Jumbo signs with flashing lights, some with warning messages, are signals of a high-tech transportation system being tested along 88 miles of freeway in Greater Cincinnati.
The system is called ARTIMIS (Advanced Regional Transportation Interactive Management and Information System), a $35 million traffic-management project that will give motorists information about traffic flow, speed, jams, road conditions, accidents, stalled cars or debris on the highways.
The Alcatel N A Cable System Inc. in Carthage is testing the equipment before ARTIMIS goes into full operation.
''We can't give an exact date when we will go online in full operation,'' said Dory Montazemi, deputy executive director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), which developed the system.
''Alcatel is testing the equipment to get out all the bugs.''
SmarTraveler, a part of ARTIMIS, was started in June 1995. It distributes traffic information collected by the ARTIMIS system to motorists through three telephone lines, a website, seven radio stations, WCPO-TV (Channel 9) and The Enquirer, said Robert A. Bross, director of operations for SmartRoute Systems, which operates SmarTraveler.
Mr. Montazemi said all the equipment has been installed to operate ARTIMIS.
He said the equipment includes 60 closed-circuit TV cameras placed near exit and entrance ramps along the freeways stretching from Interstate 71 downtown, north to I-275 and on to Kings Island; along I-275 from Montgomery Road to Ohio 4; and along I-75 as far south as Ky. 18 and along I-275 and I-471 in Kentucky.
There are 17 slow-scan, pan-tilt, zoom-lens cameras, 54 miles of multimode, fiber-optic cable, 1,100 radar and video detectors and 44 changeable message signs.
Information about traffic movement will be gathered and transmitted to a control center at 508 W. Third St., downtown. Staff will watch the traffic flow on two 8-by-6 foot projection screens and 12 video monitor screens. They will relay the information to motorists on the jumbo signs and small changeable signs along the freeways.
''When the system is fully operating, an alarm will go off in the control center whenever traffic slows to a certain level,'' said Scott Evans, program manager for TRW Integrated Engineering Division of Dayton, Ohio, which operates ARTIMIS.
''The scan cameras will automatically focus on what is causing the traffic to slow down. We can flash it on a large screen to see exactly what it is - a stalled car, accident or debris in the road. We can then flash information to motorists, tell them what it is, suggest an alternate route and also tell them how long we expect traffic to be tied up.''
OKI started planning ARTIMIS eight years ago. It is patterned after similar traffic management systems in Seattle, Houston, San Antonio, Texas, and Atlanta.
