In Florida, SunGuide Software is used by twelve users. Each user described below is an agency responsible for operating a certain jurisdiction containing limited access or arterial facilities. Each agency has unique geographic constraints, and each agency has unique expectations for traffic operations and management. The SunGuide software is expected to accommodate the needs of all of these different agencies. Let’s visit the SunGuide users and see what they do and how they use SunGuide software in unique ways.
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District 1 |
The District 1 regional transportation management center (RTMC), named the SouthWest Interagency Facility for Transportation (SWIFT) SunGuide® Center, is located at 10041 Daniels Parkway, in Fort Myers. This RTMC is approximately 49,800 square feet and houses the Florida Highway Patrol and Office of Motor Carrier Compliance alongside FDOT. The RTMC is open 24/7/365 to monitor traffic and report incidents. One of the unique operations to District 1 is the use of safety barrier alongside the interstate that produces an alarm in the SunGuide software when a vehicle runs into the safety barrier. This alarm is part of the incident detection system that is the first step along the incident management process that operators perform.
Website: www.swiftsunguide.com |
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District 2 |
The District 2 RTMC is located in the Florida Department of Management Services complex at the intersection of Jefferson and State Streets. The District 2 NFPTO/NFRTMC facility address is 980 North Jefferson Street, in Jacksonville. This newer facility was completed in October 2015, and uses approximately 18,000 square feet of the entire 26,000 square foot building. It operates 24/7 and handles Districts 2 information dissemination on dynamic message signs along all Interstate system within the District and 511 traveler information throughout North Florida. This RTMC is directly connected with the partners, including: City of Jacksonville Traffic Operations, City of Jacksonville Emergency Operations Center, City of Jacksonville Fire/Rescue, Jacksonville Sheriff’s office, St. Johns County Traffic Operations, Clay County Traffic Operations, Nassau County Traffic Operations, Town of Orange Park Police, Clay County Sheriff’s office, Jaxport, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Jacksonville International Airport, City of Gainesville, University of Florida, University of North Florida, District Two Lake City Office and a majority of the District Two Operation Centers.
A District 2 satellite RTMC is located at the City of Gainesville Department of Mobility’s Traffic Services Office in the Gainesville Public Works complex at 405 NW 39th Avenue, Gainesville. This facility was completed around 2008, and uses approximately 2,500 square feet of the entire 18,000 square foot building. It operates 5 days per week, from 7 AM to 6 PM and handles Districts 2 information dissemination on dynamic message signs along portions of the I-75 system within the Gainesville area. This facility also oversees Traffic Signal system operations within Alachua County.
District 2 championed the concept and provided the impetus for the Smartphone application for Road Rangers system. This Smartphone application adds tremendous value in efficient coordination between road rangers, TMC operators, and the SunGuide software. One key advantage is a low hardware cost which serves the purpose of a mobile phone as well. |
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District 3 |
District 3’s Pensacola RTMC is located at 580 East Burgess Road, in Pensacola. It operates 16-hours per day/5-days a week. RTMC operators monitor I-10 and I-110 corridors in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. They also have a Joint Project Agreement with City of Tallahassee that monitors and controls the I-10 freeway management system. RTMC operators manage a series of portable SMART Zones (portable closed-circuit television cameras [CCTV], sensors, and dynamic message signs [DMS]) in construction areas as well as permanently deployed devices. RTMC operators dispatch Road Rangers to aid the FHP and assist motorists in need.
District 3 pioneered the use of license plate readers for automatic vehicle identification that is used to detect traffic conditions for applications such as travel times messaging. This system is the only probe-based technology that does not require additional tags or other hardware in vehicles.
Website: www.d3sunguide.com |
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District 4 |
District 4 operates two TMCs: the District Four TSM&O RTMC and the Palm Beach TSM&O TMC.
The District 4 TSM&O RTMC is located at 2300 West Commercial Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale and is collocated with the Broward County Traffic Engineering Division. The TSM&O RTMC is staffed 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. RTMC operators monitor traffic conditions along I-95, I-595, I-75 in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties and most recently began monitoring 112 miles of arterial roadway in Broward County. District 4 also operates the I-595, I-95 and I-75 express lanes in Broward County, along with future installations of ramp signals on several I-95 interchanges.
The Palm Beach TSM&O TMC is located at 2300 N. Jog Road, in West Palm Beach. It is staffed part-time, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Palm Beach TSM&O TMC is collocated with the Palm Beach County Traffic Engineering Division, where operators monitor traffic and provide incident management along 59 miles of arterial roadway in Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach TSM&O TMC serves as a secondary location for emergency operations during hurricanes and other severe weather events. Website: www.smartsunguide.com |
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District 5 |
The District 5’s state-of-the-art RTMC is located at 4975 Wilson Road, Sanford, FL 32771. This hurricane-ready facility serves as the nerve center for traffic management across the nine counties of Florida Department of Transportation’s District 5. Located in Seminole County, the 44,994-square-foot building is a high-tech headquarters that houses more than 100 traffic managers, Florida Highway Patrol Troop D dispatchers, and other staffers. Aided by huge banks of video screens, they monitor highways and roads with the help of hundreds of highway camera feeds, thousands of live data streams from roadway sensors, and ongoing communications with first responders. This system includes the operation of hundreds of closed-circuit television cameras, dynamic message signs, and vehicle detector sensors on I-4, I-95, I-75, SR 408, SR 417, SR 429, SR 528, and other arterial state roads via the extensive fiber optic network. Operating 24 hours a day and seven days a week, the RTMC monitors traffic and coordinates responses to incidents and crashes on 795 miles of highways and state roads in Central Florida. Other RTMC operations include information dissemination to Florida 511, www.fl511.com web site, and Road Ranger service patrol dispatch. This location has been operational since 2019. Website: www.cflroads.com |
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District 6 |
The SunGuide® Transportation Management Center (TMC) houses the District 6 Transportation Systems Management & Operations (TSM&O) Office for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. It is a 32,000 square foot facility that features a multi-screen video wall,18 modular work stations and six operations support desks. Traffic operators use advanced technologies like roadway detectors, closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) and dynamic message signs (DMS) to actively manage traffic 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. They work with partner agencies to provide the multi-modal solutions that are improving the safety and people-moving capacity of the regional transportation network in southeast Florida.
