FDOT coordinates with THEA on TAMPA connected vehicle pilot

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 7 will provide over 40 video traffic detectors at 12 intersections to allow improved traffic signals to operate at Tampa’s Connected Vehicle Pilot. The project, launched by the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA), plans to use vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to reduce travel times and make traffic flow smoother and safer in the region’s commercial business district (CBD).
December 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
4503 Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 7 will provide over 40 video traffic detectors at 12 intersections to allow improved traffic signals to operate at Tampa’s Connected Vehicle Pilot. The project, launched by the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA), plans to use vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to reduce travel times and make traffic flow smoother and safer in the region’s commercial business district (CBD).


The pilot is partly funded by THEA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. It involves installing radios and computers in over 1,600 vehicles including private cars, buses, and streetcars and in over 40 fixed locations at downtown intersections to enable ultra-fast vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and V2I communication. In addition, over 500 area residents will be supplied with cell-phone applications to alert equipped nearby vehicles when pedestrians are crossing a street.

During the design phase, THEA’s project engineers worked with the University of Arizona who learned that signal control optimization can reach its full potential only when over 90% of the vehicles approaching the intersection have known location and speeds. The number of vehicles instrumented for V2I communication as part of the pilot would provide a far smaller percentage of vehicle coverage. A method of obtaining information on all vehicles approaching the instrumented intersections was needed.

After considering several technologies, FDOT paid for the procurement and installation of the detectors along Florida Avenue and Nebraska Avenue which is also part of the upcoming Managed Lanes Tampa Bay Express project. HNTB will provide the design to integrate them with the rest of the connected vehicle pilot operation under its existing general engineering contract. THEA will supply 10 Bluetooth detectors to determine travel time between points on these streets and along Meridian Avenue. These technologies will not identify or retain any information about individual drivers or vehicles.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • March 15, 2019
    Cost Benefit: Utah traffic light scheme pays dividends
    A traffic signal control scheme in Utah is being taken up by other US authorities. David Crawford finds out how the Beehive State is leading the way in DoT and driver savings Growing numbers of US state departments of transportation (DoTs) and their road users are gaining real financial benefits from an advanced approach to traffic signal monitoring recently developed in Utah. Central to the system is its use of automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPM) technology, brought in to improve th
    Read More
  • May 18, 2012
    Get connected
    Delegates at National Harbor this week have opportunity to gain first hand experience of a national connected vehicle program Vehicles of the test fleet of an extensive research program are being put through their paces each day of this year’s ITS America Annual Meeting. With the key objective of showing how vehicles from different manufacturers can communicate and understand each other, technology of the US DOT Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Program is being demonstrated at National Harbor.
    Read More
  • December 18, 2014
    Queensland extends emergency vehcile priority system
    Following encouraging results from an initial small-scale trial of an emergency vehicle priority system in Queensland, Australia, the scheme is now being extended. In an emergency every second counts. Nowhere is this more graphically illustrated than by the survivability statistics for the time to cardiopulmonary resuscitation of pre-hospital cardiac arrest: at four minutes the survival rate is 22% but by 14 minutes the survival has dropped to 5% - as can be seen from the graph below. There is a similar tre
    Read More
  • March 19, 2015
    Car parking and parked cars need not be a technological black hole
    David Crawford mines the potential of joined-up parking. Drivers conventionally see parking as an isolated, often frustrating, action; but collectively their attempts to find a space impact hugely on traffic flows. But new analyses of parking events look set to deliver real benefits to motorists and cities alike. Initiatives getting under way around the world are highlighting the advantages of connecting up parking events and – eventually - parked cars. The hoped-for results include not only enhanced urban
    Read More

Highlighted Content