July 2023

Safety First!

Safety is DelDOT’s number one priority. The objective of DelDOT’s efforts to improve traveler safety is to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on Delaware’s roadways.

DelDOT’s artificial intelligence (AI) - integrated transportation management system (ITMS) harnesses technology to help keep you safe. The ITMS plays three crucial roles in traveler safety: monitoring, controlling, and informing.

Monitoring

Monitoring begins at the DelDOT’s state-of-the-art Transportation Management Center (TMC), which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The TMC receives information from its own sources, such as vehicle detection devices, video cameras, and flooding monitors. Staff also get updates from police and fire departments, as well as issue reports from the traveling public.

Wherever the information comes from, someone at the TMC is watching and ready for action. TMC staff quickly become aware of dangerous situations such as crashes, disabled vehicles, roadway ice or flooding, and so on. Then they take steps proactively to mitigate risk.

Controlling

While it’s nice to know someone is watching, it’s even more reassuring to know they can help! The TMC has two main ITMS tools for responding to potentially dangerous changes in the transportation network:

• Computerized traffic signals, which also serve a monitoring function, are used to control traffic flow. For example, they can be adjusted to ease congestion caused by an existing bottleneck or to assist traffic being detoured around an incident or construction zone.
• Variable speed limit signs allow the TMC to reduce the posted speed limit on a corridor. Slower speeds improve traveler and worker safety in construction zones and help prevent high-speed rear-end crashes when traffic is slowed or stopped.

Informing

As impressive as these features are, nothing beats being forewarned of potential hazards. The TMC has many ways to keep travelers informed:

• Variable message signs at street level warn of adverse weather or incidents ahead.
• WTMC radio, AM and FM, broadcasts real-time information from the TMC about backups and safety hazards.
• The DelDOT App or DelDOT’s interactive travel map can help drivers plan their trip, armed with real-time information about possible issues.

Furthermore, DelDOT shares its system data and notifications with third-party navigation apps. With this data, your navigation app can alert you to—and route you around—potential hazards.

Getting to Zero

In keeping with the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, the ITMS is improving safety on Delaware roadways. The full safety benefits that emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and connected vehicles offer are yet to be realized but the essential foundation is laid. DelDOT’s integrated approach brings together the interdisciplinary groups necessary to improve safety and work Toward Zero Deaths.