Advanced Traveler Information System for Guiding Route Choice to Ocean City, Maryland

A real-time advanced traveler information system for traffic heading to Ocean City, Maryland, is presented. It can provide dynamic route choice guidance for en route travelers, offer web-based historical data for pretrip tourists, and perform real-time traffic monitoring as well as emergency evacuation for responsible agencies with its 40 detectors. The proposed system is designed to contend with most critical issues associated with real-time operations, including automated detection of incidents, reliable estimation of missing data, and continuous updates of historical databases. Implementation results demonstrate that the travel time information displayed by the proposed system has been well received by drivers and is viewed as the primary resource for choice of routes to Ocean City. The evolution of traffic volumes on alternative routes during congested periods reveals that the travel time information from variable message signs not only provides guidance to drivers but also leads to better use of roadway capacity and results in more throughputs for the same period of operation.