I-95 Corridor Coalition with INRIX Expands Vehicle Probe Project Helping States Do More With Less

COLLEGE PARK, Md. and KIRKLAND, Wash., Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The I-95 Corridor Coalition, the University of Maryland and INRIX announced a 3-year extension and expansion of a program that significantly improves how state and federal transportation agencies allocate billions of dollars in transportation funds.  

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The I-95 Coalition Vehicle Probe Project (VPP), first operational in 2008, uses crowd-sourced traffic data and advanced analytics techniques to turn billions of data points into insights that are transforming the manner in which member states build, manage and measure their road networks.  The project now provides INRIX real-time and historical traffic information for more than 20,000 miles of roads across 10 states along the I-95 corridor.  

"By expanding the program, we expect to achieve even greater gains from smarter investment in our transportation networks and help our members provide improved service to travelers," said George Schoener, Executive Director, I-95 Corridor Coalition.  "The significance of the project to our member agencies is very clear, with all 10 states investing some level of their own resources in the project, in some cases committed out to 2014."

Key elements of the project's expansion over the next 3 years include:

• Massive Coverage Expansion.  The project coverage increases from 5,000+ miles of road coverage in 8 states to more than 20,000 centerline miles in 10 states.  
  • Complete freeway coverage in 6 states – Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina.  In addition to complete freeway coverage, North Carolina is investing in coverage across their entire road network gaining access to more than 15,000 miles of highways, interstates, arterials and secondary roads of INRIX real-time and historical traffic information statewide – the first state to standardize on INRIX data.    
  • Complete I-95 coverage across Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia including interstates around Savannah, most South Florida limited access roads and all freeways and arterials in Virginia's Hampton Roads area.
• The Industry's First Ramp/Interchange data.  INRIX data for highway-to-highway interchanges in urban areas offers agencies insight into real-time traffic conditions in areas previously blind to traffic operations.  Many complicated urban area interchanges – are now available for viewing and agency data integration.
• New & Improved Traveler Information Services.  The expansion permits expansion of the  numerous services offered by the Coalition's members and relied on by hundreds of thousands of drivers everyday including:
  • I95travelinfo.net. Covering more than 8,000 centerline miles, the free site is designed to assist the millions of multi-state travelers in the I-95 Corridor by providing real-time traffic information and travel times for key destinations across state lines, complimenting in-state 511 services.
  • 511 phone and web services in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida utilize VPP data to provide services.
  • Travel Times on Dynamic Messages are driven by VPP data in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina.
  • Traffic Information signs at Virginia Welcome Centers and Tysons Corner Mall – one of the largest malls in America.
• Traffic Operations Support. The project's web portal that allows all I-95 Corridor Coalition member agencies to view traffic conditions in real-time has now been expanded beyond the contracted coverage to all major roads in Coalition and neighboring states.
• Congestion Management Planning. Several planning organizations, including the Metropolitan Planning Organizations for Washington, DC and greater Philadelphia, are using VPP data to determine highway network performance, the first steps towards performance-based planning and programing. In published reports, both agencies singled out the VPP as a "much improved way [of obtaining data]" and "an innovative and profound data source for congestion and reliability analysis."
• Statewide Performance Monitoring and Analysis. Building on the early work of the these leading MPOs and with the assistance of North Carolina DOT,  the University of Maryland CATT Lab recently  introduced the "VPP Suite" providing member agencies with a set of tools – leveraging VPP data dating back to 2008 – to support a wide range of operational and planning applications.  In just a few months, more than 2 dozen agencies have utilized the VPP Suite offering agencies simple configurable data downloading and network performance analysis charts and tables for roads, regions, and states.

Through a complete, precise view of traffic conditions across their road network, the Vehicle Probe Project not only helps target investment in roads and transit in the most critical areas but delivers improved traffic operations at reduced cost.  According to North Carolina DOT where previous approaches to gathering traffic data had a life cycle cost of nearly $50,000 per mile, INRIX vehicle probe data has been proven to deliver more coverage at about 25 percent of the per mile life cycle cost.(1)"

"With the vehicle probe project supporting many of our critical operations, travel information and planning applications, we're able to do more with less," said Gene Conti, Secretary of North Carolina Department of Transportation.  "In fact, INRIX combined with our own real-time incident and construction data not only makes us more efficient, but we believe it makes us compliant with the new federal regulation on real-time system monitoring…more than 3 years ahead of the deadline."  

"Better information means improved operations, more precise planning and better performance measurement," added Rick Schuman, Vice President of Public Sector, INRIX.  "We look forward to our continued collaboration with the I-95 Corridor Coalition and its member agencies to further benefit their efforts and the traveling public they serve."

I-95 Corridor Coalition and member state representatives will provide additional details on how the "Vehicle Probe Project" (VPP) is transforming planning, operations, and performance during sessions and exhibits at the AASHTO Annual Meeting, the AMPO Annual Meeting, and the ITS World Congress in October.  Additionally, the University of Maryland has completed several related research projects in the areas listed below,  which will be detailed in papers and presentations at the ITS World Congress:

• Probability of Real-Time Data as a Function of Hourly Volume, Assessment of the I-95 Vehicle Probe Project Data
• Analysis of Level of Confidence Score within the I-95 Vehicle Probe Project
• Validation of the Historical Vehicle Probe Project Speed by Using Bluetooth Speed as the Ground Truth
• Challenges to Effective Arterial Traffic Monitoring: Lessons from the I-95 Corridor Coalition's Vehicle Probe Project

(1) Source: Vehicle Probe Project Benefits White Paper, August 2010 http://cot.ag/9QMzF2

About I-95 Corridor Coalition

The I-95 Corridor Coalition is a partnership of transportation agencies, toll authorities, and related organizations, including public safety, port, transit and rail organizations – from the State of Maine to the State of Florida – working together to improve long distance travel for passengers and freight. For more information, visit www.i95coalition.org.

About INRIX

INRIX® is a leading global provider of real-time traffic information and connected driving services in the car, online and on mobile devices. With more than 200 customers and partners including Audi AG, ADAC, ANWB,  the BBC, Ford Motor Company, I-95 Coalition, MapQuest, Microsoft, NAVIGON, Nissan, O2, Tele Atlas, Telmap, TeleNav, Toyota and Vodafone, INRIX's real-time traffic and traffic forecasts help drivers save time every day. For more information visit www.INRIX.com

SOURCE INRIX