Arterial Systems Management and Operations
Recent Events | Arterial Operations Video | Arterial Operations Toolbox
Arterial Management:
- It promotes the efficient and effective movement of people and goods
- And improves the safety of the traveling public and environment
Informational Links:
Arterial Operations Team
The Arterial Operations Team is a sub group of the Operations Council. The team consists of FHWA field and headquarters staff who address Arterial Management issues. It is this teams mission to provide technical assistance and expertise to our state and local partners through outreach and awareness on issues that effect performance and operations on arterials and surface streets. For further information contact: pam.crenshaw@fhwa.dot.gov
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An Arterial Operations Toolbox
Contains catalogs to help Traffic Engineers acquire the tools and available software packages to optimize their traffic signals, the Arterial Operations video, primers, handbooks, and adaptive control information.
Recent Events
Available Now:
FHWA Announces Video Telling
Benefits of Traffic Signal Retiming
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced the availability of a new video showing that retiming traffic signals is one of the more cost-effective techniques available to state and local agencies in their efforts to manage congestion and growing travel demand.
The video, "It's About Time, Traffic Signal Management: Cost-Effective Street Capacity and Safety," demonstrates how signal timing on roads can improve air quality while reducing fuel consumption, decreasing traffic congestion, and saving time for commercial and emergency vehicles. It also shows that retiming can reduce aggressive driving behavior and the number of severe accidents.
"We are pleased to make this video available to our partners in states and localities across America," said Christine Johnson, FHWA's Operations Program Manager. "We think they will find the success stories featured in the video to be both informative and persuasive."
In the video, three local officials describe their experiences with this low-cost approach to transportation improvement and provide 'real world' validation for the concepts discussed in the film. The officials are Mayor Paul Schell of Seattle; Richard Plastino, director of public works in Lakewood, Colo.; and John Poorman, staff director for the Capital District Transportation Committee in Albany, NY.
Two-thirds of all highway miles in the United States are roads with traffic signals. According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the United States has about 300,000 traffic signals. The performance of about 75 percent of them could be improved easily and inexpensively by updating equipment or by simply adjusting the timing.
A copy of the video can be obtained from Pamela Crenshaw at the FHWA, pam.crenshaw@fhwa.dot.gov.
The Survey Said...
The Office of Travel Management conducted two nationwide surveys of the traffic engineering community. The April 2000 survey was sent to agencies in the 78 largest metropolitan areas. This survey asked agencies about their perception of Adaptive Traffic Signal Control strategies (SCOOT,SCATS, RT TRACS, ACS) and their likeliness to use adaptive control. Of the 97 respondents, 70% listed the high cost of implementation as a reason for not using, 40% of the non-users were not convinced or not aware of the potential benefits, over 50% of the users were satisfied with the operations, maintenance and measured benefits of using adaptive control.
In July 2000, traffic engineering practitioners who are members of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) were surveyed through the Traffic Engineering and ITS Councils. The purpose of this survey was to determine the needs of local practitioners, to learn how important traffic signal optimization is in their agency, and to learn how FHWA can best assist practitioners especially in the area of traffic signal operation. Based on the findings of this survey, it appears that the biggest impediments to efficient local arterial management programs are staffing and monetary shortages. The most common comments deal with staff shortages that tie into budgetary constraints. Many agencies only optimize signals on a complaint-based system. The potential use of adaptive control strategies appears promising, however many agencies are still waiting for the benefits to be proven. The likeliness to use adaptive control will increase when system can be deployed as a low cost/simple modification to closed loop or existing systems.
For the full results of the survey go to:
http://www.nawgits.com/fhwa/artmgt_survey.html
