The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) and the University of Wyoming have partnered together to bring a new safer roads project.
A UW-led pilot project is making its way to Wyoming highways that has the hope to help navigate those miles where there’s no service or amenities for miles.
The project, which is titled, “Feasibility of Employing A.I. Computer Vision and Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing for Traffic and Weather Monitoring,” will use distributed acoustic sensing and AI computer vision to monitor highways.
“The question is: Could we use that dark fiber running along our highways to gather, to sense, traffic information and with that information improve highway safety and keep our drivers safer?” said Doug McGee, public affairs for WYDOT.
Not much will change from the fibers that are already along the highways. They will just be able to send millions of tiny vibrations to the computer systems and monitor things like traffic speed, weather conditions and even what type of vehicle is driving by based on the tire type.
“It could indicate the speeds, so if there’s a drastic reduction in speed, for example, we know something is up. Could be weather event, could be a crash, could be wildlife on the road. All sorts of things. So that’s where it would sense that traffic data to improve safety,” said McGee.
As for the public, they won’t be affected or be able to physically see the changes. The only change that will be noticeable is faster updates to the 511 app.
McGee said this project could be very impactful for our roads.
“This concept would be along the road, gathering information continuously for a good length of time, which would be even more powerful so it could be a great improvement should the concept prove out,” he said.
This is the first time WYDOT has ever done a project like this, and they have already started on one strip in southern Wyoming along Highway 85.
The pilot study in Cheyenne will run for six months.
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
