Transportation

Springfield Missouri,Traffic Management System Benefits from Pelco System 9760, Spectra II
by Denise S. Dieser, Freelance Writer, ddieser@attitude.com

The city of Springfield, Missouri, started its traffic management project about seven years ago, and it has now spread out to cover over 100 square miles. It is one of the few surface street arterial systems in the country and is tied in with the signal systems to be more efficient.

"This system is going to give us a lot more flexibility, and is one more step toward an ITS – intelligent transportation system, which will meet a lot of the city’s and state’s goals," said Tom Dancey, Associate Engineer, Signal System Manager with the City of Springfield. And since the state continues to maintain some streets through the city, he said, they have actually combined their system into one by sharing their equipment.

"We have CCTV cameras along the roadway with realtime video feeds, which can view stalled vehicles, for example," Dancey said. "We change signal timing and watch for anything abnormal as far as traffic flow, and we can view the ‘big-picture’ over the whole network."

Having this information available for broadcast over cable twice a day during the morning and afternoon commute is their goal, he said, which will allow people to better plan their routes to and from work and home.

"It adds one more piece to the puzzle in an effort to let current traffic information out to the public and allow them to make decisions, to make it easier for people to get around and to avoid additional delays.

"We recently added the System 9760 matrix and Spectra II domes in preparation for getting the new system set up." He said by doing so, they will have the ability to label the presets so operators will know exactly what they are doing at the various monitors with the cameras at the different intersections and approaches.

Dancey said another option with the matrix system is that they can eliminate feed to the media because they can go directly to a government access channel via the network. This is important so that when injuries are involved, families can be notified prior to their hearing about an accident prematurely through the media. The Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MODOT’s) District office also has the ability with video feeds to the 911 center to verify an occurrence and to see how severe a situation is.

Springfield has also put together a Transportation Management Center as an educational hands-on museum for kids, which is staffed by both the city and MODOT, Dancey said. With the current system, they have the ability to control pan/tilt and zoom from the Traffic Management Center at the Discovery Center. And with the new system, he said, they have the ability to control the cameras based on security permission granted through the Ethernet.

"In a city our size, approximately 200,000 including the outlying areas and 150,000 in the city itself, our partnership with MODOT is working together well to create a system to help Springfield drivers by bringing them up with the rest of the southwest Missouri Region."

According to Tom Eubanks, CCTV Sales Manager for Electronic Video Systems (the installing Pelco Dealer), Springfield initially went with a competitor’s system at the head end, but they did not receive very good customer service.

"Since then they’ve had Pelco equipment a little bit here and there and have now experienced the good customer service and Pelco reliability you’re known for," Eubanks said. "There are a lot of good products out there, but Pelco’s customer service can’t be beat. The turnaround time, now that’s what sells your product."

He said that it’s especially important that a person answers the phone, not an answering machine. "That goes a long way with us, and a long way with our customers." Eubanks is very comfortable having his customers call Pelco directly to get their questions answered, and that way nothing gets lost in translation.

Eubanks said the city of Springfield was already sold on Spectra. "Then you came out with your new LowLight™ Spectras, and they were excited! That blew the competition out of the water." With other systems, he said, by the time you added everything up (the pan and tilt, camera, zoom lens, housings), it ran more than the Spectras do. "And what’s great is you can’t tell which way it’s pointing (unlike other enclosure designs)."

At one point in time, Dancey said they had a problem with some lightning. "Recently we’ve been working on getting some cameras changed out with additional lightning protection, and Pelco and Electronic Video Systems have been great to work with."

As to their training at Pelco headquarters, Dancey felt it was very beneficial and worthwhile. "I was very impressed with your plant. It was good hands-on training, very good instruction, and your staff has been great to work with. Our installation is a little bit different than casinos and other inside buildings. We’re spread out to 100 square miles with 70 miles of fiber optics. There are a lot more variables through many different feedbacks."

Dancey made it clear that this system is strictly for monitoring and providing information to alert 911, but not in any way used for law enforcement. "That’s not the direction we’re going. The police department is investigating a couple of separate systems, but that’s not our purpose." He said they get that question a lot. "We’re not trying to find someone doing something wrong. We’re looking to make it a better system, and CCTV is another tool to do that."

Dancey said that after initial replacement and expansion with Spectra, they will have coverage of over 100 signal lights. "Not bad for 26 cameras in the field. We’re excited, and we anticipate that Spectra will work very well for us. We are very pleased with the different features it gives to us, such as touring from one camera to another."