Improving Traffic Detection Through New Innovative i-LST Technology Demonstration Pilot

Current traffic monitoring practices primarily focus on counting the number of vehicles, classifying vehicles by length or axle arrangement, and weighing vehicles. Additional critical information such as body type (tractor and/or trailer) is not readily captured due to technology limitations. However, body type data and information are vital for goods movement and freight analysis as different commodities are transported by different vehicles. For example, perishables and other temperature-sensitive goods are carried by the so-called reefer, a sealed trailer with a refrigerated unit to keep the truck contents at a cooled temperature. Liquids and gases are typically transported by tanker trucks. Flatbed trailers have open decks with no roofs or sides, offer the greatest flexibility to carry not only oversized goods but also a wide range of other freight. Intermodal trucks carry standardized ocean containers. Dry freight trailers provide significant protection to the freight being moved from both inclement weather and other detrimental effects. In addition to the body type identification challenge from current traffic monitoring technologies, current practices also miss the highly desired data regarding the travel time and on/off points where vehicles enter or exit a roadway network, such as where and when a given truck enters or exits a particular highway. Information like this is vital to modeling and projecting vehicle routing associated with demand analysis. The proposed pool fund study will deploy and demonstrate a set of effective technologies previously developed through the U.S. Department of Transportation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program (SBIR: Measuring Traffic Performance with the Inductive Loop Detector Signature Technologies | SBIR.gov) to capture not only the legacy traffic monitoring data items but also additional body type and system usage information. The new to be deployed technology requires no new-on-the-roadway physical activities. The new technology relies on utilizing existing roadway embedded loop sensors to gain all needed data. The study objective is to demonstrate the loop signature technology (inductive Loop Signature Technology: i-LST) over various corridors across the US to demonstrate application of new effective and comprehensive data collection methods.

Language

  • English

Project

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01884468
  • Record Type: Research project
  • Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
  • Contract Numbers: TPF-5(520)
  • Files: RIP, USDOT, STATEDOT
  • Created Date: Jun 1 2023 4:45PM