The Challenge (sound)

[Music] today the call of the open road is often The Cry of Despair the increase of vehicles in the nation cities and on its highways has reduced freedom to frustration we Face a future of increasing stopandgo travel un L the traffic engineering profession can meet the challenge increased population affluence and Mobility present us with a Relentless problem that is constantly making the traffic engineer job more difficult and the task more expensive and vital to his community but along with the bad comes some good the professional traffic engineer is assuming an increasingly important position in the community someday the chief traffic engineer may have a fancy title such as director of Transportation Systems management he may control in real time all activities and modes related to the movement of public Municipal and commercial vehicles to meet this challenge today's traffic engineer must become a Pioneer like modern military commanders and business exist Executives he must learn to take advantage of the new tools provided by research and development and apply them to his problems it shows the predominant flow southw here in the AM peak hour the sper Rand Corporation has lived through this transition with federal agencies and Industry leaders and now is proud to be working on it with federal state and local Traffic Engineers Sperry's traffic and transportation systems group is unique both both in organization and approach though part of a giant Corporation the group is relatively small and solely dedicated to the transportation field a basic policy strongly enforced is that system Concepts and Designs must utilize the best and most economical techniques and Hardware available regardless of their Source in spar's systems management approach responsibility is assumed for all tasks that make the project successful installation and integration of all equipment Central interconnect and Street staff training maintenance service and supportive operational growth at its New York headquarters sper Engineers have assembled a typical Advanced traffic control system for demonstration and training purposes it provides the two most important new tools available to help Traffic Engineers meet their challenges first a detailed and instantaneous knowledge of traffic conditions and system performance in the streets and second a quick reaction Loop permitting them to make and evaluate signal timing adjustments either individually or collectively throughout the city here in the sper center a visiting traffic engineer can use the system as he would utilize it in his own City information is fed into the computer from sensors at and between the signalized intersections to be [Music] controlled reacting to the conditions in the streets the computer automatically adjusts timing patterns to permit motorists to proceed with greater safety and at minimum delay by reducing stopandgo signal situations respons the system needs no operator but it can use a coach the traffic engineer given pertinent data and using system displays can evaluate improvements made by the computer then go on from there to optimize the signal patterns here the traffic engineer asks the computer to indicate overall Street conditions in terms of volume density occupancy and speed using a set of Matrix push buttons he can isolate the severest problems he can instantaneously call up system data and then make changes manually the system demonstrates a number of automatic failed safe Provisions should a serious problem arise such as cutting off communication to Computer Central the affected portions of the system will revert to Independent coordinated local control the system automatically records and analyzes traffic counts as instruct and prepares technical or management reports as directed the result more time for the traffic engineer to address the engineering challenge in addition when the city council wants data for planning or evaluating construction proposals it will soon learn that the traffic department is efficiently organized to quickly provide such information in addition to City traffic control the SP traffic and transportation systems group is applying its special talents to automated surveillance communication and control for expressways and [Applause] turnpikes an example of this is a steady underway for the Van Wick Expressway in New York it connects Midtown Manhattan to Kennedy and Loria airports the ADT of 122 2,000 Vehicles makes the Van Wick one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the world a breakdown or accident here can tie up commuters for hours on the New Jersey Turnpike a sper designed system will anticipate slowdowns and stoppages balancing service on the double barreled sections of the roadway reading out information from as many as 12 Lanes along the road the system will automatically signal cars leaving the toll plazas into the best lanes and it will begin to warn drivers of impending sudden stops even before a human Observer could have detected a [Applause] problem the system can be expanded to include the command and control of emergency vehicles and the automatic detection of weather hazards presently Sperry is cooperating with the highway research board in studying the automatic detection of fog on a roadway the turnpike driver will benefit from these Innovations by traveling in increased safety and comfort with minimum delay soon the federal government and the District of Columbia traffic department will be operating a special highly instrumented laboratory system in Washington DC the information and techniques developed with this system will be made available to traffic engine Engineers throughout the nation the sper traffic and transportation systems group is pleased to have been selected as systems manager for this project here at the group's New York facility the Washington system computer center has been installed and its programs are being checked out prior to actual installation this procedure reflects Sperry systems management knowhow experience on other major systems is shown that as much as 80% of systems integration problems normally encountered on installation can be solved before delivery soon more than 100 intersections in downtown Washington DC will be under computer control to ease traffic congestion speeding along tourists diplomats and Town's people alike here in the historic Georg toown section drivers will be aided by sensors which will provide the needed information to permit the computer to reduce slowdowns and frustrations a 100 years ago mule drawn barges carried Goods up and down this canal soon cars will flow along the nearby streets assisted by computer various experiments and control strategies will be conducted aimed at helping Traffic Engineers throughout the country to meet the challenge of increased traffic congestion Federal programs such as topics will help for that upgrading of city county and state systems Sperry will participate by assisting Traffic Engineers with its Unique Systems approach moving from concept to full operation each system is engineered to the specific requirements of the particular local the most effective hardware and software available will be configured to do the job I checked the whole Advanced signals at that controller okay I got the pulse very support is available from Central system installation to integration and checkout of street or highway [Music] equipment to the expansion of the system to include such Services as realtime routing of emergency vehicles [Music] [Applause] the challenge is clear modern technology is providing some tools but it is up to the traffic engineer we at Sperry are ready to provide whatever help we can [Applause] [Music] [Applause]