Connected vehicle data can help track and predict traffic congestion during storms.

“Connected vehicles are cars that can communicate wirelessly with other cars and infrastructure,” said Professor Darcy Bullock, director of the Joint Transportation and Research Program at Purdue University.

The connected vehicle data people are most familiar with comes in the form of tools like Google Maps.

Bullock says his team has developed ways to analyze data from connected vehicles to track how traffic fluctuates during every day traffic, unexpected accidents, and weather events.

“When you can start aggregating that data over about a week or a month, it gives us a very good picture of how a traffic signal or a freeway is operating for example,” said Bullock.

He says about 5% of cars in America are connected with the data he’s referring to.

“The reason this is of so much value to public agency is you can’t afford the resources to manually go out and make those observations all over the place. That’s why it helps to have the cars collect that data,” said Bullock.

Bullock says there are several factors they look at.

“In general, you worry about severity, duration, and spacial extent. This connected vehicle data gives us a nice way of visualizing that,” said Bullock.

He says this data can be used by the Indiana Department of Transportation to determine when plows, salt and deicing equipment should be sent out during snowstorms.