Genesis

Project Description

Genesis was a six-month field operational test of sending traffic information to portable handheld devices including 400 alpha-numeric pagers and 40 Apple Newton MessagePad Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). An operator at Mn/DOT's Traffic Management Center entered information about incidents, traffic flow levels, and planned construction using a graphical user interface with a map. The data was sent to a Traveler Information Processing Sub-system which sorted the data into the appropriate pager "slots" for broadcast transmission to pagers and Apple Newtons programmed to receive the group broadcasts. An evaluation was performed to determine whether travelers acted upon the information they received and whether their travel behavior changes produced a benefit to the travelers individually and to the transportation system as a whole.