Today's state and local Departments of Transportation are facing an unprecedented number of system operational challenges. Even with steadily increasing traffic volumes, congestion, and new ITS infrastructure deployment, some have seen flat or even reduced operations budgets. Others, with Traffic Operations Centers (TOCs), are facing the need to expand geographically, creating the proverbial "do more with less" scenario. In the case of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) TOC known as MONITOR, it's all of the above. Since the early 1990s the WisDOT MONITOR TOC in Milwaukee has been utilizing ITS and other tools to enhance freeway operations in the eight county southeastern Wisconsin region. Facing a need for similar, and possibly duplicate, operations activities in other regions of the state, WisDOT determined it would be more cost effective to expand the operational boundaries of MONITOR statewide and leverage the investment already made in the TOC, rather than build additional centers throughout the state.
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