The Georgia Department of Transportation recently announced that it has expanded its deployment of real-time traffic alerts through Drivewyze’s Smart Roadways service. The expansion provides commercial truck drivers access to heavy congestion and slowdown traffic alerts across 1,400 miles of interstate and state highways in Georgia, nearly tripling the connected roadways in the state since deploying the service in 2022.
Drivewyze Smart Roadways traffic alerts notify truck drivers about hazards, such as where drastic speed changes or heavier than normal congestion is detected, using visual messages such as “sudden slowdown ahead” along with an audible chime.
“Smart Roadway traffic alerts allow us to effectively inform a large percentage of truck drivers to slow their speeds when approaching unexpected traffic or hazards,” said Ben Lempke, assistant ITS engineer for the Georgia DOT. “The alerts are having a positive impact on driver behavior. We believe they are helping prevent potentially catastrophic collisions involving heavy trucks from happening, which is why we expanded the use of the service.”
According to Lempke, telematics data from a 2020 pilot test in the Atlanta area with more than 500,000 vehicle visits, showed between a 10 and 16% reduction in hard braking events for drivers who received the alert, compared to those who did not.
The congestion and sudden slowdown alerts, part of Drivewyze Smart Roadways, were developed through a partnership between Drivewyze and INRIX. INRIX provides real-time traffic data that allows the Georgia DOT to send real-time alerts to commercial truck drivers through the Drivewyze software application. This application is embedded in most Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), as well as on mounted mobile devices. These alerts are provided for free to any fleets subscribed to the Drivewyze PreClear bypass service on their ELDs and are also available for free unlimited use on any Android smartphone for all truck drivers who download the Drivewyze app. The company says the service will be available on Apple phones soon.
