16 replies to this topic

[flith]

Chattanooga will be the last of Tennessee's major cities to get traffic cameras under the SmartWay Program.  The 3.8 million project will be online at the end of October.  There will be 63 cameras in Chattanooga area located on I-24, I-75, SR 153, and I-124/US 27.  

I feel however, that they should be extended to Cleveland, TN and into GA up to I-59 and the Tunnel Hill exit near Dalton.

Edited by flith, 20 September 2006 - 06:58 AM.

[Rardy]

Actually Memphis is still not online yet.  We'll probably be last.  Memphis' cameras will extend into Arkansas, but not Mississippi.  

Congrats for Chattanooga though!  That's an achievement not a lot of cities can enjoy.

[flith]

Rardy, on Sep 20 2006, 12:23 PM, said:

Actually Memphis is still not online yet.  We'll probably be last.  Memphis' cameras will extend into Arkansas, but not Mississippi.  

Congrats for Chattanooga though!  That's an achievement not a lot of cities can enjoy.

The article I read stated that part of Memphis was online (25 Cameras) but it was incomplete.  When competed it will have 117 Cameras.

Nasvhille: 59
Knoxville: 70

Edited by flith, 20 September 2006 - 11:28 AM.

[Rardy]

flith, on Sep 20 2006, 12:06 PM, said:

The article I read stated that part of Memphis was online but it was incomplete.

The part that's online was the part installed by Arkansas Dept. of Transportation.  TDOT's cameras aren't up yet.

[qwertycc]

^TDOT's cameras are up for the I-40/I-240 Midtown junction, I-40/Danny Thomas, I-40 on the TN side of the bridge.  Also, I-55 cameras are up at Crump/Riverside/I-55 and 2 more I-55 locations (McLemore and South Pkwy).  Many of the other cameras are installed while others are still being installed.  

http://www.tdot.stat...org/memphis.asp

Just click on the cameras shown on the camera map.  Some of the local news stations are using the cameras for traffic conditions on TV and online.

Edited by qwertycc, 20 September 2006 - 05:19 PM.

[rocky top buzz]

I was thinking.. why would Tennessee taxpayers have to paya for camera's in AR? Glad to hear we aren't!

Nashville isn't the only city in middle tennessee with traffic camera's. Murfreesboro and Franklin have their own seperate camera system which you can check out at tdot.state.tn.us. I think Murfreesboro's camera's are better because they have live traffic feeds.

[Justiceham]

Murfreesboro has 20 traffic cameras, all of which are shown in full color on cable channel 3, and may be viewed 24 hours a day on the city's website.

[Rardy]

Map of Memphis' traffic cameras here (the early deployment cameras were in conjunction with Arkansas DOT)

Chattanooga's traffic cameras here

Tennessee really is ahead of its game with traffic cameras.  If cameras were Starbuck's, I'd say we've reached "market saturation"  

[flith]

rocky top buzz, on Sep 20 2006, 09:57 PM, said:

I was thinking.. why would Tennessee taxpayers have to paya for camera's in AR? Glad to hear we aren't!

Nashville isn't the only city in middle tennessee with traffic camera's. Murfreesboro and Franklin have their own seperate camera system which you can check out at tdot.state.tn.us. I think Murfreesboro's camera's are better because they have live traffic feeds.

It's not as simple as that.  I'm sure Memphis like Chattanooga has a Regional Planning Agency for transportation.  The Chattanooga Regional Planning Agency is funded through the Federal Government, Tennessee, Georgia, and local governments.  It then places different priorities on which projects will be completed first.

Here is a map of the area included Chattanooga's 2030 Transportation Plan.  It includes 1 TN county and parts of 3 Georgia counties.  The majority of the funding comes from TN because that is where the bulk of the population is, but it could use those funds in Georgia.

Edited by flith, 21 September 2006 - 11:33 AM.

