Case Study

Oakland County, Michigan, USA

In the early 1990’s, Oakland County’s rapid population growth caused traffic conditions to deteriorate faster than improvements could be made. With one of the fastest growing counties in the USA and little funding, the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) sought another way to approach the traffic problem besides widening the roads. In 1991, RCOC turned to new ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) technology and formed the FAST-TRAC program (Faster And Safer Travel Through Routing & Advanced Controls) by selecting an adaptive control system with wide area video vehicle detection to better manage the growing traffic demands.

Now, the largest deployment of video detection in the world for urban traffic control, FAST-TRAC makes better use of existing roadways. FAST-TRAC’s advanced traffic management technologies respond in realtime to actual traffic flow by adjusting the timing of traffic signals at intersections. This minimizes traffic congestion and improves safety on the roads.

Operational since June 1992, the adaptive signal control system, SCATS (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) depends on consistent, reliable detection from the Autoscope® video vehicle detection system to monitor traffic volumes and patterns. In the beginning, FAST-TRAC was installed in 28 of Oakland County’s busiest intersections. Today there are over 500 intersections throughout the county using Autoscope video detection and SCATS.

The Autoscope sensors essentially count the number of vehicles passing through the intersection and measure the gaps between vehicles to indicate the congestion level. Each sensor does not record the video, rather it converts the images into data for the intersections’ SCATS signal controller. Based on the traffic data, the controller adjusts the signal timing accordingly.

While the traffic data is shared with the controller, it is also sent by the controller to a regional computer. There are seven regional computers, each communicate with up to 128 signal controllers. The regional computers monitor and gather traffic data for the RCOC Traffic Operations Center (TOC). At the TOC, a team of skilled engineers oversee the entire system. They oversee the FAST-TRAC intersections as well as develop timing plans for the additional 700 non-FASTTRAC signalized intersections throughout the county. After a decade of operation, RCOC is highly encouraged with the positive results shown by the successful FASTTRAC program.

RCOC provides real-time traffic information online to Oakland County residents to help them make better-informed decisions about travel times and routes. The map to the right (available on RCOC's web site) displays real-time information regarding the congestion on its roadways including major highways in the FAST-TRAC project area. Drivers can find information including journey time, incidents, congestion levels, and where there is roadwork. Highway speeds, road weather, and snapshots of the traffic from CCTV cameras cna also be found on the map.