Real-time Impacts: How CDOT is Leveraging Crowdsourcing to Advance Operations

By Mark Santon, Change Management & Process Improvement Intern

February 24, 2020

The Every Day Counts (EDC) Program

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsors the Every Day Counts (EDC) program. The FHWA describes the program further: EDC is a State-based model that identifies and rapidly deploys proven, yet underutilized innovations to shorten the project delivery process, enhance roadway safety, reduce traffic congestion, and integrate automation. Proven innovations promoted through EDC facilitate greater efficiency at the State and local levels, saving time, money and resources that can be used to deliver more projects. New innovations at the state and local levels are championed by the FHWA every two years to be promoted. 

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) proudly participates in the EDC program and has committed to supporting the implementation of five innovations during the 2019-2020 deployment cycle. To learn more about CDOT’s participation in the EDC program, visit CDOT’s Office of Process Improvement’s website. 

Crowdsourcing in Transportation Overview

In its simplest form, crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people. The FHWA further defines crowdsourcing within a transportation context as follows: Crowdsourcing turns transportation system users into real-time sensors on system performance, providing low-cost, high-quality data on traffic operations, roadway conditions, travel patterns, and more. Furthermore, the most common mechanisms for gathering such data are social media platforms, third-party crowdsourcing providers, and enabled mobile apps. Traffic management centers (TMC) typically manage the collected data and can help integrate it with other tools or systems to make the data actionable.  

FHWA officials communicate three main benefits to leveraging crowdsourced data: 1) improved operations, 2) increased safety and reliability, and 3) cost savings. Further details on the background of crowdsourcing in transportation operations by the FHWA can be found on the FHWA EDC program’s website.  

Leveraging Crowdsourcing to Advance Operations at CDOT

CDOT’s efforts to incorporate the EDC innovation of using crowdsourcing aligns with the overall spirit of CDOT as an innovative government organization. 

CDOT is always looking for ways to improve its current state of operations; from maintenance, to safety, to fleet management, and everywhere in between. Barb Cohn, CDOT’s lead for Data Operations, recently characterized the Division of Maintenance and Operations (DMO) commitment to continuous improvement. Barb explained, “Improving safety and the overall experience for the traveling public in Colorado and CDOT employees is always our priority. In addition, it is crucial for CDOT to leverage timely information to best manage its resources to respond to traffic and operations in the most efficient and effective way.” Operations teams across CDOT are working to implement programs that innovate using data responsibly.

Jamie Yount, Winter Operations Program Manager, shared how CDOT is leveraging the power of crowdsourced information at its TMC just west of Denver. He noted the following priorities were paramount opportunities for the use of crowdsourcing: 

1. Improve traffic operations 

2. Improve communications on travel times, road conditions, and other important travel announcements 

Jamie continued to explain that internal CDOT dashboards rely on increasingly timely data to improve response times for traffic and other operations. Similar datasets are also used to support the public-facing dashboard (below) that many Coloradans use at cotrip.org.

When asked about the notable returns on investment for traffic operations with the implementation, Jamie indicated the program is highly beneficial. “We are starting to get better visibility on our assets; where they are going and also where they have been and what conditions can be reported,” he added. Jamie further noted, “We are increasing our ability to serve the public better and in a timelier manner.”  

Jamie is also continuing to research other successes with crowdsourcing in the transportation industry to learn more about how CDOT can iterate upon its established success. Given the topic of crowdsourcing is part of the overarching conversation surrounding data use, Jamie shared some of his thoughts regarding the future of crowdsourcing efforts at CDOT and leveraging data across the board to advance operations. He acknowledged, “There is a lot of work ahead still to collect, organize, and act upon the data that CDOT is stewarding.” When thinking about the future, he noted that there was a tremendous opportunity for CDOT. Jamie went on to explain how crowdsourced data efforts can become the foundation for building out more predictive models, allowing CDOT to be less reactive and engage on traffic and operations more proactively. In addition to his management role, Jamie is also a meteorologist, so predictive models are exciting and useful from his perspective. “Getting to a point where we can become more proactive with our predictive weather modeling in our operations is the goal, but there is a lot of work to be done before then,” he added. 

Jamie meets regularly with other transportation agencies across the country to learn and help CDOT continue to innovate into the future. He is the dedicated champion for the crowdsourcing initiative in DMO at CDOT and will continue to work for its advancement and adoption across the State. 

The EDC program supported by FHWA is invaluable to CDOT and the traveling public it serves. Barb Cohn reiterated her support of the EDC program at CDOT stating, “CDOT is proud to be successfully implementing EDC innovations and looks forward to continuing to partner with the FHWA to improve transportation experiences and safety in Colorado.” 

Updated information on all EDC innovation implementations can be viewed on the OPI website.