Oregon: towered an Intelligent Transportation System

As we reached the twenty-first century, a demand for more urbanized cities is increasing through the increase in the world population and people moving to cities for their services(IBM global business services,2009) . I think that no City or State could handle such an increase without using an  intelligent transportation system (ITS) in it. So did Oregon did a good job in that?

I Found some interesting techniques that Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) report describing how  used to develop and integrate ITS in the cities and Highways of Oregon to ensure fixable, sustainable and low congestion transit networks, which will be mentioned with a brief for each and grouped as follows:

Freeway Management: A planned and controlled procedure used by the state or any agency to help in case an accident occurs and solve it by removing the car from the site to ensure a good safe traffic flow as quickly as possible by using simple steps starting with detecting the incident then verify it to respond by sending the proper specialized crew to  help in removing the car out of the road and return the highway as it was before the accident.(ODOT)

Closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) are distributed along the roads to deliver and detect the weather condition, accidents and  road status to the operation center used by ODOT. These pictures are alive and refresh every few seconds and you can check them out through a smartphone with TripCheck application or internet web site. This gives the commuters the decision to choose the easiest route for them. Ramp meters is another way to help preventing accidents on highways and sustain continues flow by entering the vehicles through the Ramp one in a time with a waiting time that depends on the highway flow status.(ODOT)

Road and Weather Management is a chunk of the ITS to deliver informative data used in making the decision like in winter to maintain the roads and highways with data such like pavement temperatures, wind status and direction, rain, humidity and clearance of the sight in road. This is used with distributed sensors and weather stations on roads. An automatic Flood system seen through in some bridges location to warn about potential water level exceeds its normal limits for potential danger for drivers to take cautions in driving through. A wind warning system is implemented in the coast and bridges as a warning sign for drivers for along with a snow zone sign which gives the same signs to alert for the importance to put in the tire chains in slippery roads, a crew might be in site of the freezing zone when such a freezing weather occur to help drivers in putting on their tire chains.(ODOT)

Crash Prevention and safety is a warning speed system to notice the vehicles that exceeds the normal speed in curve or straight roads to decrease their speed with a radar sensor and a panel to show the car's speed.(ODOT)

One of the ways to notice the drivers for road status include a panel on highways showing delays, work zones and incidents ahead if happen and alternative routes. Additionally, informative signs with a flashlight on its top on roads show the radio frequency to announce any alerts for congestion or notice that commuters should be aware.(ODOT)

An interesting system is used in Oregon to ensure continues flow of commercial trucks transporting goods in the highways is the Green light pre-clearance program which works by reading the trucks weight while its driving in normal speed to decrease the time for trucks in waiting time by the weigh stations and sustain continues flow on roads .(ODOT)

Public transportation have developed with the use of ITS in its Bus schedules and arrival time in

different stations with more efficiency to drew the public to use it more than private vehicles. Its accessibility and sustainability increased by ODOT's management and control. One of the benefits of using ITS is One-stop-shop service through using TripCheck website. Additionally, Tri Met public transportation become more accessible and reliable by making the prices more affordable and serving the public with 625 bus fleets in well-managed schedules for Bus commuters along Oregon. people started changing their riding modes (VMT graph) begining 2002 continuously till last reported in 1010, which helped in decreasing congestion, pollutant emissions and gas waste.(ODOT) 

I think that Oregon did an extraordinary job on implementing ITS through ODOT to lead its cities with an advanced and improved transit network and its smart implementation in cities and Highways with comfortable, sustainable, accessible services that reflected in increasing the economic growth, environment and air quality for Oregonians to be one of the leading examples in public transportation sustainability.

References

Global Services. (n.d.). Intellegent Transport :How cities can improve mobility. electronic drive. Retrieved June 2, 2013, from http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=a/GetDocumentAction/id/27920

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) . (n.d.). State of Oregon. Retrieved June 3, 2013, from http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/ITS/Pages/its_devices.aspx

TriMet. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved June 3, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriMet

Zorach, a. (n.d.). Riding Public Transportation For Fun - An Inexpensive Adventure. E-zain articles. Retrieved June 2, 2013, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Riding-Public-Transportation-For-Fun---An-Inexpensive-Adventure&id=6781475
ODOT - VMT. (n.d.). Oregon department of transportation. Retrieved June 9, 2013, from http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TDATA/tsm/docs/VMT_Graph.pdf