Highway message boards to flash travel times

By Deena ElGenaidi

Inquirer Staff Writer

Electronic message boards at 13 spots along the Schuylkill Expressway and other roads are scheduled to start posting travel times and distances between major interchanges starting Wednesday.

The signs, operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, will display the information between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.

The main goal is to give drivers traffic information, allowing them to make commuting decisions, PennDot spokesman Gene Blaum said. "We want to give drivers opportunities to get off the highway."

The message boards will provide "realistic expectations of travel times," said Catherine Rossi, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "Hopefully, this will prevent some of us from becoming aggressive drivers. It's a tool for motorists, and it can help drivers manage their trips," she said.

"This would be helpful. Real helpful," said motorist Bill Fulton, who takes I-76 between Conshohocken and King of Prussia. "It hurts when something happens on the road. It's always good to know."

Marshall Taylor, who takes I-76 from Gladwyne to Center City, said, "It's better to have information than not to."

However, not all drivers see the benefit.

"It's irrelevant once you're on the road," said Julie Paul, a South Jersey resident who takes I-76 to her job in Conshohocken. "They spent all this money to put up signs when they could have done something that would actually work to prevent traffic."

The highway signs are part of a $23 million PennDot project that includes closed-circuit television cameras, message signs, and incident detectors.

Eight message boards have been installed along the Schuylkill. Eastbound, they are just east of Route 202, between Conshohocken and Gladwyne; between Route 1 and Montgomery Drive; at Girard Avenue; and at University Avenue. The westbound signs are at Vare Avenue, Spring Garden Avenue, Gladwyne, and Conshohocken.

Other locations are Blue Route north one mile past Route 30, Blue Route south near Ridge Pike, Roosevelt Boulevard extension south at Second Street, Boulevard extension south at Fox Street, and Penrose Avenue west approaching 26th Street.

PennDot will measure the travel times using vehicles with E-ZPass transponders that pass tag readers along the road.

"The sign reads the transponder and measures the time from point A to point B," Blaum said. "This comes into the computer at the control center, and calculations are done through a computer algorithm."

PennDot hopes to put message signs on I-95 at Woodhaven Road, near Philadelphia International Airport, and at the Delaware line.

Contact staff writer Deena ElGenaidi at 610-313-8110 or delgenaidi@phillynews.com.

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