The integrated motorist information system: An examination of three trade-off studies

The New York State Department of Transportation is cooperating with the Federal Highway Administration in a demonstration of the use of the latest existing techniques in traffic surveillance, control, motorist aid, and motorist information applied in an integrated manner to achieve coordinated management of traffic in a freeway corridor. This innovative computer-controlled traffic management project, the Integrated Motorist Information System (IMIS), will be implemented in the Northern Long Island Corridor, a 56-km (35-mi) long by 8-km (5-mi) wide band centered around the Long Island Expressway from New York City eastward on Long Island, NY. During the IMIS feasibility study, hardware trade-off studies were conducted to select suitable equipment to be included in the project. Those hardware trade-off studies performed for the variable-message signs, the highway advisory radio, and the communications medium are briefly examined. These preliminary, trade-off studies resulted in the selection of disc matrix variable-message signs, the cable radiator antenna type of highway advisory radio, and the owned twisted-pair cable communications medium. However, a reexamination of the communications trade-off studies in the IMIS design phase is favoring the selection of the owned coaxial cable.