The likelihood of a secondary crash increases by almost 3 percent for every minute a primary crash obstructs a travel lane. To keep drivers save and avoid these crashes, PennDOT designed a cost-effective solution to revolutionize data-driven messaging–an automatic queue protection system. By using vehicle probe speed data, PennDOT can look for issues on the roadway and let drivers know via changeable message signs. This keeps drivers safe—both those sitting in slower traffic due to an incident and those approaching that slowed traffic. To date, PennDOT has completed 18 implementations of this automated queue detection solution, with the majority completed during the fourth quarter of 2022 and throughout 2023. In those corridors, total crashes decreased from 1,808 crashes per year before queue activation to 1,625 crashes per year after activation – a reduction of 183 crashes, or just over 11 percent, based on 2022 and 2023 crash data. The automated queue protection system has been deployed on over 600 miles of roadway with virtually no additional cost beyond the initial investment to build the functionality, whereas traditional queue protection projects would have incurred an additional cost of more than $3 million.
America's Transportation Awards 