Yes, there was a book written called “A Bridge Too Far,” about the battle for the Remagen bridge in Germany toward the end of World War II. But I want to discuss highway control this month since it’s becoming a major user market, particularly for access control and CCTV. In this case, the exit seems more appropriate than the bridge.

Most drivers will think about an exit they have to take before they get off the highway—and how fast they can get there. County and state governments responsible for those highways are doing their best to get drivers there as quickly and safely as possible. But how is that now working?

To give you an idea, I recently visited with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for all tunnels, bridges and ports in the metro New York area. While their annual operation accounts for 13 percent of all incoming shipping into the United States (forecasted to rise to 23 percent in the next 10 years), they are also working to alleviate roadside congestion.

Service for Traffic, Transportation Markets Trails Commercial Security

The Port Authority has inaugurated a plan to spread its operations from metro New York south to Camden, N.J., and north to Albany, N.Y. The purpose is to offload large oceangoing containers onto barges and transship them to secondary ports, where containers and other cargo are to be offloaded onto trailer-trucks.

Normally, that trailer-truck traffic would be offloaded at the New York and New Jersey docks, then moved through New York and its tunnel and bridge system. And you know what driving through New York is like. So that’s one-way traffic has been controlled in today’s high mobility world.

Another way has been installing radio frequency (RF) readers and cameras to simplify toll-paying, monitor traffic intensity, and transmit messages to large electronic highway signs. The signs provide highway-driving conditions and suggest the use of alternate routes when jams occur.

The market for this type of faster throughput, monitoring and control is now rising rapidly in demand, despite the fact that the economy is soft. So it’s clear that the industry is now morphing into the transportation industry to help it along. Security dealers and integrators are key groups that can help this market with the integration and installation services so important at those facilities.

Growth in this market from now until 2007 is expected to match the commercial and government markets as the economy strengthens and more money is spent on getting us to work and back, quickly and safely.

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