Traffic Operations Center

We got to go into the Arizona Department of Transportation Traffic Operations Center (ADOT TOC) and talk to one of the main guys that runs the center. AZ recently spent a lot of money to update this center and its pretty amazing. They had a wall of 40 fifty-inch monitors that they could control from a very geeky console. This guy had a set of 6 monitors one one mouse and keyboard and a separate set of two (for the archaic dispatch program) on another. He could control any of the many traffic cameras from around the state from his console; zoom in and out and pan. The cameras in the cities run on a fiber network, but the more remote ones have 4g cards in them. He could also update any of the traffic signs (reporting a crash, amber alerts, etc. . . ) within about 2 seconds. One of his screens allowed him to see all the dispatches from around the state, 911 calls, crashes, weather, maintenance crews.

According to our guide, AZ can run their whole center with about three guys versus CalTrans (California DOT center) who has a whole department and is very siloed due to more archaic technology.

I would have liked to have been there when they were actually responding to a crash, but it was nice and calm while we were there. Apparently, they don’t record any of the data, its all realtime, but the news agencies all have access to their live feeds and sometimes do record what they can see to show on the news.

Oh, and his whole console could move up and down depending on if he wanted to sit or stand. 😉

Pictures Here