The ENTERPRISE Pooled Fund Study has completed two previous efforts supporting transportation agencies integrating arrow board status information from the field into traveler information systems to alert TMC operators and travelers in real-time, for example, of a lane closure. Per direction from the ENTERPRISE Board, Phase 1 and Phase 2 were completed in 2017 in order to properly assess needs and potential solutions before deployment and evaluation of a real-time arrow board system at one or more ENTERPRISE agency sites.
In 2018, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) conducted a one year pilot project through a contract with a vendor (Street Smart) that installed a monitoring device on 20 arrow boards that provided arrow board status information (e.g. right arrow on, left arrow on) to the vendor’s server. The arrow board status information from the server was then integrated with MnDOT’s Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) and then their Road Condition Reporting System (RCRS). In 2019, the Iowa DOT had access to 5 equipped arrow boards with reporting capabilities (Street Smart, iCone, Ver-Mac) to provide real-time arrow board status information to the vendor’s server. This project evaluated the deployments of the arrow board concept in these two ENTERPRISE member states (Minnesota and Iowa). In addition, an overview of the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada real-time arrow board reporting system deployment is included as another perspective. Overall the data analysis for MnDOT and the information gathered from interviews from MnDOT and Iowa DOT indicate a benefit to the traveling public and Transportation Management Center (TMC) operators with additional information on the overall network with the location of lane closures provided by arrow board reporting systems.