Kemal Suliman knows better than anyone else how dangerous driving the interstate highway system in Northern Virginia can be.
Suliman, who runs VDOT's Smart Traffic Center in Arlington, monitors I-95, I-395, I-66 and the Beltway thanks to a network of 117 video cameras along the highways.
"We see all kinds of crazy stuff," he said one recent morning as he watched a car backing up on the emergency ramp of I-95 in order to use the emergency turn lane. "People like that end up causing major problems and getting themselves hurt."
There is little Suliman can do when he sees such activity taking place. If he alerts the police, the driver will be long gone by the time an officer arrives at the scene.
THE SMART TRAFFIC CENTER is the nerve center for all Northern Virginia traffic. Seated in a windowless room in a brick building, a handful of technicians follow the morning and evening rush hours, alert drivers to traffic and weather conditions thanks to message boards that span the highway, and dispatch bright orange VDOT trucks to accident sites. The center can communicate with local police as well as officials in Richmond and the District. It also benefits from a direct link to the weather service.
"We like to keep everybody alert as to what's going on," said Jeremy Wilson, one of the technicians.
The center also operates the traffic signals in the region, which number around 1,000. At any moment, technicians in the signals division can see which traffic lights are red and which are green. They also keep track of traffic at each intersection thanks to a series of sensors. VDOT technicians can extend certain lights to accommodate an emergency vehicle or an unexpected flood of traffic.
The center is also wrapping up an experimental program which allows buses to benefit from longer green lights. Once the study is completed, the program will be implemented across the region.
"A signal is really a safety device," said Mark Hagan, who is in charge of the signals division. "If we can get people to use mass transit it benefits us in the long run," he said of the bus program.
The signals center will also work with pedestrians with disabilities to help them get across the street safely. "We'll change the pedestrian time [of a signal] to accommodate that person," said Hagan.
FACED WITH the growing congestion on the region's roads, the VDOT technicians at the center questioned the utility of building more roads.
"The more you add lanes, the more traffic you get," said technician Joe Dooley.
"It seems like you build it and they come," said Suliman. "The volume is there and that is what is causing the congestion."
Suliman mentioned telecommuting, staggered hours and public transit as possible solutions to the gridlock problem. "Transit is probably one of the good things," he said, noting that he has seen buses zipping through traffic on dedicated lanes with as few as seven passengers on board.
HOV lanes would also help alleviate the problem, according to Suliman. "The HOV lane on 395 gets a lot of use," he said. "495 is probably going to be a good candidate for HOV lanes."
Suliman recommended that the new lanes created by road expansion projects currently on the table be turned into HOV lanes, calling it a "win-win situation."
"I wish more people were taking those options," he said.
The information collected by VDOT at the Smart Traffic Center is made available to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to assist the county in planning.
"We have a linkage into their data," said Young Ho Chang, the director of the Department of Transportation. "We would know how many cars go through a particular intersection on a particular day. We use it for planning work and land use work."
Chang praised VDOT's system but noted that "it has limitations" such as focusing too much on the interstate system and not on the secondary road systems.