CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The North Carolina Department of Transportation's Traffic Command Center is where cameras give officials a look of every roadway in and around the Queen City.

  • The command center not only provides an overview of major highways, interchanges, and roadways
  • It also allows traffic controllers to identify a problem on the road, zoom in on it, and help clear it
  • Officials say with more growth to the area, the amount of traffic has changed

It’s a bird's eye view of the Queen City from every angle, keeping an eye on the ever-evolving traffic flow.

Jim Fox has been watching the traffic in Charlotte from the department’s command center for years. He has seen first-hand how the amount of traffic has changed.

"More cars, more traffic. That all means more growth, and we are trying to keep up with the change by monitoring what things look like on the road with this technology," he said.

The command center not only provides an overview of major highways, interchanges, and roadways within NCDOT's map work, but it allows these traffic controllers to identify a problem on the road, zoom in on it, and help clear it sometimes before emergency crews are on that scene.

The I-map drivers are always roving, tracking the actual conditions on the roads including major backups during peak travel times. They then take that information and radio it back to the command center so they can update NCDOT's website and Twitter pages.

Both mediums the department says has proven effective when it comes to getting vital traffic and travel information out to the general public.

"During hurricanes and major weather events, we used this command center as the eyes and ears and voice, translating what was happening on the roads to technology that people can access so they know where is safe to travel," Fox said.

NCDOT is using their command center to also find hotspots that could use a change to help traffic flow better in that spot. As the traffic is ever evolving, so is their perspective on how to combat commute times in a city where cars are multiplying by the minute.