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TIPS
Helps Motorists Get through Highway Work Zones
From
the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
8/25/03
Frankfort, Ky. - If you've traveled I-64 between Louisville and
Frankfort lately and wondered what those portable signs with the
antenna's sticking out are all about, the Kentucky Transportation
Cabinet (KYTC) today revealed the answer. It's part of the "TIPS"
program. That stands for Traffic Information and Prediction system.
"Simply
put, it is a system for displaying up to the minute travel time
or delay time to motorists in advance of and through an interstate
work zone," said Amos Hubbard, KYTC Deputy State Highway
Engineer for Construction and Operations. "We believe its
an effective system that provides for better informed travelers,
less frustration and road rage, the ability to choose alternate
routes and overall improved safety for the motoring public and
our workers out there on the highways."
The TIPS system
was developed by PDP Associates, Inc. of Cincinnati. Prahlad D.
Pant, president of the company demonstrated the system for the
media during a news conference today at the highway maintenance
garage in Frankfort. "Basically the way the system works,"
Pant said, "is that roadside microwave sensors located on
portable message signs out ahead of and along highway construction
zone collect real-time traffic flow data and then send it by microwave
back to a personal computer at a remote location. The computer
processes the data and calculates travel time between different
points on the highway. That information is then returned and displayed
on several portable changeable message signs positioned at predetermined
locations ahead of and throughout the highway work zone."
Currently,
the system is only being used on a stretch of I-64 that is getting
new pavement between Frankfort and Louisville. The Kentucky Transportation
Research Center at the University of Kentucky is conducting an
independent evaluation of the system.
"If the
research center confirms our beliefs, this is a system that we'll
employ on our other major interstate projects," Hubbard added.
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