The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's Traffic Operations Center supports safe and efficient travel for the more–than–500,000 daily motorists using the 550–mile Pennsylvania Turnpike System. The Ops Center is located near Harrisburg in Middletown Borough, Dauphin County. The TOC is responsible for traffic management operations including monitoring and controlling traffic and the road network. The Ops Center also coordinates traffic information and control strategies with neighboring agencies, including PennDOT and adjacent states.
The Ops Center monitors traffic operations 24 hours a day / 7 days a week using a network of more than 70 surveillance cameras and loop detectors. There is existing traffic coverage of all interchange areas excepting Beaver Valley / New Castle (as of November 2015). Traffic sensors are focused on the most heavily traveled sections of the Turnpike; coverage continues to expand on a regular basis.
When an emergency situation is identified a staff of more than 50 operators manages incident response through a variety of responders from across the state: nine state police barracks; more than 100 contracted EMS companies; K–9 dogs, life–flight helicopters, and HazMat Teams. Emergency communications (roadside telephones) are provided every 1/10 mile. The center notifies motorists and partners 90 miles in each direction from an accident location or other identified congestion, enabling system users to avoid congestion and traffic backups while preventing secondary collisions.
Future PTC Ops Center participation is anticipated supporting integrated traffic management solutions in several southwestern PA transportation hubs: Cranberry (junction of I–76, I–79, US–19); Monroeville (I–376, I–76 and US–22); and New Stanton (I–70, I–76, and US–119). PennDOT's Western Regional TMC in Collier Twp. and the Cranberry TMC have offered to partner with the PTC Ops Center in developing future regional traffic management strategies.
PennDOT's scheduled conversion to Cashless Tolling technology also offers new possibilities for integrating the Turnpike Mainline into the region's highway grid and local traffic operations. New interchanges along the mainline at closer intervals /key highway locations potentially increase tolled highway usage and supports more–efficient local travel. SPC will initiate a planning study in 2016 to identify possible cost–effective locations. Regional traffic management strategies should be an integral part of any of these planned improvements.
Variable tolling has been raised as a possible future regional traffic management response and strategic opportunity where the Turnpike mainline and regional non–tolled highways are mutually supportive and can be used to good effect in disaster response or emergency management situations. This strategy would be more effective when cashless tolling systems and supportive DMS are in place.
Traveler Information. PTC's standard driver messaging systems, Highway Advisory Radio (HAR) traffic alerts and roadside Dynamic Message Signs, are supplemented by automated telephone services and smartphone applications. There is a voice–activated telephone hotline for travel alerts, 866–976–TRIP (8747). Hands–free, audio traffic advisories can be streamed through the TRIP Talk smartphone app, making equipped customers aware of incidents while assuring that both hands remain on the wheel. Download at www.paturnpike.com/triptalk.
In 2015 the PTC partnered with private technology company WAZE (also a real–time, crowd–sourced navigation app) in the Connected Citizens Program, a program to improve the accuracy, timeliness and availability of roadway and traffic information. WAZE gets real–time live feeds from the Ops Center including incidents, road closures, construction alerts and estimated travel times. Information entered into the app by turnpike motorists (Wazers!) will be viewed and verified through the Ops Center.
Increased app usage is expected to directly improve driver information especially on Turnpike segments not covered by existing PTC sensors. Waze.com also offers a sync–driving feature that displays through a Facebook connection other friends driving to the same destination. WAZE can also coordinate everyone's arrival times when picking up or meeting friends. Featured services such as these are expected to drive a private–sector increase in traveler information that may eventually surpass and supplant public sector travel information services.
| Functional Object | Description | User Defined |
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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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| Roadway Basic Surveillance | 'Roadway Basic Surveillance' monitors traffic conditions using fixed equipment such as loop detectors and CCTV cameras. | False |
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| Roadway Data Collection | 'Roadway Data Collection' collects traffic, road, and environmental conditions information for use in transportation planning, research, and other off–line applications where data quality and completeness take precedence over real–time performance. It includes the sensors, supporting roadside infrastructure, and communications equipment that collects and transfers information to a center for archival. | False |
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| Roadway Incident Detection | 'Roadway Incident Detection' provides incident detection using traffic detectors and surveillance equipment. It monitors for unusual traffic conditions that may indicate an incident or processes surveillance images, watching for potential incidents. It provides potential incident information as well as traffic flow and images to the center for processing and presentation to traffic operations personnel. | False |
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| Roadway Work Zone Traffic Control | 'Roadway Work Zone Traffic Control' controls traffic in areas of the roadway where maintenance and construction activities are underway, monitoring and controlling traffic using field equipment such as CCTV cameras, dynamic messages signs, and gates/barriers. Work zone speeds and delays are provided to the motorist prior to the work zones. | False |
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| RSE Traffic Monitoring | 'RSE Traffic Monitoring' monitors the basic safety messages that are shared between connected vehicles and distills this data into traffic flow measures that can be used to manage the network in combination with or in lieu of traffic data collected by infrastructure–based sensors. As connected vehicle penetration rates increase, the measures provided by this application can expand beyond vehicle speeds that are directly reported by vehicles to include estimated volume, occupancy, and other measures. This object also supports incident detection by monitoring for changes in speed and vehicle control events that indicate a potential incident. | 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 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 Incident Dispatch Coordination | 'TMC Incident Dispatch Coordination' formulates and manages an incident response that takes into account the incident potential, incident impacts, and resources required for incident management. It provides information to support dispatch and routing of emergency response and service vehicles as well as coordination with other cooperating agencies. It provides access to traffic management resources that provide surveillance of the incident, traffic control in the surrounding area, and support for the incident response. It monitors the incident response and collects performance measures such as incident response and clearance times. | 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 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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