Event

Gresham Smith to Present about Innovative I-24 MOTION Testbed at SASHTO Conference

Presentation Covers How First-of-its-Kind Project Serves as “MRI for Traffic”

Event Date

Gresham Smith is proud to announce that Matt D’Angelo, P.E., Transportation Systems Management and Operations practice leader, will present on I-24 MOTION at the upcoming Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO) Conference in Mobile, Alabama, from Aug. 5-9. A first-of-its-kind testbed opened by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, I-24 MOTION provides an environment for testing advanced traffic management and automated vehicle technologies in live traffic, a first for the industry.

Since opening in the fall of 2022, the project has won numerous state and national awards, including a National Recognition Award in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Awards, Best Special Project from the Southern District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, ACEC Tennessee’s Grand Conceptor Award and a Best of ITS Award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

D’Angelo will present during Technical Session A2 on Monday, Aug. 7 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Room 202 A/B at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. For more information, visit SASTHO’s website. Below is a summary of the presentation.

TDOT’s I-24 MOTION Testbed: An MRI for Traffic

I-24 MOTION is a first-of-its-kind testbed recently opened by TDOT that will provide an environment for testing advanced traffic management and automated vehicle technologies in live traffic. Automakers and suppliers are investing billions of dollars in adding connectivity and automation features to vehicles, creating a new “driver” type that introduces new vehicle behavior into the overall traffic stream. These technologies are often developed through simulation or closed-course settings. Testing in traffic captures the variability of real-world conditions and human behavior. This presentation will describe the rationale for creating the testbed, how it was created on a compressed schedule and how the testbed can be used by infrastructure owners and industry. This will include an overview of the first testbed experiment known as CIRCLES that involved one of the largest automated vehicle tests conducted to date, demonstrating how this “MRI for Traffic” is providing new insights into our understanding of traffic and how to optimize operational strategies.