Motorists who regularly travel roads in Horry and Georgetown
counties can now get official details about how traffic is flowing
on certain area roads before they leave home.
The S.C. Department of Transportation has started posting on its
Web site daily and hourly traffic counts and average estimated
speeds on some of the region's most-traveled roadways.
The information could give the public insight into which roads
are busiest, when and where. The Web site, http://www.scdot.org/, also
includes historical data for specific roads.
It is the type of information that DOT officials have had for
years but until about two months ago made available only to people
who called and requested it, usually traffic engineers, construction
outfits, the federal government and companies seeking traffic counts
for particular locations.
"The site is a window for the motoring public into just what is
going on at a particular location," said Bill Beck, chief of road
data services for the DOT. "You can learn the current traffic versus
the historical traffic and speeds at a site."
The Web site's traffic count indicated, for example, that between
1 and 4 p.m. the Saturday of the fall motorcycle rally, nearly 200
more vehicles came into Myrtle Beach on U.S. 501 than during the
same period the weekend before.
And the average traveling speed in that time was slightly faster
the week before rally, called The Pilgrimage.
The traffic count was 6,870 from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 1, compared
with 7,058 in that time on Sept. 24.
DOT officials said the information is collected and stored in
automatic traffic recorders at 137 locations around South Carolina,
mostly along evacuation routes.
Information from the recorders quickly is retrieved daily by DOT
officials, Beck said.
The DOT Web site also offers photos taken by cameras located
along certain roads in the state.
"In the event of a hurricane, this is very helpful," Beck said.
"This will give the public information on how [the evacuation] is
going. It is a tool, but it is not to take the place of bulletins
from the governor's office or emergency officials."
State troopers also have been monitoring the new eb site, said
S.C. Department of Transportation spokesman Sid Gaulden.
"It is another weapon in our arsenal," he said.
Lisa Bourcier, spokeswoman for Horry County said the data could
help provide motorists with more information, particularly when
hurricanes threaten.
"It is a good thing for people to have access to this
information," she said.
"The traffic cameras have been out for a number of years."
Beck said more cameras and traffic count recorders eventually
will be installed around the state, but he couldn't say when or
where.
