RELEASE: CONTACT:

IMMEDIATE Jeff Caldwell 804-524-6179 richmondinfo@VirginiaDOT.org Sara Cross 804-524-6387

RICH-0473 Sept. 22, 2004

RICHMOND-AREA TRAFFIC CAMERAS GO ONLINE

RICHMOND—Wish you had a crystal ball to see how traffic would be on your morning commute? Want to check the traffic conditions on Interstate 95 before you leave the office? The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) began this week sharing images from its seven Richmond-area traffic cameras so that you can do just that.

VDOT has partnered with Fairfax-based video networking company, TrafficLand, to share access to the VDOT Smart Traffic Center traffic monitoring camera network with the general public. Now the Richmond area will join the network of traffic camera images available to the public in areas such as Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and the I-81 corridor.

VDOT has used video surveillance of traffic since the early 1990s as a way to monitor incidents at key interstate locations. This camera data is used in VDOT’s Smart Traffic Centers to dispatch emergency responders to incidents, to coordinate incident response reactions among various state and local agencies and to gather real-time traffic data that can be communicated to motorists through Highway Advisory Radio (1620 AM in Richmond), variable message signs and on www.VirginiaDOT.org. The goal of this technological focus is to give real-time information to motorists before they leave home or at strategic decision points on the area’s highway network in order to reduce delays, increase safety and avoid long traffic snarls.

“The public rollout of these Richmond-area traffic cameras is the next step in expanding the information network between VDOT and the traveling public,” said Robert Alexander, P.E., director of VDOT’s three-year-old Richmond District Smart Traffic Center. “Although there are not as many cameras in this area as there are in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, we’re making significant headway in the development of our Smart Traffic network in Richmond.”

TrafficLand was chosen earlier this year as VDOT’s contractor to take the raw traffic camera feeds and to provide a mechanism for those feeds to be shared with the public. VDOT and TrafficLand are also working with media partners in the Richmond area to expand the distribution of this traffic data to as many motorists as possible.

“TrafficLand is in the business of traffic information,” said Larry Nelson, TrafficLand president. “We are working to find new and innovative ways to cut down on commute times and provide various levels of traffic information to those in business, the media and the general population.”

TrafficLand provides real-time video-based electronic traffic information services for consumer, transportation, public safety, commercial, government and media markets. Working together under a public-private partnership with state departments of transportation, the company offers Web-based products and services that can combine data and video in scalable applications for multiple purposes, users groups and mass audiences. The company also offers video-based systems for emergency evacuation management and public awareness.

TrafficLand’s free public Web site, www.trafficland.com, currently offers real-time video views from nearly 300 public traffic cameras throughout the Washington, D.C. Metro and Suburban areas, Baltimore/Annapolis, Richmond and the I-81 corridor in western Virginia. The company will add Hampton Roads to its coverage area by the end of 2004. In coming months, TrafficLand will also launch real-time services wherein motorists can receive traffic camera data on their Web-enabled cell phones.

There are presently seven VDOT traffic cameras located along the I-95 corridor in the Richmond metro area. Seven more cameras will be installed along the I-95/I-64 overlap in downtown Richmond by the end of 2004. These cameras will be offered online as soon as they are installed.

Users of the online database will be able to see what the traffic controllers at the Smart Traffic Center see. These cameras have full tilt/pan/zoom capability, so users may actually see the cameras moving to focus on an incident or scan the highway while they are online. Viewers will have no control over the direction the cameras point, but will see the traffic network as the traffic controllers view it.

The Richmond-area cameras are located at:
· I-95 at Sliding Hill Road
· I-95 at I-295
· I-95 south of Hermitage Road
· I-95 south of Maury Street
· I-95 north of Willis Road
· I-95 at Temple Avenue
· I-64 Shockoe Valley Bridge

To view the traffic cameras, visit www.trafficland.com.