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(light swoosh)

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- [Narrator] Traffic management
centers help keep traffic

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moving in metro areas across Texas.

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Incidents such as a stalled car

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or a crash are located using cameras.

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Once identified, traffic
management center personnel

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can begin working to clear the incident

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and provide support to first responders.

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But many times, traffic incidents
are not seen immediately

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and occasionally, incidents are missed.

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The Texas Department of Transportation

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and researchers with the Texas A&M

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Transportation Institute
have developed a system

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that uses data from 911
calls to help identify

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and clear incidents faster
and more efficiently.

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- There was a study that was
conducted a few years ago.

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We realized that, you know,

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the traffic manual centers
often locate a, you know,

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traffic incident about
like, 15 minutes average

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after the incident occurred.

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And a lot of times, they find it right

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before the incident was cleared.

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So we're looking for ways

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to improve the incident detection times.

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- One of the things that we noticed was

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when someone gets involved in an incident,

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one of the things they do
is, well, they'll call 911.

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So the thought was if a traffic
management center could get

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notified of a 911 call
for a traffic incident,

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they would be able to go
and find that incident

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and start working to help clear it.

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- All these systems, they store

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those network call data
in a queryable database.

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Instead of trying to figure
out how to connect to the,

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you know, the proprietary
system, we determine that a way

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to easily query the database
on a regular interval

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to capture the information
at very little cost.

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- We essentially set up a system to

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collect the data and display
data from the 911 centers.

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We ended up talking with
the TxDOT Houston district

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and we asked if we could get
the system integrated within

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their traffic management system software.

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And so in working with
them, they were able

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to take the data, get
it into their software

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so that now, it's not
just they're getting data,

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they're now actually connecting
that data with their systems

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and they're collecting the information

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as they're working incidents,

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this other data are coming in.

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we're able to actually
tie a lot of information

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because of this work.

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- So if we can detect

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and notify traffic manual centers
of these traffic incidents

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so that our TMC operators
could collaborate

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with the first responders,
we can clear the roadways

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in a timely manner to
reduce the likelihood

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of secondary crash.

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And of course, you know,
the quicker you can clear,

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you know, the less congestion
you will experience.

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- The biggest challenge
is getting agencies,

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working with agencies to
provide us these 911 data.

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911 data is considered a
rather sensitive subject

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for many law enforcement agencies.

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It's governed by the FBI

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and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

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There's information that shouldn't go out.

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And so we have to work with them

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and to explain 'em what we're
doing and why we're doing it

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and how it not just benefits
the traveling public,

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but also benefits them
as an agency in terms

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of responding traffic incidents.

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- We're basically interested
in having this system

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integrated into our ATMS Lonestar system

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so the operators can be, can
use this better, utilize this,

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the data we're injecting from
these network call centers

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to help them identify instance
quicker and, you know,

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and get this instance cleared quicker.

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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.