PennDOT Using Data to Address Thanksgiving Travel

As motorists take to the highways for Thanksgiving travel, PennDOT and Pennsylvania State Police will be using historical and live data to improve traffic and safety.

For drivers, a “Historic Holiday Traffic” page at www.511PA.com lets users see how traffic on the Wednesday before and Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2014 and 2015 compare to traffic conditions during a typical non-holiday week. Regional and hour-by-hour options are designed to show the best times to travel.

PennDOT staff, meanwhile, analyzed holiday data to identify locations and times where congestion typically increases most during the holiday and will attemp to alleviate congestion and improve safety. PennDOT says it is also partnering with police for strategic enforcement of speed and impaired driving laws. Data was shared with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to distribute to 911 centers to prepare for peak travel times when calls may increase.

Locally, exit 161 (Bellefonte) of Interstate 80 was identified as an area of congestion on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. PennDOT will use station staff to manage traffic at the off-ramp intersection with Route 26. If needed electronic signs will reroute traffic to exit 173 (Lamar) to use Route 64 to I-99 south. State Police will enforce speed and seat belt laws in the area, and drivers will be alerted to conditions with advisory radio, electronic signs and 511PA.

PennDOT staff will have access to prioritized reports from Waze, the real-time, crowd-sourced traffic app. The department is a member of the Waze Connected Citizens Program which allows PennDOT to receive incident or road alerts faster and to respond quickly if needed, according to a PennDOT release.

Where possible, highway lane restrictions will be removed and construction projects suspended during the holiday travel period.

Other target areas across the state include

– In the Harrisburg region, PennDOT’s State Farm Safety Patrol will have two additional tow trucks along the Capital Beltway and parts of Interstate 81. The department also identified consistent, increased congestion on the Sunday after the holiday near I-81 southbound at the I-78 split in Lebanon County. To attempt to ease this congestion, the department will:

• Use highway advisory radio messages and electronic message boards to encourage travelers to reroute onto U.S. 22 westbound, which typically has excess capacity;

• Use a traffic signals expert in its regional traffic management center to manage U.S. 22’s newly installed adaptive signal system to most effectively manage the rerouted traffic; and

• Partner with PSP on concentrated traffic enforcement near this area and to actively clear disabled vehicles from shoulders.

– In the Philadelphia region, PennDOT identified I-95 in Delaware County and I-76 (Schuylkill Expressway) as target areas and will:

• Have a PSP trooper stationed in the regional traffic management center from Thursday through Sunday for faster communications to field personnel for quick incident and shoulder clearance; and

• Increase the hours that PennDOT’s State Farm Safety Patrol will be on duty.

– In the southwest region, construction-project lane restrictions will be removed and traffic enforcement will be increased on the I-70 corridor, along with the addition of electronic message signs to inform drivers of their travel speeds.