Skip to main content

Mobile LiDAR technology used to capture traffic signal data across Pennsylvania

Engineering, planning and consulting services company Michael Baker International recently completed a nearly US$7-million project for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to collect data from more than 8,600 traffic signals across the state. Over a year, the Michael Baker team, working with PennDOT’s Traffic Signal Asset Management System (TSAMS), collected nearly 20 million data fields for each of the 8,623 traffic signals analysed, which populated a centralised database to support Pen
November 30, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Engineering, planning and consulting services company Michael Baker International recently completed a nearly US$7-million project for the 6111 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to collect data from more than 8,600 traffic signals across the state.  Over a year, the Michael Baker team, working with PennDOT’s Traffic Signal Asset Management System (TSAMS), collected nearly 20 million data fields for each of the 8,623 traffic signals analysed, which populated a centralised database to support PennDOT’s future planning, design, maintenance and operational decision making.
 
With the passage of Pennsylvania Act 89 in 2013, PennDOT identified traffic signals as an area of necessary investment and established the Green Light-Go (GLG) program to manage the dedicated traffic signal funding and corresponding maintenance and operations projects

Michael Baker’s fleet of LiDAR-equipped vehicles are capable of surveying an area by measuring the distance to a target by illuminating it with two laser lights, each of which can measure up to 600,000 points per second with a total maximum measurement frequency of 1,200,000 points per second. The firm’s LiDAR equipped vans collected all visible assets to minimise traffic disruption and prevented technicians from working in traffic lanes.
 
Mobile LiDAR equipped vans collected data from exposed traffic signal infrastructure assets, mapping entire intersections in three-dimensional point clouds, while corresponding spherical imagery was collected using a ladybug camera.

Data from traffic signal cabinet assets was collected by field staff using a project-specific iPad mobile application (app). Electronic files of traffic signal records were transferred and attached to the database and pertinent filed paper documents were scanned to retrieve information electronically.

Related Content

  • January 31, 2012
    In-vehicle intersection violation Warning system
    Mike Schagrin, ITS Joint Program Office, RITA, and John Harding, NHTSA, describe US progress towards an in-vehicle Intersection Violation Warning system. In 2008, there were 37,261 fatalities on US roadways. Of these, 7,772, some 20.8 per cent of the total, were defined as intersection crashes or intersection-related crashes. Through a multi-agency research initiative led by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has developed a prototype In
  • March 14, 2023
    Watch your step: the sidewalk robots are here
    The way we order and pay for goods has changed radically – but what about how those goods are delivered? Gordon Feller looks at how sidewalk robots might reshape the urban landscape
  • May 29, 2013
    Cubic unveils new virtual ticketing office
    According to Cubic Transportation Systems, its newly-launched NextAgent is a radical new concept in transport ticketing using high-speed video links that enable passengers to interact with ticketing staff in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A hybrid of ticket office, call centre and ticket vending machine, NextAgent enables transit operators to respond to a number of significant trends in ticketing, including a preference from some passengers for the regular or occasional option of purchasing tic
  • July 15, 2014
    Illuminated road studs aid roundabout safety
    In a bid to improve safety at the Sheriffhall roundabout near Edinburgh, Scotland, Clearview Traffic has been working with BEAR Scotland on an innovative accident reduction project at the complex six-arm gyratory roundabout which is used by over 42,000 vehicles per day. The project, which Clearview says is the first of its kind in the UK, uses the company’s IRS2 intelligent hardwired road stud to increase driver awareness and improve lane discipline on and off the roundabout. Improvements and efficien