ABMB has been heavily involved in deployments of ITS systems and equipment similar to this across Louisiana and Mississippi
Need to get to work on time? Don’t want to be late for your dentist appointment? Want to know the quickest route to the mall?
It might help to check out the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Web site before you leave home.
Thanks to new traffic cameras that went online last week, the traveler information maps on the DOTD Web site now contain real time video from some of the area’s most heavily travelled roads.
The cameras, which are available through the 511 Traveler Service on DOTD’s Web site at www.dotd.louisiana.gov, allow drivers to view traffic conditions and make pre-trip decisions on which route they should take to avoid potential traffic delays.
DOTD recently installed 20 cameras in St. Tammany and the Hammond area.
The locations of those cameras are as follows:
• I-12 west of I-55
• I-12 at I-55
• I-12 east of I-55
• I-55 at U.S. 190
• I-55 north of I-12
• I-55 at La. 22
• I-12 west of U.S. 190
• I-12 at U.S. 190
• I-12 east of U.S. 190
• U.S. 190 north of I-12
• U.S. 190 at La. 22
• I-12 west of U.S. 11
• I-12 west of I-10/I-12/I-59 interchange
• I-10 at of I-10/I-12/I-59 interchange
• I-10 east of I-10/I-12/I-59 interchange
• I-59 at Concord
• I-55 north of I-10/I-12/I-59 interchange
• I-10 at U.S. 190
• I-10 at Old Spanish Trail
• I-10 at Oak Harbor Blvd.
The cameras are monitored by DOTD’s traffic management center, and the information gathered is used to determine traffic problem areas.
The cameras do not record accidents and are not used as a means to catch people who are speeding or violating other traffic laws.
“They are strictly used to monitor traffic flow,” amber Hebert, public information officer for DOTD, said.
The maps also include real-time information about traffic crashes; construction, lane closures, weather problems and other factors that could impact the traffic flow as well as the traffic flow rate.
The cameras are updated every couple of seconds.
The 511 system is a nationwide system designed to share with the public traffic information.
Louisiana has taken that system one step further by installing the cameras and including this information on the maps.
Hebert said the cameras where included in phase two of a project designed to inform motorists of potential traffic problems.
The first phase included the messages signs along the interstates and feeder highways.
Those signs are used to provide information about traffic problems to motorists already on the road.
Hebert said the next part of the overall traffic improvement project in the metropolitan New Orleans area will include traffic cameras along the roadway over the Bonne Carre Spillway.