We can't even view them all," she said.The TRIP Center staff installs and maintains real-time traffic cameras for the purpose of monitoring traffic volume and congestion on County roadways. "We have 207 cameras in southeast Michigan.
The cameras can't zoom in on license plates and can't see how many occupants are in a car, she said. "It helps minimize the drive time."īut motorists need not fear Big Brother is watching their every move, Gill said. "They can tell them which entrance ramp they can get on," she said.
They allow dispatchers to give rescuers accurate information about where accidents are. Sarah Gill, assistant operations delivery engineer at the Michigan Intelligent Transportation Systems Center, which monitors the cameras in Detroit, said they can be turned in virtually any direction and can zoom to a mile and a half away. The cameras can assist police and emergency crews in mounting a fast response to crashes. The federal government is picking up the $3.2 million cost for the project, Arend said. Those signs will specify travel times to I-275 and M-52 and I-96. MDOT plans to place travel time signs on eastbound I-94 near Zeeb Road, specifying travel time to downtown Detroit, and on southbound US-23 north of Geddes Road and northbound US-23 north of Geddes Road.
“For example, the one on westbound I-96 (in Livingston County) we put that board before M-59 so they can divert.” MDOT plans to place the message boards in strategic locations to warn motorists of crashes or construction congestion ahead so they can choose an alternate route. A testing period will follow the installation, and MDOT expects the system to go live in fall 2012, Arend said. Workers already have begun installing the system at several of the intersections. The cameras will be located at major intersections, including I-94 and US-23, I-94 and State Street, I-94 and Ann Arbor-Saline Road and US-23 and M-14. Washtenaw County will get 11 video cameras, 8 message boards, 3 travel time signs and 13 travel detectors or devices that help determine traffic flow. It should go live later this year, Arend said. MDOT has also installed the cameras in several locations in Livingston County and is testing that system now. The system is similar to one already in use on freeways in the Detroit area. "Generally, these are not recording," she said. The cameras will not be used for tracking motorists’ speed to issue tickets or for law enforcement purposes in general, she said, unless there’s some extenuating circumstance. “They can go to those cameras and see how traffic is flowing,” Arend said. The public will be able to view video from cameras on MDOT's website, /drive. The Michigan Department of Transportation is installing the cameras, as well as message boards, to help motorists avoid congested areas and improve travel efficiency, MDOT spokeswoman Kari Arend said. By integrating our hyper-local weather data with Smart Home connected devices we are delievering predictive. We are now leveraging our big data smarts to deliver on the promise of IoT.
Starting sometime next year, drivers on Ann Arbor-area freeways will be on camera as they travel about. For more than 20 years Earth Networks has operated the world’s largest and most comprehensive weather observation, lightning detection, and climate networks. An image captured from a camera at I-94 and I-275.