Sign of the times: The humans behind those highway message boards

Control room operators in the State Traffic Operations Center in Milwaukee monitor the conditions on state highways and interstates on Monday.(Photo: Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)Buy Photo

In one sense Melanie Pape has 420 eyes.

A system of cameras on highways across Wisconsin — currently 420 of them — allows Pape to see in real time what's happening on the interstate and state highways. That allows her, in turn, to notify motorists of problems, backups and other incidents that send drivers' blood pressures soaring.

Car broken down in an emergency lane? Debris slowing traffic? Fender bender? Multiple-vehicle crash? Pape and the other Wisconsin Department of Transportation control room operators are on it.

Within seconds they send out alerts on electronic signs across highways, push out messages to the state's 511 system of travel information online and notify law enforcement. It can be hectic but also rewarding because Pape knows she's directly helping travelers.

"It's something different every day. Some days are busy and some days are slow," Pape said this week inside the serene state operations center on the third floor of the Intermodal station in downtown Milwaukee.

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Melanie Pape, a control room operator in the State Traffic Operations Center, prepares Monday to put a notice on the electronic signs above the Milwaukee freeway. (Photo: Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Pape and other control room operators each sit in front of three large computer screens monitoring emails from law enforcement agencies and watching video feeds from cameras. On a recent day this week, an electronic tablet below Pape's three computers with a 511 map showed most highways in green — signifying traffic moving smoothly — and a few red triangles with exclamation points for incidents.

On the wall in front of them was a huge screen showing eight cameras — two constantly tuned to the Zoo Interchange and Milwaukee County Sheriff's video feed — and the others rotating through cameras located around the state. In the middle were three maps showing traffic flows. The huge screen can be configured to show as many as 40 cameras at once or as few as one.

Frequently law enforcement will call the WisDOT control room when they hear about an incident and ask the operators if they can find it. Operators will scan through the cameras until they find the accident and then let officers know if it's minor or serious. But even minor accidents can create huge backups with the potential for more crashes and injuries, said DOT traffic operations spokeswoman Gina Paige.

"When they start seeing larger delays, they'll go into Google maps and see if they can find alternate routes for people to avoid the backups," Paige said.

Sitting in traffic is not just an annoyance. Last year, delays from accidents and congestion cost Wisconsin motorists more than $300 million, Paige said.

For motorists wondering how the DOT knows it'll take 22 minutes to go from downtown to the Zoo Interchange, it's all automated. Detectors on the interstate ranging from probes embedded in the concrete to Bluetooth-connected vehicles accurately gauge how quickly or slowly traffic is moving. Those travel times then appear on electronic message signs.

But it takes operators like Pape to type in alerts. On this day she typed messages notifying motorists that the Merrimac ferry across the Wisconsin River south of Baraboo was closed for repairs and the left lane at Center St. southbound at Locust over I-43 was closed for a road crew making repairs.

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Brent Bowgren, a control room supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, watches a traffic camera trained on I-43 at Wright St. where a road repair crew works Monday on Milwaukee's freeway system. (Photo: Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

And when Pape heads home to Ozaukee County in the mid-afternoon after her shift, she knows whether her commute will be smooth or difficult. "It's a little perk of the job."

Some of the newer cameras have windshield wipers to clear away snow. But birds frequently perch on them and one time a spider hung from the Hoan Bridge camera long enough to be nicknamed Carl by the control room operators.

"Oh my gosh, he was there all summer," Pape said. "Good place to watch the fireworks."

The pithy phrases on the 145 electronic message boards over highways, as well as 124 portable signs, are created by Paige with input from a creative messaging work group that includes members of the State Patrol and DOT.

Paige started with just 10 phrases in May and is now up to 70 different messages, some tied to national safety campaigns and others that tap into cultural and holiday references. When the Pokemon Go craze happened last summer, some message signs said, "Pokemon Can Wait, Just Drive." This Thanksgiving, phrases include "Don't Be a Turkey. Buckle Up" and "Give Thanks For a Safe Ride. Drive Sober."

"We come up with creative messaging to get people to think about their driving behavior," Paige said.

Whatever the message, it has to be short. The limit is 17 characters per line with a maximum of three lines. Which makes Twitter seem like "War and Peace."

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