CTS News

Lab Gets Grant to AnalyzeTraffic

By DAVID DADURKA / Daily Progress staff writer
Dec 4, 2002

When University of Virginia engineering professor Brian Smith thinks of Northern Virginia traffic congestion, one of his favorite Yogi Berra quotes comes to mind: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

Fortunately for Smith, he can watch the region's daily gridlock comfortably from a video monitor in the university's Smart Travel Laboratory.

But Smith, co-director of the lab, isn't satisfied with just watching traffic problems escalate across the state. He and fellow researchers at the lab are working on ways to ease them.

Researchers for the lab, which is supported by the university's Center for Transportation Studies and the Virginia Department of Transportation, recently garnered a $1 million grant to make vast amounts of archived traffic data available over the Internet.

The Smart Travel Lab, created five years ago, collects data such as traffic volumes, speeds and incidents - information used daily by traffic controllers to manage congestion - sent from thousands of sensors at three "smart traffic centers," based in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond.

Those centers transmit "real-time" data and video of traffic to the Smart Travel Lab, where it is archived.

"The grant is not just for theoretical research," Smith said.

The point of the project, he explained, is to allow planners and engineers access to data to prepare for projects such as future road expansions or even to help cut down on pollution from vehicles.

The laboratory contains four years worth of traffic data collected in the Hampton Roads area, Smith said. Information such as traffic flow patterns in the area could be used for evacuation planning if a hurricane were to hit the region, he said.

Analyzing traffic data also could help researchers find ways to reduce pollution created by vehicles, said Cathy McGhee, co-director of the Smart Travel Lab.

McGhee and Smith hope the system eventually will be able to help emergency service and police agencies respond to accidents more rapidly.

Researchers also are working on predicting traffic patterns, which could make traveling less uncertain for commuters, Smith said.

"Traffic is fairly predictable, but we can't predict an accident," he said.

Researchers can, however, simulate the impact of an accident on traffic in an area, Smith said, which could help planners prepare to deal with a pile-up.