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This pole installed by MnDOT at the intersection of Highways 14 and 22 is designed to host a camera — part of a new high-tech traffic monitoring and communication system along those highways and Highway 169.
This pole installed by MnDOT along Highway 22 between Adams Street and Madison Avenue will host vehicle-detector equipment used to track traffic volumes.
This pole installed by MnDOT at the intersection of Highways 14 and 22 is designed to host a camera — part of a new high-tech traffic monitoring and communication system along those highways and Highway 169.
What are those tall poles with a single antenna on top being placed along Highway 22 by the Fairfield Inn and the Highway 22 and 14 intersection?
A: Those two poles are actually doing two different things, although they’re both components of the same project by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
“The (incomplete) poles the reader observed are evidence of the future of traffic management coming to the Mankato area,” said Scott Thompson, a traffic engineer in MnDOT’s Mankato-headquartered District 7.
“MnDOT District 7 staff were successful in securing funding to install automated traffic counters and traffic management cameras this year along U.S. 14, U.S. 169, and Highway 22 in Mankato. The traffic counters will be installed on the shorter poles that can be observed, such as the one near the Fairfield Inn, while cameras will be placed on poles that are 50-feet tall.”
For people who don’t like the idea of the government recording how often they visit Five Guys or Applebee’s or Fairfield Inn, Thompson said it’s not that kind of surveillance: “The cameras that are being installed will be utilized to monitor live road conditions, as well as for live incident management. No video will be recorded nor stored.”
The traffic counters on the shorter poles will be collecting data about vehicle numbers and movement, but not data that’s vehicle-specific.
“MnDOT counts vehicles, classifying them as passenger cars or trucks, for a host of reasons,” Thompson said. “Traffic and vehicle classification counts influence nearly every element on a highway — from how thick the pavement should be to how many lanes the highway should have.”
MnDOT, and other road jurisdictions such as city and county public works departments, have been collecting that information for decades but traditionally did so using those tubes that are periodically laid across driving lanes.
This pole installed by MnDOT along Highway 22 between Adams Street and Madison Avenue will host vehicle-detector equipment used to track traffic volumes.
“At high volumes, it’s more efficient to utilize non-intrusive detection, which is what will be deployed as part of this year’s project,” Thompson said.
Vehicle traffic data is also important in economic development, particularly retail and hospitality businesses.
“The private sector uses the information to guide investment decisions, like where the Mankato Trader Joe’s should be built,” Thompson sai — Ah-OOOO-Gah! Ah-OOOO-Gah! Ah-OOOO-Gah!
Ask Us Guy interrupts this answer with an important message for obsessive Trader Joe’s fans: Scott Thompson is a MnDOT traffic engineer who does not claim to have access to any inside information about the planned locations of future Trader Joe’s supermarkets.
Thompson was simply using “Trader Joe’s” as an example of a retail chain that would look at traffic volumes when scouting new locations.
Trader Joe’s is not known to be contemplating a new store along U.S. 14, U.S. 169, or Highway 22 in Mankato. If this had been an actual announcement of a Trader Joe’s coming to south-central Minnesota, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by a front-page story in The Free Press with information, news or instructions about the location and construction schedule of the TJ’s.
We now return you to your regular scheduled Ask Us column already in progress.
“... Perhaps more exciting is the portion of the project that can’t be seen: fiber-optic cable,” Thompson said. “The cable allows for lightning-fast communication between the MnDOT headquarters in Mankato, and the new and existing MnDOT infrastructure, such as traffic signals and changeable message signs, around the Mankato area.”
What may be coming in the years ahead is particularly interesting, according to Thompson.
“The exciting part is the prospect of this networked infrastructure talking to our vehicles in the future,” he said. “Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication would have these assets communicate with smart vehicles — telling vehicles when a traffic signal is about to turn red, or of congestion ahead. The fiber-optic cable being installed this year will be the backbone for these future communications.”
Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line.
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