Department of Transportation's CCTV Cameras Watch America's Highways

For years, closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been used to successfully protect retail operations, schools, banks, hospitals and government facilities. Lately, cities and states across the country have taken CCTV to the streets in an effort to control traffic flow, raise revenue and improve highway safety.

The push to watch the nation's highways began with the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. The goal of the federal law was to increase highway capacity and improve traffic flows without having to build more roads. According to the Federal Department of Transportation, the law has generated about $200 million for intelligent transportation systems, which offer transportation officials a host of electronic tools to better control traffic patterns. CCTV cameras are playing a large role in those systems.

The Honolulu Traffic Control Center in Hawaii has approximately 90 CCTV cameras installed to monitor major signalized intersections. The cameras are connected to the center via a fiber optic backbone. A traffic management team monitors the video to obtain data on traffic volume, speed, vehicle classification, occupancy and accidents.

Salt Lake City is in the process of installing an $80 million regional system of fiber-optic cables, variable message sings, ramp meters, speed detectors, traffic control centers and CCTV cameras. Speed detectors, electrically charged loops of wire imbedded in the freeways, will measure the average speed of traffic. Should the speed drop significantly and stay that way for more than 30 seconds, an alarm will sound to alert traffic managers of a potential problem.

The cameras will allow managers to view a site and dispatch emergency personnel, tow trucks or other help to the scene if needed. In all, 135 cameras will be mounted on poles along Interstates 15, 215 and 80. Message boards will be used to inform drivers of current road conditions and advise of possible detours to avoid the delay. The video feeds will be made available to local television stations to show motorists what driving conditions are before they leave home. An Internet site will also show drivers real-time images of the freeways and a traffic-flow map will detail slowdowns.

A similar type of system is in the works for the Rock Hill, S.C. area. CCTV cameras, electronic message boards and radar detectors will be installed along a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 77, where construction crews are widening the road from two to four lanes in each direction.

Earlier this year, Rhode Island transportation officials awarded a $2 million contract for the installation of 22 cameras and software to monitor traffic leading into Providence. The cameras, mounted atop 50-foot poles, will feed video to a traffic control center over telephone lines. There will be two operators in the center at all times to watch for heavy traffic and accidents to divert drivers and alert police.

Alexandria, Virginia is the site of a demonstration project for a company that uses existing copper wire to transmit video pictures. A camera has been installed at one busy intersection to monitor both Route 1 and the Capital Beltway and reprogram traffic lights when necessary. The city has an additional $2 million in federal money to spend and is trying to decide whether to use some or all of it on more CCTV cameras.

Sacramento, California began installing cameras at busy intersections with the idea of catching drivers running red lights. The city will rotate 10 cameras through 30 of the busiest and most dangerous intersections. The cameras, connected to traffic signals, activate when the light turns red and cameras will take two shots of the front of any vehicles illegally entering the intersection. If the license plate and driver are both clearly visible, a citation and the photographs will be mailed to the registered owner of the car.

In Sacramento, a red-light violation costs $270. The cameras are valued at $5,000 each. They will be installed and maintained by a private company and the company will share profits with the city from tickets issued throughout the year.

Also in the Sacramento area, traffic officials have placed 19 cameras along Interstate 5 to monitor the freeway during the morning and afternoon commutes. Officials hope to use the plate information to determine who is traveling during rush hours and what zip codes they are coming from. This will provide information for future traffic planning.

Cameras assisted Norfolk, Virginia officials in handling a temporary traffic nightmare. Recently, a new downtown shopping mall was expected to draw at least 30,000 shoppers to its grand opening. A traffic control center was set up at city hall. There, city engineers used remote-controlled CCTV cameras to keep tabs on traffic flow. Parking was also monitored as the number of vehicles arriving at the mall far outstripped the center's available parking spaces. People were directed to other downtown parking lots with available space. There, shuttle buses picked them up for a short ride to the mall. At the end of the day, many people who work downtown daily said their commute seemed easier than usual.

A five-year study of cities with more than 200,000 residents found Mesa, Arizona to rank second in per capita red light-related traffic fatalities. The city began a well-publicized, controlled study of automated devices to catch dangerous drivers. After seven months, crashes dropped almost seven percent at intersections with cameras. Accidents decreased by 3.7 percent at intersections without cameras. Public opinion surveys showed 80 percent of Mesa residents favored the use of cameras at intersections.

CCTV traffic cameras are not just an American idea. London uses hundreds of roadside CCTV cameras to provide visual information about the city's streets from 6 a.m. to midnight. The video is fed to a computer at the city's Traffic Systems Control Unit in Westminster, which in turn is controlled by a remote terminal at Scotland Yard. In the case of accidents or breakdowns, traffic officers can view the situation and, if need be, flip a switch to hold back traffic at strategic points until the road has cleared.

This information allows planners to provide real-time traffic updates through media and highway message boards. Accidents can be cleared more quickly and long-term traffic planning -- such as optimizing traffic signal timing -- is improved. The Traffic Control Center even offers a live look at several major intersections on its Web site.

The civil penalties would not show up as convictions on a person's driving record. States issue civil, rather than criminal, penalties with automated camera systems to prevent constitutional challenges to such enforcement.

With the success of these various systems and federal money available to fund them, it is clear that the use of CCTV cameras to monitor roads is not a passing fad, but a sensible solution to a host of traffic problems.