Thundersnow helps MATOC Get Post Attention

The Metropolitan Area Transportation Operations Coordination (MATOC) got some well-deserved coverage in a recent Washington Post article. The article discussed the disastrous traffic conditions the Metro region faced during the January 26 winter storm and how MATOC is able to receive and analyze data from across the region such as traffic, incident, weather, and metro alerts. The goal of MATOC is to improve how agencies share information which enables transportation agencies to make better decisions regarding traffic and transit management throughout the region.

MATOC is a regional partnership of the Maryland State Highway Administration, Virginia Department of Transportation, District Department of Transportation, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and the Transportation Planning Board at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).  "There has to be someone who has control of the ripple effect," said Ron Kirby, COG's transportation planning director. "That is what MATOC was created to manage."  The MATOC operations facility is collocated   with the Capital Wireless Information Net (CapWIN) office in Greenbelt, Maryland.  Both MATOC and CapWIN are directly supported by the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology.

MATOC gets its data from the Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) which was developed at the CATT Lab at the University of Maryland. RITIS gathers data for federal, state, and local governments. MATOC is working on offering a public web site that will provide access to consolidated information gathered through RITIS.  

To read the full article, visit: "New Greenbelt operations center will help manage traffic and transit throughout D.C. region"

For more information about MATOC, visit: http://www.mwcog.org/clrp/elements/moits/coordination.asp

About CATT
The Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, was created in order to respond to the significant changes brought about by increasing use of advanced technologies in the transportation field. A permanent staff of ITS professionals and affiliated faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering supports CATT. All offer extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of ITS technology, traffic engineering and control, systems analysis, and operations research. Visit CATT on the web at www.catt.umd.edu.

February 21, 2011