KC Scout ITS Project Manager, Mark Sommerhauser, traveled to Indianapolis for Federal Highway Workshop

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On October 30th and 31st KC Scout ITS Project Manager, Mark Sommerhauser, traveled to Indianapolis to participate in the Federal Highway “Everyday Counts 7” Next Generation Traffic Incident Management Technology workshop hosted at the Indiana Department of Transportation. Although the workshop covered all aspects of Traffic Incident Management (TIM) technology, there was a focus on queue warning systems.

Queue warning systems first detect when an incident blocks lanes of traffic and causes vehicles to start backing up. Then the system responds with some kind of warning for approaching motorists who may be traveling 65+ mph towards stopped traffic. Federal Highway funded one attendee from each DOT to participate in the workshop and provide a presentation on Traffic Incident Management technology efforts that their DOT has been working on. Sommerhauser has been working on queue warning systems with Scout and the statewide Traffic Division for over 8 years and was the perfect representative to send to this workshop.

The rural queue warning system that MoDOT implemented 8 years ago along the I-70 and I-44 rural corridors is one of the advanced warning systems in operation across the country, but several states are researching how to implement similar systems along congested areas, especially in problematic urban areas. There are numerous initiatives to improve lighting at incident scenes in order to better illuminate the accident scene without blinding approaching drivers.

Purdue completed a detailed study that demonstrated how specialized queue warning TMA trucks could pair up on the shoulder and continually keep up with the back of queue on major incidents. That study used detailed anonymous connected vehicle data to detect either smooth braking or hard braking within the approaching vehicles. The queue warning trucks significantly reduced the amount of hard braking as high-speed motorists approached stopped traffic at an incident scene. These queue warning trucks can be used at major incident scenes or included as part of a construction project when major backups or queues are expected.



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