Arizona DOT testing wrong-way vehicle detectors

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is testing wrong-way vehicle detection devices next to off-ramps along Phoenix-area freeways as part of an ongoing research effort to reduce the risk of wrong-way crashes. Three detectors, manufactured by Tapco have been installed along the northbound Interstate 17 exit to State Route 74, the eastbound Interstate 10 exit at Ray Road and the northbound Loop 101 off-ramp at Thunderbird Road. Two other detection devices, manufactured by Wavetronix, were instal
August 13, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The 6576 Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is testing wrong-way vehicle detection devices next to off-ramps along Phoenix-area freeways as part of an ongoing research effort to reduce the risk of wrong-way crashes.

Three detectors, manufactured by 989 Tapco have been installed along the northbound Interstate 17 exit to State Route 74, the eastbound Interstate 10 exit at Ray Road and the northbound Loop 101 off-ramp at Thunderbird Road. Two other detection devices, manufactured by Wavetronix, were installed late last year along a pair of Loop 101 exit ramps in the West Valley.

The Tapco system includes radar and camera sensors designed to detect wrong-way vehicles on freeway exit ramps. When a vehicle is detected, the system activates blinking red LED lights on two ‘wrong way’ signs to try to warn the driver. During the testing stage, the system also is set up to send email messages with photos to notify ADOT staff and the Department of Public Safety that a wrong-way vehicle is detected.

The three locations where the system is being tested were selected based on previous research, including figures from the Department of Public Safety on 9-1-1 emergency calls reporting wrong-way vehicles.

The testing of these detectors is among several steps ADOT has taken in efforts to reduce the risk of crashes involving wrong-way drivers on state highways, including a study of wrong-way vehicle detection and warning systems, including a review of potential countermeasures.

Following a pilot project, more than 500 larger and lowered ‘wrong way’ and ‘do not enter’ signs have been installed along dozens of state highway off-ramps. In one project earlier this year, ADOT used approximately US$300,000 in available highway maintenance funding to manufacture and install larger signs, as well as pavement arrows, along approximately 90 off-ramps around the state.
Air Quality & Weather Systems Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • City of Sugar Land to implement wireless detection system
    June 18, 2015
    The City of Sugar Land, Texas, a growing suburb of Houston, has opted to use Trafficware’s state-of-the-art pod wireless detection system to implement detection upgrades along the city’s busiest roadways on US 90A and SH 6. With this contract the city will equip 18 of its largest multilane intersections with approximately 700 wireless pod sensors to provide the needed data collection capabilities for real-time performance measures of city arterials. Pods will gather data that can be used for analysis,
    Read More
  • Ken Leonard talks to ITS International
    August 21, 2014
    Ken Leonard, director of the USDOT’s ITS Joint Program office made time in his schedule during the Helsinki Congress to speak to ITS International. It has been 18 months since Ken Leonard took over as the director of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office at the US Department of Transportation. With 30 years of technical experience behind him, to say he is enjoying the challenge would be to put it mildly: “It is incredibly exciting to be working in intelligent transportation systems, th
    Read More
  • Bringing V2I and V2V communications to workzone safety
    January 26, 2012
    Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering talks about efforts to bring V2I and V2V communications into work zones. With USDOT backing and under the auspices of the ITS Joint Program Office Connected Vehicle Research (formerly IntelliDrive) research programme, M. Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering along with team of his students, have been conducting research into the application of
    Read More
  • Loop detection still has a part in traffic management
    March 2, 2012
    Bob Lees, co-founder of Diamond Consulting Services, on why the loop detector just refuses to go away. The more strident proponents of newer and emergent detection technologies are quick to highlight what they see as the disadvantages, and hence the imminent passing, of the humble inductive loop. The more prosaic will acknowledge that loops continue to have a part to play in traffic management, falling back on the assertion that it is all a question of application. And yet year after year the loop, despite
    Read More

Highlighted Content