Skip to main content

Arizona DOT upgrades camera system

Arizona’s traffic operations centre was built more than twenty years ago; the first traffic camera was installed over Interstate10 in 1990. That’s all changed now thanks to a recent US$2.1 million upgrade of the camera system by Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) which replaced cables with fibre optic lines, so the cameras now show fresh images every ten seconds rather than every five minutes. The upgrade has also replaced the 32 video screens in the traffic operations centre, enabling staff to sca
February 22, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Arizona’s traffic operations centre was built more than twenty years ago; the first traffic camera was installed over Interstate10 in 1990.

That’s all changed now thanks to a recent US$2.1 million upgrade of the camera system by 6576 Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) which replaced cables with fibre optic lines, so the cameras now show fresh images every ten seconds rather than every five minutes. The upgrade has also replaced the 32 video screens in the traffic operations centre, enabling staff to scan up to 160 images simultaneously.

Information from the cameras is used provide drivers with the most accurate travel times on the changeable signs above some freeways and to manage incidents and deploy first responders, Highway Patrol cars or tow trucks.

“Now, the system will help give users a much better, accurate story,” said Darrell Bingham, ADOT’s project manager on the upgrade. “The benefit to drivers will be more information when they need it the most to avoid congestion and make informed decisions during their commute.”

Last year, almost 9.4million visitors went to ADOT’s traffic site at az511.gov to check the cameras - nearly 26,000 visits a day from people who rely on the cameras to plan their trips. Travellers can get up-to-the-minute travel times, road conditions and alerts via the web or by calling the toll-free 511 number. The online service gives the added benefit of live traffic footage.

Related Content

  • June 23, 2016
    Making enforcement multi-functional
    New enforcement equipment is coming onto the market apace, as Colin Sowman discovers. If there is one word that epitomises the current trend in enforcement technology then that word is consolidation: multi-function cameras, miniaturisation and combining radar and visual detection methods. One example is Turkish company Ekin Technology’s recently introduced Micro Plate is claimed to be the smallest licence plate recognition device. In addition to logging licence plate data, the system records speed, date, ti
  • March 14, 2012
    Developing a wireless cooperative traffic management system
    The use by MDOT of 90-foot concrete poles on which to mount CCTV equipment reduces the number of poles needed to monitor a given area and incidences of occlusion
  • April 23, 2013
    US 511 system, the future of traveller information?
    What started out at the turn of the millenium as a simple dial-up travel information service has grown out of all recognition in the digital age. Pete Goldin surveys the development to date of the US 511 traveller information system. In a little over a decade, 511 has gone from its original intent – a collection of recorded messages accessible via phone for pre-trip planning – to a network of dynamic traveller information services provided by states and cities throughout the US, offering access to a wide v
  • October 28, 2016
    New system expedites border crossings
    Enforcing border controls can create long queues for travellers, David Crawford looks at potential solutions. Long delays at border crossings in both North America and Europe have sparked the development of new queue visualisation and management technologies that are cutting hours, even days, off international passenger and freight journeys. At the westernmost end of the 2,019km (1,250 mile) Mexico–US frontier, two parallel crossings between Tijuana, in the former country, and the border city of San Diego,