The Michigan Department of Transportation is looking into an intelligent transportation system on 180 miles of metro Detroit highways.

Crain's Detroit Business reports that solar-powered sensors with a wireless link to the Internet would provide more detailed and timely information than current in-road sensors and cameras.
Wayne, Pa.-based Mobility Technologies Inc. has deployed similar networks in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The company's goal is to put the network in 40 metropolitan areas across the country.
The Michigan DOT and Mobility are submitting a proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation for a $2 million grant that could be awarded by Oct. 1. If approved, the new network could be up and running by fall of 2002.
Mobility also plans to bid when MDOT seeks bids later this summer for a company to operate its 24-hour, seven-day-a-week intelligent transportation center. The current operator, SmartRoute Systems, has run the center since 1998. The center runs cameras and changeable freeway message signs, update MDOT computers, maintain a web site, dispatch courtesy patrols and do traffic management with Detroit police.