Collection, monitoring, analyzing and reporting decay rate of traffic speed data via vehicle sensor devices placed at multiple remote locations
Apparatus and methods provide the effectiveness decay rate of actual police enforcement by allowing the user to chart the speeds in a particular location and overlay times when an officer was present and providing on-site enforcement. The system can monitor the speed in the location and when the speeds creep back up to a set speed or multiple of the speed after the enforcement period, the officer can be notified to provide enforcement again and reduce the speeds. For example, once the police car goes away, some locations may take longer for the average speed to creep back up to normal and others may have the average speed increase more quickly. A visual display of the situation provides a systematic method for determining enforcement locations and timing in place of conventional “seat-of-the-pants” enforcement planning.
1. An apparatus for creating traffic enforcement charts that show the effects of police enforcement on vehicle speed data captured by a plurality of vehicle sensor devices, each device being at a different fixed location in a region, each device capturing vehicle speed data of a plurality of vehicles that pass the device, the vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a central computer database that is located remotely from the vehicles and which receives and stores:
(i) the captured average vehicle speed data from the different fixed locations, and
(ii) an indication of whether police enforcement that is visually noticeable to vehicles is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals; and
(b) a server in communication with the central computer database, the server:
(i) receiving the captured vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed from the different fixed locations for a plurality of time intervals within a time period,
(ii) receiving an indication of whether the police enforcement is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals, and
(iii) creating a traffic enforcement chart for one of the fixed locations from the captured vehicle speed data and the police enforcement indications, the traffic enforcement chart including:
(A) a trend line of the average vehicle speed, and
(B) a visual indicator of the time intervals when the police enforcement was present,
wherein the trend line visually communicates changes in average vehicle speed when the police enforcement is present and is not present.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 further including an alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off, the server calculating when the residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off by comparing average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present with average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is present.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that residual enforcement has dropped by a predefined percentage effective amount.
4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that the average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present has risen by a preset amount.
5. An automated method of creating traffic enforcement charts that show the effects of police enforcement on vehicle speed data captured by a plurality of vehicle sensor devices, each device being at a different fixed location in a region, each device capturing vehicle speed data of a plurality of vehicles that pass the device, the vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed, the method comprising:
(a) receiving and storing in a central computer database that is located remotely from the vehicles:
(i) the captured average vehicle speed data from the different fixed locations, and
(ii) an indication of whether police enforcement that is visually noticeable to vehicles is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals; and
(b) receiving at a server in communication with the central computer database:
(i) the captured vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed from the different fixed locations for a plurality of time intervals within a time period, and
(ii) an indication of whether the police enforcement is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals; and
(c) creating, by the server, a traffic enforcement chart for one of the fixed locations from the captured vehicle speed data and the police enforcement indications, the traffic enforcement chart including:
(i) a trend line of the average vehicle speed, and
(ii) a visual indicator of the time intervals when the police enforcement was present,
wherein the trend line visually communicates changes in average vehicle speed when the police enforcement is present and is not present.
6. The automated method of claim 5 further comprising:
(d) setting an alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off, the server calculating when the residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off by comparing average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present with average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is present.
7. The automated method of claim 6 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that residual enforcement has dropped by a predefined percentage effective amount.
8. The automated method of claim 6 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that the average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present has risen by a preset amount.
9. An apparatus for managing a traffic alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement on vehicle speed data has worn off, the vehicle speed data being captured by a plurality of vehicle sensor devices, each device being at a different fixed location in a region, each device capturing vehicle speed data of a plurality of vehicles that pass the device, the vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a central computer database that is located remotely from the vehicles and which receives and stores:
(i) the captured average vehicle speed data from the different fixed locations, and
(ii) an indication of whether police enforcement that is visually noticeable to vehicles is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals; and
(b) a server in communication with the central computer database, the server:
(i) receiving the captured vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed from the different fixed locations for a plurality of time intervals within a time period,
(ii) receiving an indication of whether the police enforcement is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals,
(iii) calculating when the residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off by comparing average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present with average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is present, and
(iv) setting an alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the residual enforcement alert is set to a value that indicates that residual enforcement has dropped by a predefined percentage effective amount.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the residual enforcement alert is set to a value that indicates that the average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is present has risen by a preset amount.
12. An automated method of managing a traffic alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement on vehicle speed data has worn off, the vehicle speed data being captured by a plurality of vehicle sensor devices, each device being at a different fixed location in a region, each device capturing vehicle speed data of a plurality of vehicles that pass the device, the vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed, the method comprising:
(a) receiving and storing in a central computer database that is located remotely from the vehicles and which receives and stores:
(i) the captured average vehicle speed data from the different fixed locations, and
(ii) an indication of whether police enforcement that is visually noticeable to vehicles is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals;
(b) receiving at a server in communication with the central computer database:
(i) the captured vehicle speed data including average vehicle speed from the different fixed locations for a plurality of time intervals within a time period, and
(ii) an indication of whether the police enforcement is present at one or more of the different fixed locations during each of the time intervals;
(c) calculating, at the server, when the residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off by comparing average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present with average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is present; and
(d) setting an alert that is electronically sent to a recipient indicating when residual enforcement due to the effects of police enforcement has worn off.
13. The automated method of claim 12 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that residual enforcement has dropped by a predefined percentage effective amount.
14. The automated method of claim 12 wherein the alert is set to a value that indicates that the average vehicle speed during time intervals when police enforcement is not present has risen by a preset amount.