Three Pennsylvania agencies recently announced plans to open a facility assisting emergency responders, transportation technology companies, and research institutions while supporting the local economy.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC), and the Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) of Southwestern PA are partnering to plan and design the Pennsylvania Safety, Transportation and Research Track (PennSTART).
“Providing real-world training for Pennsylvania’s 54,000 incident responders is crucial to enhance the safety of our highways for responders and travelers alike — especially as we continue to see more speeding and distracted-driving incidents,” Robert Taylor, PTC Chief Technology Officer, said. “Fact is, the classroom alone cannot effectively prepare police, fire, medical, and towing personnel for the dangers they encounter at an incident scene. PennSTART will serve as Pennsylvania’s first statewide hub for Traffic Incident Management (TIM) training so these heroes can experience lifelike incidents in a controlled environment.”
Safety and operational testing and training that might be conducted at the facility include TIM training; safety certification training opportunities; simulated training for higher-speed and mobile work-zone operations; simulated environments for temporary traffic control device testing and evaluation; smart truck-parking applications, and other opportunities for commercial-vehicle technology partnerships; testing and hands-on training for new intelligent transportation systems, tolling and signal equipment; and controlled environments to test automated vehicles and other emerging technologies for transit buses, infrastructure equipment, and other applications.