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a lot of different research
in these areas over the years.

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San Antonio has been
kind of the lead on this

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in many regards for the state of Texas.

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But this project gave us
an opportunity to test out

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some of the newer technologies,
which was really beneficial.

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I think that's probably
the critical thing.

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Part of it goes back to is
what's really the best technology

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that we need to have available to us

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when we're trying to address
this particular issue.

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- Most of the research was done here

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at the Texas A&M Rellis campus.

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We had 10 vendors bring
their technologies in,

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and then we tested those out
on the closed course network.

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We developed a matrix of
tests that varied things

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like the type of vehicle,
the speed of the vehicle,

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time of day, and several other factors.

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And we basically conducted
those tests, a vendor a week

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for several weeks in a row.

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And then we looked at
the findings from those.

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Another part of the effort
actually looked at existing

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implementations out in the field.

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We collected data from TxDOT
traffic management centers

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on how those devices were
detecting wrong way vehicles

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and objects, and compiled
those statistics.

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- This is technology that
is gonna help our agencies

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be able to detect wrong way drivers

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so that we can get the information
out to first responders.

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But even as technology is
rolling out in cars today,

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we can actually push this
information out to those vehicles.

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- So after testing all the devices,

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really what we could do is
create an educational piece

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that showed the benefits and challenges

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to different types of
sensing technologies,

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and also to allow TxDOT staff
to know what to look for

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when they're designing a
wrong way driving technology

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or detection component at specific ramps.

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We also developed a
specification that they can use

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when they're bidding out for
these types of technologies.

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Hopefully overall, that will
improve the system's functions

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while they're out there and help alert

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and notify folks about wrong way driving

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and this improve safety.

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- [Narrator] For more information

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the TxDOT Research Library

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at the link shown below.