Economic Benefits of Transportation,  Reliability,  Utah

UDOT’s Innovative Use of Data for Quality of Life

Utah uses various data sources to analyze traffic patterns and make efforts to improve the quality of life through transportation. Below are some examples of how UDOT is using data to improve travel time, reduce delay, and increase the quality of life:

  1. Analyzing historical delay trends for holiday weekends to provide traffic forecasts for the public. This allows the public to make informed decisions on when to travel during peak holiday weekends such as Labor Day, Memorial Day, Pioneer Day, and Thanksgiving weekends.
  2. Post analysis of major projects. Analyzing before and after travel times for measurable user benefit. One example is the pre-post travel times/speeds for the Point of the Mountain widening. UDOT saw a major improvement in travel times after the project was complete.
  3. Collecting origin-destination data using drones. This is a low cost, internal alternative to deploying sensors along the road system. It does not require any people to work on or near live traffic.
  4. Working toward integrating probe data into our live travel time messaging on variable message signs. This effort will allow UDOT to have travel time in more remote areas that do not have radar/loop sensors and does not require additional field equipment.
  5. Using Bluetooth sensors in construction areas to minimize lengthy delays and meet contract delay monitoring requirements. Blue tooth technology detects delays over a certain threshold and alters the project manager and construction crew that delays are above acceptable levels and the contractor must rectify or will receive a fine. Working to have the same alert system using probe data also.
  6. Using probe data to accurately model traffic in traffic modeling software to help develop projects that operate under future conditions and meet the needs of the traveling public. Using data to build the “right” project”.

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