| Traffic tool offers hard data, handy facts |
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| Traffic analysis tool provides hard data and handy facts |
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ODOT’s online WZTA tool gives users easy-to-read data
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You don’t have to be a traffic engineer to benefit, whether personally or professionally, from ODOT’s Work Zone Traffic Analysis tool.
As an average Internet user, you can log in without a password from anywhere in the world and discover, for instance, how much vertical climbing and descending you’d face cycling on any given Oregon road. But as an ODOT employee, you could take an upcoming two-day class in using the tool. Then you would learn how to run a lane closure analysis that could help you save commuters hours of delays during highway maintenance or utility work, as well as more traditional projects.
Whatever the reason, you can now click on http://wzta.obdp.org/ and find the answers to your questions.
The Work Zone Traffic Analysis system began as an Excel spreadsheet that allowed engineers to make calculations for lane closures and delay estimates. They could use the reports it produced to determine how to stage a project and when to schedule lane closures. The system was used for projects in construction, utility work, surveying and routine maintenance operations.
The spreadsheet had limitations, however, so ODOT, mobility engineers, computer programmers and GIS staff working on the OTIA III bridge program devised a custom Web-based and GIS-enabled version of the tool. The new version allows certified ODOT personnel throughout Oregon to continually update and modify the data. Analysis that once took a few hours to complete can now be done in as little as 15 minutes.
“As traffic engineers, we’re excited about the analysis this tool provides,” said Irene Toews, quality assurance engineer in Traffic Control Plans. “We’re especially eager to share the tool with maintenance workers and permitting people, because they can use it to schedule highway work during low traffic hours and save drivers hours of delay.”
Some of the situations in which the tool would be beneficial include short-term, non-emergency repairs to guardrails; permitting for power, fiber optic or sewer lines; and temporary traffic signaling changes on holiday weekends.
Because the WZTA system is a Web-based application, it is also available to the world (key analysis features are password protected), which allows ODOT to lend the system to other entities such as a city or county DOT. And anybody who’s interested in the state of an Oregon roadway can take advantage of the information, too.
“The data is so specific, you can track the traffic for Thanksgiving Day and ‘guesstimate’ when everybody is sitting down to dinner by how empty the roads become,” Toews said. “Hour by hour, you can track when Interstate 5 heats up because of a football game or where the passes over the Cascades are becoming crowded on Memorial Day weekend.”
Training is available to anyone. Three sessions have already been held for traffic analysts and highway engineers with prior experience using the tool.
Two-day beginners’ classes will be offered for those who want to learn how to get the most out of the tool. Visit the ODOT Training Web site for more information on the classes or for a user guide, available through the Help link. Until Jan. 31, you can call Irene Toews personally with any questions about using the tool; after that, she’ll be retired and logging on to http://wzta.obdp.org/ to check for recreational road conditions.
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