TrafficCast Acquires Traffax; to Merge with BlueTOAD™ Operations
Madison, WI (PRWEB) November 12, 2015 -- TrafficCast International, Inc., today announced the acquisition of Traffax, Inc., the Maryland-based company which in 2009 commercialized Bluetooth™ sensor technology developed at the University of Maryland for traffic data collection and analysis. Traffax products, marketed under as BluFax Bluetooth Traffic Monitoring (BTM) will be merged into TrafficCast’s BlueTOAD operating unit, which leads the market in the deployment of Bluetooth roadside sensors.
“Our two companies have worked hard to make Bluetooth detection an industry standard for accurate and reliable travel times, on both freeways and arterials across the country,” said Al McGowan, CEO of TrafficCast. “This acquisition will accelerate our technology innovation and enhance customer support. We are delighted to welcome the Traffax team to the TrafficCast family.”
For both companies, Bluetooth sensors detect anonymous identifications used to connect Bluetooth devices such as “hands-free” headsets and mobile phones. An integrated operating system calculates travel times by analysis of timestamps on subsequent detections in passing vehicles. Traffax licensed a related patent from the University of Maryland in developing its technology, and has additional patents pending; TrafficCast holds separate patents related to the technologies involved.
“Traffax led the way in introducing the value of Bluetooth detection to public agencies in the U.S.,” noted Peter Carnes, CEO of Traffax and the Vice President, General Manager of the combined TrafficCast units. “Leveraging our mutual strengths and resources is the best way to support the increasing deployment of sensor units, and the advanced analytics the deployments make possible.”
Bluetooth detection enables the direct measurement of travel times and route choice behaviors. Legacy technologies derive travel times from road speeds captured at a single location, which can result in significant errors when speeds change beyond the sensor location.
Similarly, route choice behavior, which measures the choices drivers make between origin and destination pairs within a road network, can be measured more accurately, and more cost effectively,. In the current environment for transportation funding, such information is critical for performance measurements of new traffic signal timing, Advanced Traffic Management Systems or Intelligent Transportation Systems
With the acquisition announced today, it is expected operations of the two operating units will be fully integrated by January 1st.
About TrafficCast: TrafficCast provides travel time forecasting, road speed monitoring and other traffic-related information, with technology, applications and content based on advanced digital traffic data. TrafficCast informs navigation and driver information services for a range of providers serving the interactive, mobile, enterprise and public sector markets. TrafficCast BlueTOAD™ is the market leader in Bluetooth™ signal detection technologies, used to monitor travel times, road speeds and route choice behaviors. The company is based in Madison, Wisconsin, with offices in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and Shanghai. For more information, visit http://www.Trafficcast.com
Nick Kiernan, TrafficCast International, Inc., http://www.trafficcast.com, +1 917-374-3848, [email protected]
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