Metropolitan DC Area Traffic Management Center Improves Visibility into Road Conditions in Less Than 45 Days

Theresa Myers, Editor, Activu Corporation

When Prince George County, Maryland set their goal on upgrading their Traffic Response and Information Partnership (TRIP) Center, they looked to their neighboring Montgomery County for recommendations.  Prince George County was operating their traffic monitoring system and emergency snow removal service for the county on an outdated, analog solution that relied on hardwired equipment and manually patched video feed.   The system was failing and limited by hardware.  Approaching the heart of the snow season in Maryland, Prince George County knew that they had to act fast. 

After touring the Activu visualization and collaboration solution that was installed in Montgomery County, Ed Jones, Chief of Advance Traffic Management Section for Prince George County, started working with Activu Corporation to spec out an integrated, net-centric software-based solution that would meet the needs of the TRIP Center.  With limited funding, the County worked at lightning speed to have a system developed and installed.   The TRIP Center not only functions as the county’s traffic management center, it is also responsible for snow emergency response and removal.  In order to continue their service levels, the County required the large-scale visualization and collaboration solution to be in place before the snow season so their operations would not be compromised.   Delaying the new system put them in jeopardy of slipping their project timeline by at least three months.  With a system that was already failing, the County took no chances.  With a dedicated team of engineers, a project manager, and support staff, Activu designed, developed, installed and network-integrated a new visualization and collaboration solution for the County in less than 45 days from signing the purchase order.  The results were amazing.  From November 1 to mid December, Activu went through the procurement process, provisioned the system, conducted the factory acceptance testing (FAT), delivered the system, and installed the solution literally in the midst of a pending snow storm. 

The night of the system installation, operations at the TRIP were anything but common place.  The ops center was getting ready to deploy snow plows, salt trucks, and more with people coming in and out of the building from different districts, staff was getting ready for the impending calls into the snow information call center.  Essentially, TRIP department staff had dismantled their old traffic monitoring system to make room for the new one. With new wiring, power, LCDs, servers, and more, the building was upside down. By the end of the day, the Activu solution was installed, video feeds were on the wall and the TRIP center had everything that they needed to manage the storm that night and prove to their upper management that a new system was in place that would support them the way they needed to work and provide them with greater visibility into road conditions.   That proved even truer as the operators, new to the system, started working with the software. Without time for formalized training, the staff was able to manipulate the wall and utilize the system features through the user-friendly software solution. 

The capability for the TRIP center to bring in different sources and multiple video feeds has provided them with improved visibility into their road network.    They’ve seen an improvement in traffic response time and management with the new system.  Now, they are more aware of what’s happening on their roads because they can view up to 20-plus cameras at one time. This is a vast improvement over the seven-camera-view that they could access with their analog solution.    Overall, the new system has improved signal coordination and optimization in the county as well, allowing traffic management staff to be able to visually monitor multiple intersections to coordinate traffic and timing.  In addition to its many duties, the TRIP Center is also responsible for coordinating traffic in and out of the Washington Redskins stadium.  During football season, a satellite system is set up at the Redskins command center.  Connected through a T-1 line, TRIP staff can access data from the main video wall and bring it up in the stadium command center which monitors stadium traffic.  In this environment they have true situational awareness and can more efficiently direct the flow of traffic.

The TRIP Center’s network environment combines their State network, County network and institutional networks, to access critical data.  Upon full optimization of the TRIP Center, plans are in place to integrate a video conferencing system that will further enhance their collaborative capabilities with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) public safety and emergency entities.  The TRIP is extremely satisfied with their new visualization and collaboration solution.  “The workmanship, customer support, and project management that took place to make this happen in a short amount of time, less than 35 days after the purchase orders were signed, was amazing” said Ed Jones, Chief of the Advance Traffic Management Section, TRIP Center.

About Prince George County Traffic Response and Information Partnership (TRIP) Center

The Prince George's County Traffic Response and Information Partnership (TRIP) Center was established to effectively manage the operations of the county’s transportation system. The Center provides Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T) personnel with enhanced capability to monitor and control transportation operations by collecting and analyzing traffic data, as well as disseminating relevant transportation information to the general public, transportation providers, emergency service providers, public schools and area businesses.

In sync with DPW&T's mission to provide efficient, well-maintained and environmentally friendly transportation infrastructure systems for all users, the TRIP Center employs innovative technologies to enhance and stimulate "Livable Communities"

For more information visit http://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov