The Western Region Traffic Management Center is located in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Engineering District 11–0 Office in Bridgeville PA. The Region TMC is responsible for PennDOT traffic management services, incident detection, emergency response coordination and traffic response to maintenance and construction activities throughout the ten–county SPC region covering PennDOT Districts Ten, Eleven and Twelve. PennDOT traffic sensors are focused on the most–heavily traveled portions of the interstate network. The TMC operates and maintains PennDOT's extensive network of ITS field devices; monitors and supports work zone safety (where equipped); and facilitates traveler information services by providing road network status, roadway and weather conditions, incidents and construction, and travel delay information for various information applications. The TMC also provides external users and the media with video feeds from traffic surveillance cameras. The TMC manages the Parkway Service Patrols on I–79 and I–376.
TMC operations staff coordinates with the District Offices and other agencies for emergency response resource coordination and disaster planning, work zone and maintenance planning. Planned future involvement with local governments includes traffic signal coordination in priority regional corridors.
| Functional Object | Description | User Defined |
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| Emergency Call–Taking | 'Emergency Call–Taking' supports the emergency call–taker, collecting available information about the caller and the reported emergency, and forwarding this information to other objects that formulate and manage the emergency response. It receives 9–1–1, 7–digit local access, and motorist call–box calls and interfaces to other agencies to assist in the verification and assessment of the emergency and to forward the emergency information to the appropriate response agency. | False |
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| Emergency Data Collection | 'Emergency Data Collection' collects and stores emergency information that is collected in the course of operations by the Emergency Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| Emergency Environmental Monitoring | 'Emergency Environmental Monitoring' collects current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information from a variety of sources. The collected environmental information is monitored and presented to the operator and used to more effectively manage incidents. | False |
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| Emergency Incident Command | 'Emergency Incident Command' provides tactical decision support, resource coordination, and communications integration for Incident Commands that are established by first responders at or near the incident scene to support local management of an incident. It supports communications with public safety, emergency management, transportation, and other allied response agency centers, tracks and maintains resource information, action plans, and the incident command organization itself. Information is shared with agency centers including resource deployment status, hazardous material information, traffic, road, and weather conditions, evacuation advice, and other information that enables emergency or maintenance personnel in the field to implement an effective, safe incident response. It supports the functions and interfaces commonly supported by a mobile command center. | False |
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| Emergency Response Management | 'Emergency Response Management' provides the strategic emergency response capabilities and broad inter–agency interfaces that are implemented for extraordinary incidents and disasters that require response from outside the local community. It provides the functional capabilities and interfaces commonly associated with Emergency Operations Centers. It develops and stores emergency response plans and manages overall coordinated response to emergencies. It monitors real–time information on the state of the regional transportation system including current traffic and road conditions, weather conditions, special event and incident information. It tracks the availability of resources and assists in the appropriate allocation of these resources for a particular emergency response. It also provides coordination between multiple allied agencies before and during emergencies to implement emergency response plans and track progress through the incident. It also coordinates with the public through the Emergency Telecommunication Systems (e.g., Reverse 911). It coordinates with public health systems to provide the most appropriate response for emergencies involving biological or other medical hazards. | False |
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| MCM Data Collection | 'MCM Data Collection' collects and stores maintenance and construction information that is collected in the course of operations by the Maintenance and Construction Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| MCM Environmental Information Collection | 'MCM Environmental Information Collection' collects current road and weather conditions using data collected from environmental sensors deployed on and about the roadway. In addition to fixed sensor stations at the roadside, this functional object also collects environmental information from sensor systems located on Maintenance and Construction Vehicles. It also collects current and forecast environmental conditions information that is made available by other systems. The functional object aggregates the sensor system data and provides it, along with data attributes to other applications. | False |
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| MCM Vehicle Tracking | 'MCM Vehicle Tracking' tracks the location of maintenance and construction vehicles and other equipment. Vehicle/equipment location and associated information is presented to the operator. | False |
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| MCM Work Activity Coordination | 'MCM Work Activity Coordination' disseminates work activity schedules and current asset restrictions to other agencies. Work schedules are coordinated with operating agencies, factoring in the needs and activities of other agencies and adjacent jurisdictions. Work schedules are also distributed to Transportation Information Centers for dissemination to the traveling public. | False |
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| MCM Work Zone Management | 'MCM Work Zone Management' remotely monitors and supports work zone activities, controlling traffic through dynamic message signs (DMS), Highway Advisory Radio (HAR), gates and barriers, and informing other groups of activity (e.g., traveler information, traffic management, other maintenance and construction centers) for better coordination management. Work zone speeds, and delays, and closures are provided to the motorist prior to the work zones. This application provides control of field equipment in all maintenance areas, including fixed and portable field equipment supporting both stationary and mobile work zones. | False |
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| TIC Data Collection | 'TIC Data Collection' collects transportation–related data from other centers, performs data quality checks on the collected data and then consolidates, verifies, and refines the data and makes it available in a consistent format to applications that support operational data sharing between centers and deliver traveler information to end–users. A broad range of data is collected including traffic and road conditions, transit data, emergency information and advisories, weather data, special event information, traveler services, parking, multimodal data, and toll/pricing data. It also shares data with other transportation information centers. | False |
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| TIC Operations Data Collection | 'TIC Operations Data Collection' collects and stores information that is collected about the transportation information service including data on the number of clients serviced and the services that were provided. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| TMC Basic Surveillance | 'TMC Basic Surveillance' remotely monitors and controls traffic sensor systems and surveillance (e.g., CCTV) equipment, and collects, processes and stores the collected traffic data. Current traffic information and other real–time transportation information is also collected from other centers. The collected information is provided to traffic operations personnel and made available to other centers. | False |
