MANAGING SEASONAL TRAFFIC CONGESTION WITH EFFICIENCY
Replacing manual data collection with crowdsourced and real-time traffic data via visualization platformCollier County
OVERVIEW
Collier County is a region in Florida, U.S.A. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Everglades City in 1962. Known for its warm weather, visitors flock to the region during winter months. During the first quarter of 2018, the county received 621,000 visitors, which is 200,000 people more than the next highest quarter.
COLLIER COUNTY TRAFFIC OPERATIONS
Collier County’s Traffic Operations Department is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the county’s roadways to promote a safe and efficient transportation system for its citizens and visitors. Collier County Traffic Operations consists of six sectors including InHouse Design Group, Roadway Lighting, Roadway Signing and Marking, Traffic Facilities Locates, Traffic Management Center (TMC), and Traffic Signals. All six of these sections work closely together to provide the most efficient roads for the county.
Company Name: Collier County
Date: January, 2018
Website: https://www.colliercountyfl.gov/
THE CHALLENGES
Collier County Traffic Operations’ mission is to provide the best and most efficient roadway networks for its citizens. The county experiences a high fluctuation of seasonal traffic, so it was crucial they collect up-to-date congestion data for the main road segments to prioritize those in need of immediate improvement with low Level of Service.
The Traffic Operations Department wanted to measure travel time to determine roadway capacity, congestion areas, congestion time, and its duration. Also, travel time data could be used to evaluate traffic signal timing to assure high performance of the roads; however, collecting and analyzing travel time data at the county-level is both labor-intensive and time-consuming. Before adopting SMATS’ iNode™, the county traffic officials had to drive the desired segments multiple times at different times of the day to collect the required travel time data. This way of collecting data makes it impossible to study longer segments across the county and monitor the roads 24/7. Therefore, Collier County Traffic Operations decided to automate this process to help its staff and collect travel time data more efficiently.
THE SOLUTION
Collier County Traffic Operations chose the SMATS data analytics platform, iNode™, with integrated crowdsourced traffic data to easily monitor and analyze live travel time. iNode™ allowed the county traffic officials to capture travel time and speed data of the desired roads without needing to install or maintain any hardware. Finally, iNode™ captured travel time based on the given time schedule.
“SMATS’ iNode™ platform provided the County’s Traffic Operations with the required data and online analysis tool to facilitate traffic officials’ work in achieving Traffic Operations’ mission. We have always received the needed support in a timely manner from SMATS.”
THE RESULTS
Since September 2019, the Collier County Traffic Operations Department has been using iNode™. To date, the County has established more than 220 data collection links (or segments) using iNode™ to monitor and analyze travel time data online. Figure 1 shows all of the county links that appear on the dashboard page of iNode™. As can be seen, the level of congestion of all the links can be monitored from the dashboard both online and offline. Each color represents a congestion level from most congested (dark red) to normal (green).
SMATS FOR COLLIER COUNTY TRAFFIC OPERATION
SMATS’ iNode™ platform provided the county’s Traffic Operations Division with the required data and online analysis tools to facilitate traffic officials’ work in achieving their traffic operations objectives. Therefore, Collier County Traffic Operations can determine possible alternatives to diminish congestion, and as a result, the county’s roads became more efficient.
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