PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — A new form of technology is being used by Pasco County Transportation engineers to better gauge traffic volumes.
It’s also helping hone in on near misses on some key roads, leading the way to safer roadways.
At a busy intersection on U.S. 19 stands a new cutting-edge camera looking down on traffic below.
“It’s making our intersections safer for our citizens to cross," said Tania Gorman, executive director of the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization.
A camera looks down on an intersection on U.S. 19. (Spectrum News)
It’s part of a new grant with Marlin Engineering, monitoring traffic so that engineers and planners can learn how to make roads safer.
“We are now entering into a micromobility area looking at behavior of those that are driving at our most dangerous intersections,” said Gorman.
Right now, the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization is monitoring intersections along the U.S. 19 corridor.
A view from one of Pasco County's traffic volume monitoring cameras. (Courtesy: Pasco County MPO)
“We’ve actually just started monitoring over the last month,” Gorman said. “We’ve just taken down the data for collection results. So we’ll get that data and review it and that will give us more insight to the behaviors going on at that intersection.”
The county is also using AI to distinguish between scooters, e-bikes and pedestrians, using different colors to identify them. That data can then be used to count how many pass through that intersection.
“There’s darting across the street and you’re just like, ‘Oh man, I wish I knew what happened’ because in the past, that’s what we’d say,” said Gorman. “A lot of our reports come from the on-scene officer or highway patrol or whoever is on scene. Now we’re able to see the crash in real time and see what exactly transpired in that moment.”
AI technology being used by the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization can distinguish between different modes of mobility. (Courtesy: Pasco County MPO)
Right now, the tech is being used at three different intersections, including U.S. 19 and Sea Ranch Drive. If successful, more intersections throughout the county may see the cameras.
“That way we can have a comprehensive, cooperative and collaborative process of planning on how we’re going to identify and address these intersections that have these issues with safety concerns,” said Gorman.
It’s all paving the way for safer roads throughout the county.
Gorman says the next step will be to have a micromobility plan, allowing the county to expand where cameras are placed.
