How does the Department of Transportation gather real-time traffic data?
“We use everything from modern fiber-optic cables embedded in the pavement to sensor boxes along the highways that need to be manually checked by employees walking along the road on a regular basis,” explained Carol Breen, spokesperson for the New York State Department of Transportation. “Some of these sensors are electronic, and others are solar powered.” The DOT also uses loop sensors that can distinguish between cars and trucks, depending on how fast the rear wheels follow the front tires over the sensor. Police officers and DOT vehicles provide additional data. Q: How do traffic aggregators gather data? A: Inrix collects data from hundreds of sources, over 100,000 miles, including those gathered by the DOTs. Additionally, agreements are in place with fleet-management companies, such as airport shuttle services, taxis, gas utility, and home-repair companies, as well as long-haul trucking firms. These fleets all have GPS probes in every vehicle to keep track of the car or truck’s loc
