Finance committee reviews PennDOT video‑sharing agreement to access real‑time traffic cameras

The Williamsport Finance Committee on March 25 reviewed a resolution to approve a nonexclusive video‑sharing license agreement between the City of Williamsport and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) that would give city employees web access to PennDOT real‑time traffic cameras.

Committee member Liz Meeley said the agreement would provide the city with a username and login to stream PennDOT cameras. "This will actually give us a login, and we can just stream the cameras as we need them," said Sean Bastian, the staff presenter on the item, describing uses such as incident response and temporary PennDOT camera setups during Little League events.

Bastian said access is free under the contract (section 12) and is web based so no city‑installed software is required. "Section 12 ... access to the Commonwealth IP is free of charge," he said. He added the arrangement provides only live view and does not include recording or review capability: "It's just live view only. There's no recording or review capability." The committee discussed existing PennDOT cameras permanently sited in the city—one at The Spur and another on Market Street Bridge—and the ability to view other statewide cameras when needed.

Committee members asked about permitted uses and controls on credentials. Meeley and others noted the agreement includes standard restrictions on rebroadcast and credential sharing; Bastian said requests for new logins would route through him and a PennDOT contact named Brandy. "So the request could come through me, and I have a contact at PennDOT, Brandy, who I've been working with," he said.

Committee members noted potential operational uses such as giving incident commanders a live view at rollover or crash scenes and suggested the feed could help with short‑term traffic counts when PennDOT places a camera within city limits. No formal committee vote or final action on the resolution was recorded in the committee discussion; staff described next steps for executing credentials and coordinating with PennDOT if the agreement moves forward to council for approval.

The committee did not discuss any up‑front costs to the city. Bastian said the agreement does not charge the city for access and that the system is web based, so "anybody, with Internet access could log in to the web page" provided they are authorized under the agreement.