Presidential inaugurations are not very easy to set up, and directing traffic is one major problem during that day. Now, with president-elect Barack Obama's ceremony just 4 days away, officials are working around the clock to incorporate a new traffic control and monitoring system into their mainframes. The new software, developed by scientists at the University of Maryland, can incorporate all relevant data that authorities need on a single screen, eliminating the need for cumbersome equipment to be set up.
 

One of the people behind the new system, Michael L. Pack, is the director of the Center for Advanced Transportation technology Laboratory (CATT) at the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering. Speaking about the new software, the expert says that "at this point, our team is working almost around the clock to incorporate as much data and functionality as possible."
 

The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) features extremely life-like simulating capabilities, and is able to merge, process and display data gathered from multiple federal agencies in real time. If, for instance, a car crash occurs on a boulevard blocks away, the system can generate both 2D and 3D renditions of the accident, which security personnel can monitor, in order to assess the threat level of the event.

It can also offer a digital map of traffic patterns, so that official columns don't get tangled up in endless lines before arriving at the inaugural ceremony site. UM researchers are currently working on enhancing the new software, so that it could soon be able to process weather-related information as well. Originally developed at CATT as a traffic coordination device, RITIS will now be used in such a grand-scale event for the first time.
 

"We're trying to visualize the real-time status of our transportation system – showing the real-world and providing situational awareness to decision makers – all on a single screen. We're enabling these many disparate systems to communicate with each other," Pack adds.
 

Among the most important features that will be possible to monitor at once, Pack enumerates vehicular traffic, accidents, incidents, response plans, air space, weather conditions, as well as other relevant data. Thus far, all these factors have been monitored via the use of separate systems, which left the door opened for various misinterpretations to occur over communication channels. All these problems are now taken care of.