These are very cool--and they do a lot to keep traffic moving.



MoDOT messages: Drivers can cut travel time, avert traffic jams

By Elisa Crouch

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

12/18/2006



Those big, black message boards along St. Louis-area interstates soon will announce much more than missing children and lane closures.



By spring, the Missouri Department of Transportation expects to start using the electronic boards to announce detailed delay information, such as bottleneck locations and how quickly traffic is moving during rush hours. Motorists will be able to look at the billboard-sized message screens for travel time to key destinations, such as downtown and major interchanges.



"If something happens and you don't know the travel time is longer, that's the most frustrating thing to a driver," said Teresa Krenning, manager of MoDOT's transportation management center in Chesterfield.



There are 18 message boards working on the Missouri side of the St. Louis area, with another 39 expected next year, Krenning said. The first ones went up in 2002. On the Illinois side, three message boards span westbound lanes of interstates 64, 55/70 and 270, alerting motorists of backups and upcoming construction — the same kind of information now on Missouri's boards. Another two should be up within the year, said Brian Sneed, intelligent transportation system engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation. Advertisement



Sneed said that delay information can be posted manually on the signs, and an automated system with sensors, like Missouri's, should be in place within a year.



In both states, the boards are part of an intelligent transportation system, an effort under way in most states to provide drivers with more information about congestion. The hope is that drivers pick alternate routes to avoid the congestion, thereby easing traffic flow and reducing crashes.



This fall, the Missouri Transportation Department agreed to a $1.7 million contract with Traffic.com, a personalized traffic information provider. Under the arrangement, the company will install 26 digital roadside sensors along area interstates, with the agreement that state transportation officials can use information they collect.



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They do? What kind of data do we have to indicate that they are helping the region's congestion? I'm not saying we don't, but after seeing the cost of these when they were getting installed some time ago, I was astonished at not just equipment costs but also full-time 24/7/365 manpower to keep it running. And it hasn't even started yet - the billboards are just a tiny part of what is supposed to become a gigantic system.

No, I don't have data to support my statement that the signs keep traffic moving, but they seem to work where I live, at least from my perspective as a driver. They have cut my travel time substantially.

This is great news. Chicago's traffic boards give travel times too. Big help to commuters.

So if I'm on, say, I-64 in Chesterfield, and it says 45 minutes to downtown......what do I do? Does it tell you what route will take you there sooner?

^ Nno, you just stay on 64. There's n route actually faster, it just makes you feel better knowing how bad the traffic up front really is.



Of course, you could always try taking manchester or clayton. Then again, you could always ram a fork in your eye, since it's less painful

. . . or you could move to the Grove - judged to be slightly less painful by 3 out of 5 residents! (those who have not been stabbed in the eye and punched in the stomach)

Don't forget, the message boards are intended to show emergency messages, if they had stuff on them all the time people would just ignore them. Usually the only time I see the 'buckle up' or 'DWI' messages are during holiday weekends.

Exactly..it seems like such a huge initial investment -- not just billboards, but the monitoring equipment, real estate for the monitoring center, the staff -- to convey such a narrow slice of information to the public, and not all that efficiently. I mean, it's many miles in between signs. How long before this under-used system of reaching drivers is antiquated by some sort of in-car signalling or conveyance that can be done much cheaper?

I hope they have plans to put message boards and cameras on highways besides 270. Look at the website and you can see where the bulk of them are.



As for the boards themselves, if there are no problems to report, they could at least have a message like "Drive Safely" on to let you know they actually are working.

You can already receive real-time traffic information on some of the higher end navigation systems. So... I would say that it is obsolete before it is installed.

TIABstl wrote:As for the boards themselves, if there are no problems to report, they could at least have a message like "Drive Safely" on to let you know they actually are working.

The signs are intentionally left blank for the reason that was previously stated. If they signs always had text, no one owuld pay attention when it was really necessary. It's like regular billboards. No one pays attention to those either if they drive by everyday.

crbswiss wrote:You can already receive real-time traffic information on some of the higher end navigation systems. So... I would say that it is obsolete before it is installed.

I think we are a long way off from cars having the nav feature as a standard.

And we're a long way off from having these signs and the so called Intelligent Traffic System do much good....again, why spend so much money on dedicated infrastructure for delivering such a tiny sliver of information?

I was not being a proponent for the signs. Just pointing out that the nav features will not be in every car.

I do not think these signs add much value, apart from distracting drivers.

We have these throughout the Twin Cities freeway system and I find them quite useful. During congested periods they identify the estimated time to the next two freeway to freeway interchanges or the next major river crossing and next freeway to freeway interchange. I've found the travel time estimates to be reliable and accurate. When the estimated travel time reaches certain trigger points; I can and do divert from the freeway (before I encounter stop and go conditions) to one or another alternate arterial street route that gets me home faster than the freeway would have. I end up doing this one to two times per week.

They help me anticipate what's ahead. If I know there are delays of X minutes because of congestion, construction or an accident ahead, I usually have time to decide if it's worth it for me to exit before then and take an alternate route. They've also been helpful in terms of weather advisories, road conditions, and lanes being open or closed. Sure there are still back-ups, but it's good to know for how long and why. I can now get to Baltimore more easily without having to allow as much time for variables.