The SunGuide TMC provides traffic management, incident management and traveler information services for freeways and arterial roadways. It also manages the region’s express lanes network that includes 95 Express on Interstate 95 (I-95) and Palmetto Express on State Road 826 (S.R. 826). The center continues to expand its operations to support additional projects, including the SW 8 Street adaptive signal control technology (ASCT) Pilot Project, the Monroe County Traffic Signal System Operations and Maintenance Project and the District’s first Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Applications Pilot Project being planned for the Florida Keys. The combination of these efforts is ensuring the District meets the current and future traffic demand needs of southeast Florida. Website: www.sunguide.info |
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District 7 |
The District 7 Tampa Bay SunGuide® (TBSG) Center is located at the District 7 Headquarters on McKinley Drive in north Tampa, and provides freeway management on sections of I-275, I-75, and I-4. This two-story building has 19,000 square feet of floor area and is a hardened facility, allowing operations to continue before, during, and after hurricanes or other severe storms. The RTMC includes FHP dispatching and the District Emergency Operations Center. Florida Fish and Wildlife, the Florida State Emergency Response Team, Office of Motor Carrier Compliance, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will also be collocated in the RTMC. The RTMC became operational in March 2007.
District 7 pioneered the use of a mobile road ranger application allowing road rangers to help manage events from the field by entering time sensitive information including event creation, lane blockage and clearance, and event closure into SunGuide through the application. |
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Florida's Turnpike Enterprise |
Florida's Turnpike Enterprise operates two RTMCs located in the Pompano Beach Turnpike Operations Center in south Florida at Mile Post 65 and in the Turkey Lake Headquarters complex in Orlando at Mile Post 263. These RTMCs are the central facilities for the control, monitoring, operation, and management of Turnpike traffic and are operational 24/7. Dedicated staff is trained to operate nearly 2,000 ITS devices to monitor and respond to the changing conditions on the 460 miles of the Turnpike system.
The original Pompano Beach RTMC came on-line in 1999. It was replaced with a new 11,000-square foot signature RTMC in December 2009, and provides a state-of-the-art ITS platform for Turnpike Operations to work closely with FDOT Districts 4 and 6 RTMCs and FHP Troop K through a liaison position at the Lake Worth Dispatch Center and surrounding emergency responder agencies.
The 1,200-square foot Turkey Lake RTMC went into operation in 2002, and works closely with FDOT Districts 5 and 7, FHP Troop K, and surrounding city and county agencies. The Turnpike was the first SunGuide user to operate SunGuide in a virtualized environment.
Website: www.floridasturnpike.com |
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Lee County |
Lee County Traffic Operations Center is located at 5650 Enterprise Parkway, in Fort Myers. It came online in 2011 and it manages traffic approaching US 41 Caloosahatchee River and Edison Bridge. The county uses DMSs, trailblazer signs, highway advisory radios, and CCTV cameras to monitor and disseminate traffic information.
Lee County operates trailblazers using SunGuide to help redirect traffic into a safer, more efficient route when the current roadway may not be suitable for travel ahead.
Website: www.itslee.org |
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Miami-Dade Expressway Authority |
Miami-Dade Expressway (MDX) Authority TMC is collocated in the District 6 SunGuide RTMC where traffic is monitored 24/7. MDX currently has ITS installations on SR 836, Dolphin Expressway, from I-95 to SW 137 Avenue. It is adding additional ITS infrastructure on SR 924/ Gratigny Expressway, SR 874/ Don Shula Expressway, SR 878/ Snapper Creek Expressway, and SR 112/ Airport Expressway.
MDX was the first non-District TMC to operate the SunGuide software.
Website: www.mdx-way.com |
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Central Florida Expressway Authority |
Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) uses the SunGuide software at their main office and a secondary installation at the Hiawassee Toll Plaza location. Also, District 5 controls and observes CFX’s ITS devices from the District 5 RTMC using center-to-center software. The use of center-to-center software for remote control, as well as the use of TSS email alerts are ways that CFX is pioneering the remotely controlled TMC concept. CFX is the first traffic management agency that does not have a traditional operations floor with stationed operators behind a video wall.
Website: www.cfxway.com |
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City of Tallahassee |
The City of Tallahassee's RTMC is located within the City Hall at 300 Adams Street, in Tallahassee. This RTMC is operated through a Joint Project Agreement between FDOT and the City of Tallahassee. RTMC operators monitor and control the I-10 Freeway Management System as well as the Tallahassee Advanced Traffic Management System, which includes the local arterial street network. The RTMC is staffed 10-hours per day/5-days a week. The city is planning to move to a new RTMC in 2013. This proposed 90,000-square foot facility will house the City of Tallahassee RTMC, Leon County Emergency Operations Center, Joint Dispatch Center for Leon County and the City of Tallahassee, Fire Department Administration, Leon County Emergency Medical Services, and an emergency communications center for activation during area emergencies. In addition to the main building, it will also include a logistics building for emergency medical services and a site for a future City of Tallahassee fire station. The City of Tallahassee operates a portion of District 3’s roadway and operates the license plate readers on behalf of District 3. |