Feb 12, 2009 2:19 pm US/Eastern
Congested NJ Highway To Get Signs To Ease Traffic
Electronic Message Boards To Be Installed Above Interstate 78 To Provide Information On Express, Local Lane Conditions
TRENTON (CBS) ―
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The goal of new electronic traffic signs will be to help drivers on Interstate 78, which runs from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, decide between using the highway's express or local lanes.
AP
New Jersey transportation officials hope to unclog one of the area's most congested highways by posting travel times on overhead electronic message boards.
The goal is to help drivers on Interstate 78, which runs from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, decide between using the highway's express or local lanes.
Jim Hogan, New Jersey traffic operations director, said this could minimize delays by helping drivers bypass traffic jams.
The messages will be on at least six boards over a 10-mile stretch of the highway from Route 24 near Springfield to the New Jersey Turnpike.
Hogan wants to launch the program by the first week of March.
"Right now it's kind of a crap shoot which (lanes) you'll make better time on," he said.
Several metropolitan areas already post estimated travel times, including Miami, San Francisco and Dallas, said Ken Kobetsky, program director for engineering at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, a trade group.
In addition, the Federal Highway Administration has been looking into a similar program for years. If implemented, the times would probably be posted in "classically congested" urban areas, said agency spokesman Doug Hecox.
"You get out to the middle of Nebraska, there's no wait," he said.
In New Jersey, $2.6 million worth of sensors and other equipment will compute, transmit and post the travel times. The technology fueling the program was developed a decade ago by TRANSCOM, a regional transit agency based in Jersey City, Hogan said.
It works by scanning E-ZPass transponders and sending the information wirelessly to TRANSCOM, where it's processed into travel times. That information is then sent to a state traffic operations center in Woodbridge.
A software program there sends travel time messages to the highway signs, transmitting them through underground fiber cables connected to the boards.
The drivers' personal information from the E-ZPass is scrambled, keeping them anonymous, Hogan said.
Hogan said the state also plans to post travel times on two other highways by the end of the year.
The messages will be on a seven-mile stretch of Route 4, in northern New Jersey, and an 11-mile stretch of Interstate 295 in southern New Jersey's Gloucester County, he said.
Travel times will not be the only messages, though. Electronic signs typically transmit news of traffic jams, construction zones and even missing persons.
But lately, the boards have carried different messages. Several states have reported hackers infiltrating signs, posting such messages as "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!", "RAPTORS AHEAD-CAUTION," and "OMG The British R coming."
Tim Greeley, a spokesman for the New Jersey transportation department, said there have been no such problems in the Garden State. Hacking into the signs is illegal, though Greeley could not immediately confirm what the punishment is.
"It's hacking into government property," he said, "so it's not going to be good for them."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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