[rocky top buzz]

Yes, but if I'm reading that correctly, both Tennessee and Georgia pay into this, right? So that's not my tax dollars srossing the border (or at least there is some percentage of sharing)

[flith]

rocky top buzz, on Sep 21 2006, 01:48 PM, said:

Yes, but if I'm reading that correctly, both Tennessee and Georgia pay into this, right? So that's not my tax dollars srossing the border (or at least there is some percentage of sharing)

Yes thats correct the funding projection for 2030 is roughly 60% Hamilton County, TN 20% Catoosa County GA, and the rest between Walker, and Dade Counties GA.  I saw those figures in a report I'll try to find it again to verify.

[flith]

Most of the cameras are online and monitored by TDOT now, but they won't be accessible on the WWW for a couple of months still.  TDOT has announced that they will expand the system with two more phases, one will be in N. Georgia on major highways, and the other phase will cover other trouble spots in SE Tennessee.

[Hankster]

flith, on Oct 29 2006, 08:33 PM, said:

Most of the cameras are online and monitored by TDOT now, but they won't be accessible on the WWW for a couple of months still.  TDOT has announced that they will expand the system with two more phases, one will be in N. Georgia on major highways, and the other phase will cover other trouble spots in SE Tennessee.

Do you know where the cameras are located?

[flith]

Hankster, on Oct 29 2006, 09:19 PM, said:

Do you know where the cameras are located?

They are available at TDOT's website now.

www.tn.gov/tdot/tdotsmartway

[Tennesseestorm]

I think its great about the cameras.   I think that ALL of the Tennessee metro cities along the interstates have one.  Sometimes I think that TDOT sometimes thinks that I-81 and I-26 do not exist in the Tri-Cities, or that we are not a bust metro area.       

I must say I am very disappointed however about the number of these "state owned" (or whoever owns/controls them) cameras in the Tri-Cities metro in northeast Tennessee.   I have even e-mailed TDOT about this awhile back.  Sure, Tri-Cities is not the size of Chattanooga or Memphis, but it is a very "busy" area and the local freeways are very busy- especially in certain spots.  The metro area has a widespread population of around 170K.  Instead of putting 300 cameras in ONE city in TN (such as it looks like Chattanooga has), I think they should consider putting a camera or TWO in some of the busiest areas of Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City.  The exit 7 I-81 area in Bristol (which is actually in Virginia - sorry) is extremely busy and while there is a camera there, it is not owned by VDOT I do not think.  It is located atop of a fairly large 7 story hotel- probably owned by them.  Sometimes our local CBS station will show views from the camera when they are telling the weather.  There is a pretty good stretch of I-81 that is 6 lane (3 on each side) that runs through Bristol.  At least we do finally have some message boards along I-81 in the metro area.      

There is also a camera that they often show that is located in uptown Johnson City, but not owned by TDOT I do not think.  The Tri-Cities is a "widespread" metro area- but they need to step back and notice the high volume of traffic in the area- especially on I-81 (which runs between Kingsport and Johnson City and through Bristol) and I-26 (which runs through Johnson City and connects to I-81, south of Kingsport- just southwest of the Tri-Cities Airport exit.  There is also an area of I-26 between Johnson City and Kingsport that gets very foggy as the elevation drops about 400-500 ft. as you head into a river valley into south Kingsport.  They have a message board there and flashing lights (with the warning system), so that may be one reason why no cameras there.      

Also- several on the "weatherbug" in the region- but again, these are personal cameras owned by schools, etc.  

Someone said that Murfreesboro has 20 cameras.... according to city data- they have a population of around 68,000.  Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City have a population of around 155,000 just in the cities alone- not including the surrounding suburbs around and within these three cities.  I am sure the roads here are as busy as those.  ??  

Maybe one of these days....  BTW- there are alot of accidents along the local freeways here as well.

Edited by Tennesseestorm, 26 December 2006 - 12:14 AM.

[jamieh]

Rardy, on Sep 20 2006, 10:23 AM, said:

Actually Memphis is still not online yet.  We'll probably be last.  Memphis' cameras will extend into Arkansas, but not Mississippi.  

Congrats for Chattanooga though!  That's an achievement not a lot of cities can enjoy.

Mississippi has cameras available at www.mstraffic.com for Southaven as well as other areas of the state.

[flith]

TDOT will activate the state's fourth Traffic Management Center in Chattanooga next month.