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Regional Traffic Management Center

Published

Jan 9, 2025

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In May 2005, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Manatee County, Sarasota County, the City of Sarasota and the City of Bradenton entered into an Interlocal Agreement for cooperation and coordination in the operation of a unified regional Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS). The agreement provides that each party would bear a proportional share of the ongoing operational costs of the Regional Traffic Management Center, with the basis for proportional share being population numbers from the most recent census data available.

As a result, the Sarasota-Manatee Regional Traffic Management Center (RTMC), located within Manatee County’s Public Safety Complex, was created in 2011. The RTMC is co-located with Manatee County's Emergency Operations Center (EOC), 911 dispatch and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) teams.

In November 2014, FDOT completed the deployment of a freeway management system along Interstate 75 that included center-to-center connectivity between FDOT District 1 TMC and the Sarasota-Manatee RTMC.  Therefore, the RTMC is also serving as FDOT's satellite South West Interagency Facility for Transportation (SWIFT) SunGuide Center.

RTMC staff works side by side with FDOT Freeway Management staff to help mitigate the impacts of increased volumes of traffic on the regional arterials during incidents on the Interstate system, actively managing the multi-modal system and making operational decisions for the benefit of system mobility as a whole.

The RTMC also provides a central point for collecting and disseminating data, planning operational strategies, and operating the ATMS central software, the video monitoring system, the vehicle detection system and the traveler information system.

Functions

Multiple ATMS projects within the region have deployed state-of-the-art technologies to mitigate traffic congestion, improve traffic operations, traffic management, and safety in Manatee County, City of Bradenton, City of Palmetto, Sarasota County, City of Sarasota and the City of Venice.

Thanks to a state-of-the art communication network, provided by several hundreds of miles of single-mode fiber optics cable deployed throughout the Sarasota-Manatee Bi-County geographical area, the RTMC is currently connected to:

  • 514 Traffic Signals
  • 285 Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV)
  • 413 Vehicle Video Detection Cameras (VDS)
  • 66 Microwave Based Vehicle Detection Devices (MVDS)
  • 121 Travel Time Bluetooth Devices
  • 4 Arterial Dynamic Message Signs
  • 17 Servers
  • More than 550 Ethernet Switches
  • 275+ miles of fiber optic network

The RTMC staff uses these tools to successfully conduct Active Arterial Management (AAM), by monitoring the regional arterial roadway system conditions, implementing temporary signal timing changes in response to incident and congestion events, disseminating real-time travel-related information and managing the network-connected devices.

RTMC Operators are always on the look-out and ready to respond to incidents and congestion events that happen along the regional arterial roadway system. Incidents are detected using several sources and verified using the available devices connected to the RTMC. Consequently, pertinent information is promptly provided to the Signal Timing Engineer that has the ability, through the use of ATMS central software, to remotely make temporary signal timing changes reducing traffic congestion and help clear the way for law enforcement, fire and rescue vehicles.

The RTMC also assists the regional residents and visitors during emergency events with DIVERSION and EVACUATION ROUTES timing patterns implementation.

In early August 2014, a new subsystem, a complete functional Backup Traffic Management Center (TMC) was added to the existing RTMC network. Located in the Manatee County Public Works Department building, the Backup TMC provides a complete functional TMC during an emergency event that would require all the essential staff at the RTMC to evacuate the existing facility and operate remotely to provide continued TMC operations. 

In September 2018, the SMART TRAFFIC traveler information website (www.smarttrafficinfo.org) was launched.  The SMART TRAFFIC website is a free public service that offers Sarasota-Manatee Bi-County motorists, commuters, commercial vehicle operators , residents and visitors the latest traffic information and urgent alerts along the regional arterial roadway system.  These include notifications about traffic incidents, congestion events, roadwork and critical signal malfunctions, and live video streams from the regional traffic cameras.

The RTMC also disseminates traveler information through its own Twitter account - @941_traffic.

Mission Statement: The Sarasota Manatee Traffic Management Center will provide an enabling environment for all stakeholders to collaborate and share information resulting in a combined, systematic approach to traffic operations and traffic incident response.