A TTI-developed Bluetooth reader like this one will be used for travel surveys.

Using new methods for obtaining traveler information, researchers with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) are using technology in new ways to conduct an external travel survey for Omaha, Nebraska, and neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The survey will take place this spring.

Instead of relying on traditional, more intrusive methods to obtain traveler information that requires stopping motorists for interviews, researchers will use a TTI-developed Bluetooth® technology called Anonymous Wireless Address Matching (AWAM). The system is able to read the unique addresses from anonymous wireless devices, such as cell phones and on-board diagnostic systems. Additionally, researchers will use Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology, which is able to read license plates with the use of video cameras, and a community-wide web-based survey.

“As far as we know, this is the first time these technologies will be used to gather data for a travel survey,” says TTI Associate Research Scientist Steve Farnsworth, project manager for the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area Planning Agency (MAPA) External Travel Survey. “In years past, external surveys were conducted by deploying traffic control plans and querying motorists on the shoulders of roadways. Technology is helping us get away from the decades-old methods that require a roadside interview.”

MAPA is updating its travel model and needs accurate data in order to help planners with future road projects based on the travel habits of motorists traveling within and through the area.

ALPR cameras will be used to help gather data for the new TTI travel surveys.

TTI’s AWAM was developed for traffic monitoring in order to measure travel time between two points along freeways and arterials in rural and urban environments. In the MAPA Travel Survey, the technology will allow researchers to track a vehicle’s travel route within the survey area.

ALPR, which has numerous applications, is most commonly used for collecting tolls on roadways. In the MAPA project, TTI researchers will use the technology to determine the residency status of motorists passing by each of the data-collection locations.

“All of the information will be collected anonymously,” Farnsworth points out. “The technology allows us to gather the information accurately and at a cheaper cost than the traditional methods.”

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“As a cost-cutting measure, a lot of our enforcement — be it tolling, parking, homeland security or law enforcement — has become an automated process,” said Melissa Walden, Center for Transportation Safety Senior Research Scientist and Project Manager. “The license plate is a key factor in vehicle identification for that automation, and without proper identification, states are losing a large amount of revenue.”

In the United States, 31 states require two plates (front and rear), while the remaining 19 states only require one rear plate. Researchers examined multiple states — two states that require one license plate (Pennsylvania and Arizona) and two states that require two license plates (Maryland and Texas) — through interviews with enforcement and tolling agencies as well as vehicle observation. Additionally, ALPR data were examined in both types of states.

“The interesting thing about this project is that it has allowed us to see how something as seemingly small as a license plate can have a tremendous impact on enforcement and operations,” said Walden.

With the integration of more ALPR technology into enforcement, two plates increase the opportunities to identify vehicles (speed detection, stolen vehicles, red‐light running, etc.).

The study found:

• Front plates were easier to read in the daytime environment because of the effects of sun glare.
• The lack of front plates has a significant impact on photographic evidence related to fining toll violators. In Virginia, 23 percent of toll violations could not be pursued because the rear plates were unreadable.
• Without front license plates, the E‐470 corridor in Colorado would lose at least 34.5 percent ($23.1 million) of their toll revenue annually.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports that the number of plates not read on vehicles, because of the lack of two plates, made a significant impact in their border processing; 6 percent of plates at the northern border and 3.4 percent of plates at the southern border were unreadable. With the volume of vehicles processed every day, along with homeland security concerns, the front plate allows CBP to operate more effectively.
• Law enforcement in Pennsylvania, a one-plate state, would like to see two plates to improve their ability to read plates (especially large commercial trucks) using ALPR technology. Sixteen percent of the plates that pass through the tolling facilities are unreadable, which impacts the state’s ability to pursue toll violators.
• Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport reports that 10,000 parking transactions per year (an average of $30 per transaction) rely on ALPR plate reads to determine accurate charging. Fifteen percent of those transactions had to be processed manually because of sun glare on the rear plates.
• Field studies showed a 97 percent read rate for parked vehicles in two-plate states and 76 percent in one-plate states. For moving vehicles, the read rate in Maryland and Texas was 89 percent, in Pennsylvania and Arizona it was 22 percent and 58 percent, respectively, on the roadways connecting Maryland and Pennsylvania. These read rates are based on the opportunity to read a front plate.
• For states with more than 100 miles of toll roads, one-plate states account for 55 percent of the total tollway miles. As fiscal pressures mount, efficiency in the collection of tolls and the pursuit of violators become critical. Front plates increase the likelihood of collecting that revenue.