Milwaukee Adding Remote Control System To Its 780 Traffic Lights
City hopes to reduce backups, improve safety.
Red traffic lights at N. 27th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. with crash debris on the street. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Have you ever found yourself stuck in a long line of cars at a red light while seemingly no vehicles are going the other direction?
The Department of Public Works (DPW) hopes to alleviate your delay by installing remote control software at all 780 signalized intersections in the city of Milwaukee.
The $480,000 project is being primarily funded by a $384,000 federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant.
“This will essentially build our traffic management system if you will,” said DPW traffic engineer Scott Reinbacher to the Public Works Committee on Feb. 14.
The current system is effectively hundreds of different systems, with DPW personnel needing to go to equipment located near intersections to adjust signal timing. The new system, relying on fiber optic or cellular connections, will allow for remote control of traffic lights.
“We expect that this is going to take up to a year before we get everything fully online,” said Reinbacher. Additionally, video or microwave detection equipment is being added to intersections to allow for better real-time monitoring. “Right now, most of our detection at signalized intersections is inductive loop detectors that are essentially cables underneath the pavement.”
Microwave detection doesn’t produce an image, but instead sends a signal when a vehicle is detected in a targeted area. Video cameras, however, would provide a real-time view. “We will be able to look through those cameras and see what’s going on,” said Reinbacher. State law prevents the city from using the cameras to issue traffic enforcement citations.
Responding to a question from Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II, Reinbacher said the new equipment would also allow the city to take traffic counts for vehicles and pedestrians and determine which direction motorists turn. The resulting data, said the DPW representative, would yield an improvement in safety through changes to signal timing.
The city has yet to settle on a specific vendor, with Reinbacher appearing before the committee to secure approval to enter the procurement process. “We have explored various software packages. We haven’t made a final decision yet,” said the DPW representative. “There are a few software packages we are still investigating.”
The city’s cost for the advanced traffic management system procurement is to be $96,000. Two separate $1 million CMAQ grants were awarded to fund the installation of advanced traffic controller systems at intersections.
The management system could ultimately be used to extend light timings on roads that parallel a freeway in the event of a freeway closure, or to alleviate backups that occur after major events. The city currently addresses major backups after events like Summerfest in an expensive, ad-hoc fashion by stationing Milwaukee Police Department officers at intersections with manual control of the stoplight or hand signals.
There are already a handful of systems on the city’s streets to change traffic lights automatically, but only on a limited basis. Many intersections have an infrared signal preemption receiver that accepts a signal from an ambulance or other emergency vehicle to change the signal and cause a small light to flash. A handful of intersections along the streetcar route also rely on a GPS-based system to change the light as a vehicle approaches.
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Finally, the City is looking at traffic flow rather than traffic restriction. Can lights be synchronized so that if the main flow of traffic is traveling at the correct speed, vehicles can actually encounter all green lights on a single street? Awesome! Other cities have it, now perhaps we will be able to experience the delight of traffic flow with a minimum of red lights!
One question: 780 lights/signals or intersections with traffic lights/signals?
@Mpbehar – Intersections with traffic signals. “Signalized intersections” didn’t make for a good headline.
Facilitating an uninterrupted flow of traffic is a recipe for speeding and lots of deadly crashes. I am sure this is not the goal of this project, sorry to disappoint you, mpbehar. Uninterrupted flow is no longer the M.O. of urban traffic managers, at least in enlightened cities. Perhaps counterintuitively, “rest on red” is even being viewed as a smart tool these days. At low traffic times (think 2AM), some lights along busy streets will rest on red, to discourage speeding, and will only turn green after a car approaches, but after the car first comes to a stop.
For additional insight on pedestrian safety, see this: How Hoboken Has Gone Years Without a Traffic Death
http://tinyurl.com/tv5k43nu
David Coles, yes it is a disappointment, and I would disagree that it is a recipe for speeding. Perhaps unlike others, I’ve been frustrated by encountering repeated red lights on an arterial, even though there may be little cross traffic, and when I was driving at the recommended speed. This made me want to speed up, just to catch the green. Less idling at a red light compromises fuel economy. So in my mind, unrestricted traffic flow while traveling at the posted speed, rather than repeated red light obstructions– is less frustrating, more fuel conserving, and decreases chance for accidents. Are there traffic studies that unequivocally state otherwise? I know that speeding increases likelihood of motor vehicle crashes and injury, but I’m not talking about speed– just traffic flow through intersections while traveling at the posted speed.
@David Coles. I would think that uninterrupted flow of traffic would reduce speeding.
If a person feels that going near the speed limit will get you through the lights without stopping, then folks would have less reason to “race” to the next light to “beat” it.
After a quick search, I did not discover anything on some cities abandoning uninterrupted flow. Do you have the examples / articles about that.
Admittedly, in this country, this is a contentious topic. And our transportation policy tends to be stuck in a 1950s mentality that prioritizes cars and their fast movement (with deadly results). However, there is growing recognition of the perils of promoting “free flowing” traffic. Here are a few links for you, mkeumkenews09 and mpbehar:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-15/the-case-for-congestion
https://la.streetsblog.org/2012/10/02/in-long-beach-some-lights-rest-unless-drivers-follow-speed-limits
https://ladot.lacity.gov/coronavirus/ladot-adjusts-signals-slow-excessive-speeding