Skip to main content

New Jersey takes a high tech approach to smarter roads

IBM has developed a new transportation management solution to help minimise congestion and improve traffic flow for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA). The solution, which is part of NJTA's advanced traffic management program (ATMP), will serve both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, two of the most heavily travelled highways and busiest toll roads in the United States. The system, which manages almost a thousand devices, provides traffic management professionals at the NJTA
May 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
62 IBM has developed a new transportation management solution to help minimise congestion and improve traffic flow for the 2100 New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).

The solution, which is part of NJTA's advanced traffic management program (ATMP), will serve both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, two of the most heavily travelled highways and busiest toll roads in the United States.

The system, which manages almost a thousand devices, provides traffic management professionals at the NJTA with a single, comprehensive view of all signs at their command with intuitive access to the sophisticated tools necessary for nimble management of information such as updating speed limits and travel messages to drivers.

Connecting a wide array of systems into a central location that is both dynamic and intelligent enables the NJTA to quickly react and respond to real-time information about roadway conditions that ultimately serves to reduce congestion and delays faced by motorists.

In future phases, the ATMP will use data generated from over 3,000 sensors to further optimise response times for all forms of traffic incidents and reduction of secondary incidents. The new system provides central management of approximately 900 devices that include: variable message (VMS), drum (CM) and portable signs, in addition to newly designed hybrid (VMS/drum) displays and traffic cameras.

"This first of its kind transportation management solution will help minimize congestion and improve traffic flow for the Garden State," said IBM North America General Manager Elly Keinan. "With IBM's Intelligent Transportation solution, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority is providing operators a holistic view for monitoring traffic events and conditions through data collection from a variety of roadside devices. Using an Internet of Things approach in creating a modern turnpike will allow the NJTA to easily add enhancements to the road system such as advanced analytics and predictive capabilities in the future for traffic prediction, incident detection, and other roadway optimization capabilities."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Highways Agency trials new traffic monitoring technology
    September 24, 2013
    The UK Highways Agency is trialling a system to add commercially available traffic data to its existing sources to monitor traffic flow on England’s motorways and strategic roads. Similar data sources are already used by satellite navigation devices, smartphones, and applications like Google maps. The system uses data that comes mostly from vehicle tracking devices installed by fleet operators, and a proportion from mobile sat-nav type devices, including smartphone traffic applications where the user has
  • Co-operative infrastructure reduces congestion, increases safety
    January 30, 2012
    ITS Japan's Chairman Hiroyuki Watanabe talks to ITS International about his country's progress with cooperative infrastructures and how the experience gained to date can benefit similar initiatives elsewhere. Japan gave the rest of the world a taste of the cooperative infrastructure future when, in 1996, it went live with the Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS). Designed to provide real-time traffic information and alerts to in-vehicle navigation systems with the dual aims of increasing safe
  • Keeping fans on course for big golf date
    September 3, 2014
    Traffic planners are taking an intelligent approach to ensure golf fans heading to the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland later this month don’t find themselves bunkered by congestion. Organisers will use full matrix LED signs supplied by Mobile Traffic Solutions (MTS) to ensure the logistical operation runs smoothly. Some of the traffic management around the Perthshire venue, as well as the routes to and from park and ride sites in Perth, Kinross and Stirling, are being handled by the AA. They have follow
  • Sigura components for ITS expansion
    February 2, 2012
    Temple, a regional systems distributor based in Alabama, USA has awarded Optelecom-NKF a US$503,000 contract for Siqura 9000 series fibre components to support the expansion of South Carolina Department of Transportation’s intelligent transport system to remote areas of the state.