Wrong Way Driver

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation is beginning a project to install larger, more visible wrong way signs along southern Arizona’s three interstate highways as part of an ongoing effort to get the attention of drivers who travel in the wrong direction.

The more visible signs are one of ADOT’s countermeasures to reduce the risk of serious crashes by wrong-way drivers, who are frequently impaired when entering highways in the wrong direction. 

The use of thermal detection cameras to spot wrong-way vehicles on freeway off-ramps along Phoenix-area freeways will continue to grow, especially after the cameras have worked well as part of a pilot project along Interstate 17. 

As one example, you can look ahead to significant stretches of Loop 101 currently being widened to also have the thermal camera wrong-way vehicle alert technology added.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has already expanded use of the technology, with plans to do more as time and funding allow.

They say virtue is its own award. We would say that helping everyone get home safely after a hard day's work, a weekend escape or a night out is also its own award.

But occasionally we are recognized for doing just that.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is completing a project to install hundreds of new, more visible wrong way signs along Phoenix-area freeways as part of ongoing efforts to get the attention of often-impaired drivers who go the wrong direction on off-ramps or in travel lanes.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has received a 2019 National Roadway Safety Award for the wrong-way vehicle alert system being tested on Interstate 17 in Phoenix.

There’s no single, engineering solution to solving wrong-way drivers.

If you see your sign, here's what to do and what's happening behind the scenes.

Do you know what to do when there's a wrong-way driver? Read further to find out.

Our wrong-way vehicle alert system being tested along a stretch of I-17 in Phoenix has earned a special award for innovation.

The Arizona Department of Transportation’s pilot Interstate 17 wrong-way vehicle alert system being tested in Phoenix has been recognized with a Government Innovation Award from GCN, an information technology industry magazine.

Phoenix-area drivers are used to seeing freeway entrance-ramp meters with alternating green and red traffic lights during weekday rush hours. But some of the red lights in Interstate 17 ramp meters also play a role as part of the pilot wrong-way vehicle detection system being tested by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

The wrong-way detection and warning system being tested along 15 miles of Interstate 17 in Phoenix alerted officials early Thursday to a vehicle traveling southbound in the wrong direction between Loop 101 and Bell Road.

As we reported this week, results from the I-17 wrong-way detection and warning system have been promising.

PHOENIX – A loud horn sounds in the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Traffic Operations Center. That alarm signals a possible detection of a wrong-way vehicle by one of the thermal cameras watching the off-ramps and travel lanes along 15 miles of Interstate 17 in Phoenix, part of a detection-and-warning system that’s the first of its kind in the nation.

We're going gaga over a nosy pooch, remembering one of Hollywood's greats and his visit to the Valley and leading the way in wrong-way detection technology for this week's Friday Five.

Other states look to ADOT as they consider adopting wrong-way driver detection technology.

When it comes to reducing the number of vehicle crashes, fatalities and serious injuries, real change has to begin in the driver’s seat.