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County’s traffic camera system is getting smarter
One of the most popular places on the King County Road Services
Division’s website is the
“My
Commute” traffic camera page. Here, people can check out the
real-time traffic situation via more than 40 cameras perched above busy
roads in unincorporated King County.
“This was a year of many changes,” says Dan Plute, the IT specialist who oversees the operation of the county’s traffic camera system. “A convergence of technologies has taken place over the past few years. This has allowed us to replace the custom Linux system, which was a very advanced and powerful solution for its time, with a Windows-based system running on off-the-shelf applications.” Plute says these days no custom programming is needed for the cameras, and staff doesn’t need scripting or coding experience to expand or reconfigure the video system. This helps speed up the delivery of raw data to the county’s Traffic Control Center, where it is used in many ways. King County currently operates 40 traffic cameras. Several of these cameras are owned and maintained by other agencies, but operated by the county. The cameras are mostly co-located with traffic signals at busy intersections, but there are also a few at traffic roundabouts. The traffic cameras serve two main functions. Streaming (moving) video is brought back to the Roads Division’s Traffic Control Center for the traffic engineers to observe. The engineers have control of the pan, tilt, and zoom functions of the cameras. With its 22X zoom function, a properly located camera allows the engineer to see traffic miles away from the camera. It is of great value to the engineers to be able to confirm or analyze malfunction reports, incident reports, and to perform traffic studies from the Traffic Control Center where the engineers have remote access to many traffic signal control devices. This system also allows the engineers to verify the data and operational status provided by signals and other sensors..
One of the biggest advances in recent years has been the downsizing of the equipment in the field. When the first cameras were installed, the Road Services Division also had to locate a complete PC in the signal-control cabinet at each intersection with a traffic camera. Now, the cameras are controlled on site with a device that is only 4 inches by 3 inches. Plute says the future of the camera’s video system includes many more connections and continued conversion to a full IP digital system. He says the county expects to add 10 to 12 cameras per year for the next several years. The county is also working with its partners at the state and local level to expand information sharing. Because traffic flows from one jurisdiction to another, it’s helpful to see what might be coming down the road from another agency via an expanding and shared camera network. |
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| King County Department of
Transportation See How to contact us Updated: November 06, 2007 |
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