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| TMC Data Collection | 'TMC Data Collection' collects and stores information that is created in the course of traffic operations performed by the Traffic Management Center. This data can be used directly by operations personnel or it can be made available to other data users and archives in the region. | False |
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| TMC Demand Management Coordination | 'TMC Demand Management Coordination' provides the capability to gather information on regional toll, parking, and transit usage and request changes to pricing and other mechanisms to manage overall transportation demand. | False |
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| TMC Environmental Monitoring | 'TMC Environmental Monitoring' assimilates current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information using a combination of weather service provider information, information collected by other centers such as the Maintenance and Construction Management Center, data collected from environmental sensors deployed on and about the roadway, and information collected from connected vehicles. The collected environmental information is monitored and presented to the operator. This information can be used to issue general traveler advisories and support location specific warnings to drivers. | False |
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| TMC Incident Detection | 'TMC Incident Detection' identifies and reports incidents to Traffic Operations Personnel. It remotely monitors and controls traffic sensor and surveillance systems that support incident detection and verification. It analyzes and reduces the collected sensor and surveillance data, external alerting and advisory and incident reporting systems, anticipated demand information from intermodal freight depots, border crossings, special event information, and identifies and reports incidents and hazardous conditions | False |
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| TMC Regional Traffic Management | 'TMC Regional Traffic Management' supports coordination between Traffic Management Centers in order to share traffic information between centers as well as control of traffic management field equipment. This coordination supports wide area optimization and regional coordination that spans jurisdictional boundaries; for example, coordinated signal control in a metropolitan area or coordination between freeway operations and arterial signal control within a corridor. | False |
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| TMC Roadway Equipment Monitoring | 'TMC Roadway Equipment Monitoring' monitors the operational status of field equipment and detects failures. It presents field equipment status to Traffic Operations Personnel and reports failures to the Maintenance and Construction Management Center. It tracks the repair or replacement of the failed equipment. The entire range of ITS field equipment may be monitored including sensors (traffic, infrastructure, environmental, security, speed, etc.) and devices (highway advisory radio, dynamic message signs, automated roadway treatment systems, barrier and safeguard systems, cameras, traffic signals and override equipment, ramp meters, beacons, security surveillance equipment, etc.). | False |
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| TMC Service Patrol Management | 'TMC Service Patrol Management' supports dispatch and communication with service patrol vehicles that monitor roads to aid motorists, offering rapid response to minor incidents. | False |
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| TMC Signal Control | 'TMC Signal Control' provides the capability for traffic managers to monitor and manage the traffic flow at signalized intersections. This capability includes analyzing and reducing the collected data from traffic surveillance equipment and developing and implementing control plans for signalized intersections. Control plans may be developed and implemented that coordinate signals at many intersections under the domain of a single Traffic Management Center and are responsive to traffic conditions and adapt to support incidents, preemption and priority requests, pedestrian crossing calls, etc. | False |
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| TMC Traffic Information Dissemination | 'TMC Traffic Information Dissemination' disseminates traffic and road conditions, closure and detour information, incident information, driver advisories, and other traffic–related data to other centers, the media, and driver information systems. It monitors and controls driver information system field equipment including dynamic message signs and highway advisory radio, managing dissemination of driver information through these systems. | False |
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| TMC Traffic Management Decision Support | 'TMC Traffic Management Decision Support' recommends courses of action to the traffic operator based on current and forecast road and traffic conditions. Traffic incidents, special events, maintenance activities and other events or conditions that impact capacity or demand are monitored. Historical data and models are used to compare the impact of potential courses of action and make recommendations to the operator. Decisions are supported through presentation of filtered and fused network–wide road and traffic conditions that identify network imbalances and recommended courses of action. The recommended actions may include predefined incident response plans, signal timing plan changes, DMS/HAR messages, truck restrictions, lane control strategies, metering strategies, and adjustment of variable speed limits. Multimodal strategies may also be recommended that include suggested transit strategies and suggested route and mode choices for travelers. Once a course of action is selected, traffic operations personnel implement these actions within the Traffic Management Center and coordinate the response with other centers in the region. | False |
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| TMC Traffic Metering | 'TMC Traffic Metering' provides center monitoring and control of traffic metering systems including on ramps, through interchanges, and on the mainline roadway. All types of metering are covered including pre–timed/fixed time, time–based, dynamic and adaptive metering strategies and special bypasses. Metering rates can be calculated based upon historical data or current conditions including traffic, air quality, etc. | False |
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| TMC Traffic Network Performance Evaluation | 'TMC Traffic Network Performance Evaluation' measures traffic network performance and predicts travel demand patterns to support traffic flow optimization, demand management, and incident management. It collects traffic data from sensors and surveillance equipment as well as input from other Traffic Management Centers, emissions management, transit operations, and event promoters and uses this information to measure traffic network performance. It collects route planning information from transportation information centers and integrates and uses this information to predict future traffic conditions. The planned control strategies can be passed back to the transportation information center so that the intended strategies can be reflected in future route planning. | False |
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| TMC Work Zone Traffic Management | 'TMC Work Zone Traffic Management' coordinates work plans with maintenance systems so that work zones are established that have minimum traffic impact. Traffic control strategies are implemented to further mitigate traffic impacts associated with work zones that are established, providing work zone information to driver information systems such as dynamic message signs. | False |
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