Smart Cameras Blog

From the Chicago Tribune:

A very nice article on how Chicago is trying to deal with traffic congestion. For background on this topic, see these two posts from last year, 1 & 2.

It mentions a number of different strategies they are using. They include:

1. Installing bus-priority signal systems on CTA buses. Examples of these systems are MIRT, 3M Opticom, and Tomar Strobecom. This technology has resulted in improvements of running times from 17% to 20%, as well as ridership, according to Michael Bolton of the CTA.

2. Changeable message boards to prompt motorists to take alternative routes

3. Synchronizing traffic lights to reduce travel times

• There are 400 intersections and 60 more planned in 2006 are interconnected and synchronized
• 2000 traffic intersections synchronized out of 2800
• Interconnection allows for cameras and other technologies to monitor and modify traffic flow. This can result in a 15% improvement in travel times.
• The holy grail is “being able to adjust traffic signals in response to situations, rather than changing signal timings only at predetermined hours each day, will improve traffic flow around accidents, crime scenes and special events.”

4. They realize that sometime smart traffic technology doesn’t work:

In 2001, Chicago tested self-setting traffic signals at about a dozen River North intersections. The signals were designed to gauge congestion and automatically adjust based on the traffic flow. But the experiment was stopped after several months because the system could not process the high volume of traffic data quickly enough to relay instructions back to the traffic lights in a timely manner, Montazery said. “The concept is very promising, but there are still technology issues to be resolved,” he said.

rshah Traffic Congestion