CARS

CARS serves as a data collection system for road and traffic situations allowing for the manual entry and automated assembly of National ITS Standards compliant data that incorporates information on:

• accidents, incidents, obstruction hazard or other problems that may adversely affect safe and efficient travel
• current and planned road construction activities, lane closure or road closures
• current and expected weather situations, either observed or externally forecast
• National Weather Service watches and warnings
• congestion, delay, or other significant consequences of the above events

The Alaska CARS is mainly rural based, with major arterials in the Anchorage area. Congestion and traffic flow is not a current feature to the system, but has the potential as Anchorage interest grows. In addition to the list above, Alaska CARS includes ferry tracking information available on 511.Alaska.gov . The next phase is to offer real time ferry arrival/departure information in 2005.

CARS obtains information by manual input from distributed terminals located at authorized information sources via internet/intranet. The public domain CARS software supports standards-compliant data exchange with other states, counties, metropolitan/city areas, and with private sector entities involved in traffic information and road reporting. CARS can also support data exchange with road and weather condition prediction systems. The Alaska CARS ingests road weather data from the Road Weather Information System (RWIS).