HAAS Alert

The mission of the Office of Transportation Mobility and Operations (OTMO) is to “improve safety and mobility along Maryland’s roadways through the use of technology and inter-agency partnerships”, which aligns with SHA’s overall emphasis on Safety of the motorists.

Through the use of the HAAS Alert technology, SHA is able to disseminate real-time digital alerting to motorists about emergency vehicles and roadway crews on the roads. The need for such technology is supported by multiple factors: in the first 4 months of 2021 alone, the I-695 Transportation Systems Management & Operations contractors experienced 3 vehicle hits to their truck-mounted attenuators while on the shoulder. In April, 2021, a signal truck unit was struck and the driver severely injured while performing normal work duties at an intersection.

These anecdotes are frequent among CHART staff, often never reported as statistics, but cause increased safety concerns for our employees and contractors. On average, CHART vehicles are hit at a rate of about once per month. When SHA piloted this technology, the public did recognize our presence through these 3 ^rd party platforms (e.g., Waze) and also via connected vehicle applications, and the number of collisions with emergency vehicles was reduced.

This effort also aligns with the 2021-2025 SHA CAV Implementation Plan and general Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Plan strategies. The technology has been deployed on SHA fleet vehicles and has had statewide impacts. This task will support the required subscriptions as a service for this technology. Drivers who receive notifications are expected to have more time to slow down, move over, and make safer maneuvers to prevent collisions. This is important as even non-collision violations increase the safety risk to contractors and in-the-field staff. The funding for this project is ZY114B23, and the AOBJ is 8920.