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KSL Newsradio's Danielle Wood reporting Technology has made its way into almsot every part of our lives, so it was only a matter of time before it made it into traffic. But is it making our commutes easier, or just more complicated?
Getting stuck in traffic can drive a person crazy, but technology could fix that. Jim Pendergast is the executive director with Americans for Technology Leadership. He says text messaging and GPS are now being used to let drivers know if there was a crash, or any slow-downs.
"What this technology does," said Pendergast, "it doesn't necessarily improve the traffic situation but it gives the drivers more information so that they know what to expect and can plan around the traffic."
Many companies are researching traffic flows using smart technologies. Utah's Traffic Operations Center engineer Richard Manser says right now he's working on a project using wireless technology to trach vehicles. Most care coming off the assembly lines include more than 200 sensors, some of which will come in handy for traffic control.
"Help us use the vehicles on the highway as little probes," said Manser. "They'll be able to tell us if the pavement is slippery, if it's frozen, if they're skidding out, potholes, congestion, you know what their speeds are - so that holds great promise to us."
That's all in research mode now and is a few years off. Also, here in Salt Lake City, traffic.com is monitoring traffic flow on computers or cell phones.
"They're going to attempt to give us speed data from cell phones and most cell phones when they're on emit a signal carrier," said Manser. "So as a cell phone moves across their network they can determine a speed of that cell phone."
Only a few years down the road, we'll have more information and be able to plan our drives accordingly.
