Traffic images - If you were looking at these online, they’d be moving
traffic images, people only watch for between two and three seconds, so the looped video is more than enough. Traf- fic management professionals often find this hard to believe because they’re used to studying traffic videos intently for longer periods of time, but if they switch their perspective to that of a normal traveller, they agree that a few seconds is all that’s required to capture the neces- sary information from the video.” So once the Yovas had worked out
the solution, they put it into the mar- ketplace at the border crossing, by launching
BorderTraffic.com. It features images of all the differ-
ent lanes different types of user can travel in (frequent users, for exam- ple, can register with US Customs and travel in faster-moving lines, but at certain times they are not neces- sarily the quickest way across). The site even shows how long pedestrian queues are. The site is funded by advertising
and media licenses and, although free, has a premium, subscription- based service where users can choose from a variety of additional services such as receiving a text notification when the wait is less than a certain length of time. And the site has been a big hit. Currently the website receives nearly 200,000 indi- vidual users and half a million page views per month.
LOSING WAIT But it’s the collective impact of these visits that is really exciting, because the existence of
BorderTraffic.com’s moving pictures at the Tijuana-San Diego border coincided with a reduction in average wait times for people crossing into the US. After implementation, images of wait
times were examined from before and after. The study revealed an impressive decrease in wait times of 10 to 20 per cent. The reduction in wait times was a result of people staggering their journeys based on what they saw on BorderTraf-
fic.com and more efficient use of per-
42
sonnel and selecting which gates to open by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Because the border agency was able to clearly see the end of all the queues, they could better manage personnel and other resources, allowing a cost reduc- tion of $30,000 per month. James Clark, Director General of the Mexico Business Center at
the San Diego Regional Chamber of Com- merce described it as the best programme he’d ever seen, “It also means that CBP can see traffic well into Mexico so they are able to adjust SENTRI (a Trusted Traveller Pro- gram) and regular lanes.” Meanwhile
Rudy Camacho, who
spent 33 years in US customs and port enforcement and served as Executive Director of the southwest border and as Pacific Regional Commissioner, said:
“Because the border
These cameras are better than any other border traffic report.”
GLOBAL AMBITION For a while the existence of BorderTraf-
fic.com and its moving video images of the queues was “job done” as far as Greg and Margaret were concerned. Then, in a casual conversation, Greg was encour- aged to take the technology elsewhere. “The guy I was talking to got all ani-
agency was able to clearly see the end of all the
queues, they could better manage personnel and
other resources, allowing a cost reduction of $30,000 per month”
“People have been talking about the need to put cameras on the border for 20 years. These people finally went ahead and did it!” Users themselves were quick with
their praise “I come to this website every week to check on pedestrian traffic. Unlike a Mexican border traffic hotline, this website is dependable,” wrote one, while another said “You have no idea how much you help those of us who live in Tijuana and work in San Diego. Thanks to your cameras, we can plan properly so we don’t arrive late to work.
mated, telling me that this was a solu- tion that DOTs around the world would desire” he says. “He pointed out that with our technology, you could easily use the countless existing traffic cameras to provide the source video so that chang- ing from jpegs or live streaming to our low-cost, high-value timely looped video would become a valuable and effective software solution.” Thus the brand Qvision was created, which can do just that. It was launched in April 2013 at the ITS America conference in Nashville. “People we spoke to loved the
idea,” explains Margaret. “I real- ised that there’s a real value in what we’re doing”.
RED TAPE But then comes the barrier, gov- ernment procurement rules. “We’ve generally worked in the private sector all our lives,” says Greg, “so dealing with Govern- ment was a whole new ball game. Because they have to be careful to be scrupulously fair to everyone,
there are more hurdles to get over and that means things take longer.” Sometimes solutions are only put out
to tender every three to five years so get- ting their solution into places quicker has been difficult. “But we’ve not given up,” insists Marga-
ret, “and many DOTs are interested, with some taking on a trial to prove to them- selves that this really does have value. We have a number of locations in the US excited about what we are doing and are in advanced talks with traffic management teams in Great Britain and also in the Mid- dle East. It’s taking longer than expected but we keep on moving forward.” That said, it’s no surprise to discover
The solution is designed to work on all manner of platforms
smarthighways.net
that Qvision’s first paying customer was a private company which supplied road con- struction services to Government. It used Qvision to monitor, and share, the effect on traffic of the works it did in the Boston area.
Vol 2 No 1 smartHIGHWAYS
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