522 The number of miles
of roadway operated
today by Pennsylvania
Catch It Early is
the mantra of
Pennsylvania duty
officers working
to maintain
turnpike traffic
flow and travel
times, which they can
now do using their brand
new CAAR, the system that
has won them the IBTTA Technology
Award 2019.
A geographic information
system (GIS) web application
developed by 2017 IBTTA Technology
Award winners the Pennsylvania
Turnpike Commission (PTC), CAAR
(Catch it early, Act, Analyze and
Review) unites multiple data layers
in a single platform, providing
officers with a suite of visual
awareness tools.
Turnpike
Commission
Partnering with AccuWeather,
Waze, INRIX and Verizon to gain
access to real-time data feeds, PTC
created a ‘data lake’ by drawing
together video, photo, radar, wind,
traffic speed, travel-time and
weather data, which is integrated
in CAAR’s GIS dashboard layers.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike
was dubbed ‘America’s First
Superhighway’ at its 1940 opening
and today PTC operates a 888km
| IBTTA Awards
tolled network.
Thanks to
CAAR, traffic
staff accustomed
to juggling
multiple systems
to detect incidents
or track emergency
responders are now
armed with an unrivalled
situational overview.
They can monitor all key safety
variables through a single tool,
nipping traffic situations in the bud
by deploying the optimum response
at precisely the right time and
location. CAAR was developed by
PTC’s GeoAnalytics Team in
collaboration with their Traffic,
Engineering and Operations
Department and has surpassed
initial objectives.
PTC are already focused on the
next phase, which could involve
incorporating artificial intelligence to
augment a currently prescriptive tool
with predictive capabilities.
“Our key guiding principles at
the PA Turnpike include safety,
innovation and customer service,”
says PA Turnpike CEO Mark
Compton. “This remarkable suite of
apps envelops them all. I am
delighted with how our team has
collaborated to produce these
solutions, which will help improve
situational awareness and enhance
safety for our contracted responders,
maintenance employees and
customers. We certainly appreciate
this acknowledgement of our work
from IBTTA and our industry
partners.”
Turnpike Commission
Our key guiding principles at
the PA Turnpike include safety,
Technology
Award
WINNER:
Pennsylvania
innovation and customer service. This
remarkable suite of apps envelops them all
Mark Compton, CEO, PA Turnpike
September/October 2019 Traffic Technology International
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
035
/www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
