The Department of Transportation is using monitoring technology to deal with traffic problems that have affected Lower Manhattan since the September 11th terrorist attacks. NY1's Technology reporter Adam Balkin filed the following report.

Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, there has been lots of traffic, in Lower Manhattan's narrow streets.

"There's a tremendous amount of construction activity, both public and private, and it's focused on Lower Manhattan. Obviously, the World Trade Center is a direct result of September 11th, but also the city street reconstruction program is a result of that as well," says Josh Rosenbloom of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center. "Then you also have all this private development that comes along, taking advantage of the new changes that are happening downtown."

So the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center has taken $6 million provided by the Federal Transit Administration and invested in technology to help alleviate the problem. Among the purchases were 27 traffic monitoring cameras, 13 transponder readers which can use E-ZPasses to keep tabs on traffic flow and 152 microwave traffic sensors and video detection systems that determine real-time traffic speed on local streets. The latter system is usually reserved for just heavy-use highways.

"The data will be relayed back to the city DOT's traffic management center in Long Island City, where it will then be pushed out to the city DOT and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center websites," says Rosenbloom. "It'll be available for the public to be able to identify where there are trouble spots like traffic on Broadway and when Water Street might be a better route or something of that nature."

In addition, drivers using the information to help avoid traffic in the city will use the same information to help determine what is causing the traffic in order to help alleviate it.

"There are dedicated enforcement personnel in Lower Manhattan to enforce the construction rules in Lower Manhattan," says Rosenbloom. "A big reason we're doing this is to provide those enforcement personnel with real-time impacts of construction downtown, so that they can respond more effectively and efficiently to real-time conditions."

Right now, some of the up-to-date traffic information can be found on the DOT website at www.nyctmc.org, or the LMCCC's website at www.lowermanhattan.info. Developers expect the full system to be up and running within about the next three months.