(2/12/13)
– IE Transit Talking Points Short
Government
transit agencies spend countless amounts of their resources toward
studies. What the agencies may or may not know is that highly useful transportation
data is already available on the Internet. For example, search for
“los angeles las vegas time lapse” on Google’s Video search and
see what comes up.
At
the surface, the returning results may look like nothing more than
freeway fans filming long stretches of the I-15 between LA and Vegas,
speeding the footage up in their video editors, and posting them to
YouTube. However, if one is to take a video and slow it back down to
actual speed, some useful planning information would be available on
the spot. Therefore, individuals who film entire freeway and rail corridors and posting them online are patriots.
For
instance, simply by viewing footage of the I-15 freeway, toll lane planners would be able to instantly see San Diego
County’s I-15 Express Lane facility end-to-end and note its peculiarities. Likewise, slowing
the video down to emulate traffic congestion can help planners
calculate the cost and misery of gridlocked freeways.
Public entities may want to review the data that is available out in cyberspace,
certify any relevant findings without infringing copyrights, and keep
a library of this data available to the public and contractors
assigned to conduct studies. Even a few hours worth of research at hand can save
big bucks in taxpayer money on studies.
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