These days, public sector agencies are being tasked with performing more and more functions, but are being given fewer and fewer resources with which to get them done. Trichord's traveler information products can streamline traffic monitoring and emergency response functions - providing a common platform that multiple agencies can use to manage information efficiently and effectively.
Trichord has entered into two innovative public-private partnerships with the Virginia Department of Transportation. Under these agreements, we deploy privately-owned traffic sensors in the public sector right-of-way, and integrate data from publicly-owned traffic sensors into our data fusion software. Our software interprets the data and displays it in the Trichord Traffic Viewer™ - a powerful, yet user-friendly software application.
The Trichord Traffic Viewer
The Trichord Traffic Viewer™ was developed with the aid of some of the most experienced traffic reporters in the country, and can be used in a "producer / reporter" relationship - a producer can enter information, which is immediately available to all reporters in a given user group. This relationship can be transferred to any agency where a manager needs to distribute information quickly to multiple staff members. In fact, where different agencies deploy the Trichord Traffic Viewer cooperatively, each agency can enter information and immediately make it available to the other agencies in the user group. This interactivity is particularly useful in the case of road and lane closures, which could be due to construction, a traffic accident, or a structure fire adjacent to the roadway. The closure could be entered by one agency (Fire, Police, or VDOT) and it would immediately be available to the others.
The Trichord Traffic Viewer™ has multiple applications for emergency management and response. The ability to see traffic conditions across the region "at-a-glance" allows emergency responders to quickly select the best route to (or around) an incident. It also allows traffic managers to closely monitor traffic flow (in real-time) when it is necessary to quickly evacuate a given area, as with a chemical spill, an approaching hurricane, or a potential terrorist incident.
The speed information reported by the Trichord Traffic Viewer™ is specific and is available in real-time. Speeds are reported for each lane of traffic - not just the average speed across all lanes, as some other applications report. Also, the vector-based map can zoom in close enough for users to see exactly which lane is experiencing a delay - whether it's caused by an incident, off-ramp congestion, or motorists slowing down to watch something happening on the shoulder. The speed data, reported in miles per hour, provides more specific speed information than video can - where the user is reduced to their "best guess" about actual traffic speed. However, where video cannot replace the Trichord Traffic Viewer, it can enhance it. If video were integrated into the Trichord Traffic Viewer™, the software's speed alert function could automatically call up video from the nearest camera when the alert is triggered. The operator would then know exactly what to look for, and which video feed to examine.
The Trichord Traffic Viewer™ is a compact, operating system-independent software application. When loaded onto a laptop with a wireless internet connection, the Trichord Traffic Viewer™ becomes a "Wireless Traffic Management System on a Desktop" that can be used practically anywhere - allowing anyone who needs a comprehensive picture of current traffic conditions to get exactly that, no matter where they happen to be.
The Trichord Traffic Viewer provides the following benefits:
The Trichord Traffic Data Archive
The Trichord Traffic Data Archive™ provides the following benefits:
The centerpiece of the Trichord Traffic Viewer™ is a "congestion map" - a detailed map of the Washington DC region that shows "at a glance," by color-coding road segments, how fast traffic is moving. This data is updated every minute, so it presents a more accurate picture of current traffic conditions than sensors that report less frequently. Our sensors report specific conditions for each lane of roadway, so our software can clearly show which lanes are more (or less) congested. This is particularly useful on roads that allocate the left lane to HOV traffic at particular times of the day. 
The Trichord Traffic Viewer™
To download a 2-page brochure on the Trichord Traffic Viewer™, click here. For more details, and to see screenshots, click here.
Data that is displayed in the Trichord Traffic Viewer™ is also stored in the Trichord Traffic Data Archive. While the Trichord Traffic Viewer provides a comparison of current travel times to the 30-day historical average, the Data Archive allows a longer-term examination - containing about 175MB of data for each 24-hour period. The Trichord Traffic Data Archive™ can provide transportation planners and other researchers with a searchable database of traffic information to assist them in defining trends and forecasting demand and capacity. The Trichord Traffic Data Archive™ can be accessed using simple SQL queries over an ODBC connection, which can be generated with Microsoft Access software - no customized application is required.
Access to the Trichord Traffic Data Archive™ is available by subscription; for details, including pricing information, please contact Trichord.
