DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STATEWIDE TRAFFIC MONITORING SYSTEM

Statewide traffic monitoring standards were established October 1988, by the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department. The quantity of data to be tested for compliance with the standards required the design, development, and implementation of a computer-based data analysis system. The Traffic Monitoring System (TMS) is the mainframe software package developed to implement the data standards. The system was designed in the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and installed June 1, 1989. The conceptual design of TMS and the SAS components are transferrable to other environments. The TMS is designed to process traffic volume, classification, speed, and weight data. There are four basic components of the system. A "User Interface and Automatic Initiation" component reports system condition and controls automatic data processing and report generation. The second component, "State Standards Edit Programs," validates raw traffic field data. The third component of the system is "Traffic Data Files." Standard traffic data are placed in the primary data files, and data not in compliance with the standards are stored in separate research files. The fourth component, "Report Generation Programs," produces required traffic monitoring reports. The TMS provides an efficient implementation of statewide traffic monitoring standards. The system preserves the integrity of the base data while meeting current reporting requirements. The TMS offers an opportunity for analytically addressing current and future traffic monitoring issues.