Driving the Future: How THEA’s AI-Powered Expressway is Redefining Mobility

Momentum built from a groundbreaking connected-vehicle pilot is propelling the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) into the future with AI-fueled infrastructure to serve customers.

By Greg Slater, Executive Director and CEO, Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority

For centuries, technological advancements have shaped America’s transportation systems, making them safer, more resilient and more connected for the traveling public. At the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA), we see this as our charge and our opportunity. By embracing emerging tools like artificial intelligence and leading real-world deployments, we are spearheading innovation that is building the transportation system of the future — now.

THEA owns, manages and operates the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway system, a 17-mile, all-electronic toll road, which includes the elevated Reversible Express Lanes (REL), the Selmon Greenway, Meridian Avenue and Brandon Parkway. Each year, we serve nearly 4 million customers, process 78 million toll transactions and generate approximately $135 million in revenue. We reinvest that revenue back into the community through infrastructure projects and community enhancements.

As Tampa’s population and economy continue to grow and change, THEA is keeping pace through innovation, prudent investment and strong partnerships. One of the most impactful partnerships was a $27 million collaboration with the U.S. Department of Transportation (2015 to 2022) to test connected vehicle (CV) technology. The THEA CV Pilot equipped transportation infrastructure, transit vehicles and more than 1,100 volunteer drivers with technology that delivered real-time safety alerts.

The pilot demonstrated that CV technologies can save lives. Data showed that CV technology prevented 21 potential pedestrian crashes, delivered 19 red light violation warnings, avoided 17 potential vehicle collisions, alerted 14 wrong-way drivers and issued more than 20,000 safety advisories.

The lessons from the CV pilot didn’t just confirm the value of real-time information — they underscored the importance of making it accessible to every driver on our system. That insight became a springboard for our next evolution: using artificial intelligence (AI) to unify, analyze and act on data from a variety of sources so we can anticipate issues, quickly respond and deliver a safer, more seamless travel experience for all.

AI Boost

We’re fortunate that the growing adoption of AI is already helping our agency and system perform better. Our team is intentionally learning more about AI and discovering the benefits of its use in multiple ways. Efficiency gains are important because they provide savings that can be invested in improvements to infrastructure and customer service.

AI’s biggest benefit is that our people can focus on envisioning and implementing projects that enhance system safety and performance while the technology supports us by handling more of the administrative tasks. Along with improving our overall team performance in this way, AI can help us anticipate our customers’ needs before they even encounter a delay—using predictive traffic models to keep traffic flowing smoothly during high-demand events.

For example, whenever there’s a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game in the city, congestion on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway increases. In the future, by using AI, our system will know in advance when the games are scheduled. This will enable us to combine predictive models with camera and road sensor inputs and adjust dynamically to optimize traffic flow in real time. For example, if the system trigger for a backup is a grid-locked intersection five blocks off the Expressway, there may be a correlation between the vehicle volume at that secondary street intersection and the backup on the Expressway. In that case, AI will detect that relationship and automatically adjust a range of traffic signals based on the system’s behavior before a minor backup becomes a complete downtown traffic jam.

In the tolling area, AI’s impact will also be profound. To reduce instances of ambiguity regarding vehicle ID, we are embracing an AI-enhanced vehicle “fingerprinting” approach that more precisely identifies vehicles and the toll payments (or non-payments) related to them. These new technologies combine video capture with AI machine learning to develop a broad array of data points beyond the license plate, such as a vehicle’s color, make and model and details such as dents and bumper stickers. This level of detail will enable the agency to execute more efficient transactions.

Beyond handling transactions, tolling equipment can read a tremendous amount of data. It can tell us a vehicle’s speed, where it’s entering or leaving the expressway and the time of travel. Eventually, we will be able to integrate datasets shared by vehicles, in addition to reading sensors in the roadway. As we begin to map out a digital twin of the expressway, utilizing AI as a tool will enhance operations and provide us with deeper insights into our customers and assets.

THEA is strategically and intentionally investing and partnering in ways that will provide a 360-degree view of our customers across the transportation system.

Our guiding principle moving forward is that every technology system we invest in must serve two functions:  first, to fulfill its core function — such as reading a customer’s transponder—and second, to capture as much data as possible that powers AI and helps us integrate technology systems across the region.

The net result is that when someone drives in our region, we gather data from Intelligent Transportation System cameras, toll system and, in some cases, connected vehicle technology. This does more than give us three different sets of data. It also validates those datasets to provide a clearer picture of the customer’s journey and experience. With this information, we can continually improve how we serve our range of users, enhance safety and invest in the right technology and infrastructure assets.

Foundational Elements to Building Our System

We see three foundational elements as essential to building a robust system in the coming years that will benefit customers in a near-term, mixed-fleet environment:

1. Customer-centered approach – We are laser-focused on our customers, seeking to provide information to help them make decisions. Technologically, we meet them where they are. We must have options that are accessible to all of our customers, regardless of their vehicle. For drivers with advanced in-car systems, our infrastructure needs to communicate seamlessly in real time. For those without the latest technology, our system must deliver the same critical alerts and messages through channels they can easily access and act on. As a transportation agency, THEA’s main focus is on safe mobility. Our team is committed to improving overall system mobility — serving people after they’ve left the expressway to support that door-to-door journey. People park, walk, ride scooters or bikes and other modes of transportation to get to their destinations. Therefore, our integrated system mobility is a prominent factor as we work to make our assets smarter and more adaptable.
2. System-wide, 360-degree perspective – A customer may travel on transportation systems owned and operated by several entities, but that doesn’t matter as long as it gets them to their destination. By partnering, asset managers can overcome these boundaries by sharing relevant datasets and resources to gain a 360-degree view of the customer’s journey. Such a system-wide perspective will help us synchronize technologies and services to improve safety and enhance customer experience. This system-oriented approach leads to game-changing projects such as the I-4 Florida’s Regional Advanced Mobility Elements (FRAME), an integrated corridor management project that is underway. The I-4 FRAME will connect one of the state’s most heavily traveled interstates (managed by the Florida DOT and fitted with CV technology) with the Selmon Expressway (which THEA has also upgraded with CV technology). The resulting connector will complete a seamless CV-ready corridor that stretches from Tampa’s central business district to the southwest side of Orlando.
3. Readiness for better solutions through partnerships – We need the foundational elements necessary to take advantage of the coming advancements from automakers — the day that they're available. The system needs to be equipped with fiber, cameras, roadside units and communication technology to effectively integrate, whether Bluetooth, cellular or another protocol. And regardless of the car brand they’re driving, we will need to communicate with them in an agnostic way, perhaps using an open-source platform.

The Future is Now

While it is difficult to predict exactly what the system of the future will look like, we must start building it now. Our challenge is to build in a way that allows us to pivot to where the market, innovations and advancements will ultimately go.

Among its many operational benefits, the system of the future will yield tremendous safety benefits. Ultimately, it will save lives. We must be ready to yield those benefits as soon as they are available. This will require more than just investing in foundational infrastructure like fiber, the latest ITS technology. It also means investing in the data required to know every detail about the system, the customers’ journeys and how they interact with each other and the infrastructure. Data is powerful and will be essential in helping the agency create better connections with the community, offer greater access to jobs and opportunities and enhance lives in many other ways.

To achieve all of these things, the system of the future has to be adaptable, integrated and system-mobility focused. Most importantly, it should keep the people and communities at the center of it all.