It connects to 167 traffic signals with over 16 miles of fiber optic
cables. With it, engineers can adjust the timing of traffic lights –and
your commute- via mobile phones and web browsers. It can predict
traffic patterns at any hour of the day. It’s so intelligent it can
tell engineers when parts of it are broken. And it’s all controlled out
of one futuristic command center on Valencia Blvd.
These are just a few of the features and technologies employed at the
City of Santa Clarita’s new $3.4 million Traffic Operations Center,
unveiled to the public on Thursday at City Hall.
From Soledad and Sierra Highway to Valencia Blvd and McBean, engineers at the TOC can monitor traffic conditions throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. At 14 major intersections, movable video cameras pipe real-time traffic images back to City Hall, allowing engineers to monitor and detect problems as they happen.
“The main purpose of this whole system is to make our traffic signals operate in optimal condition,” said City Traffic Engineer Andrew Yi. “It helps traffic flow on city streets.”
The TOC, located on the third floor of City Hall, is packed with two large plasma-televisions, a row of four computer flat screens, and a closet full of computer servers, GPS equipment, and communications lines. Engineers who walk by the room can view row after row of traffic camera images at a glance through a window in the hall.
The center, funded in large part by grant money, went online in May 2006, but it took engineers, IT staff and contractors several months to work the bugs out.
Yi, who’s background is in mathematics, demonstrated some of the features of the system.
“People may complain that they stay at a traffic light for 5 or 10 minutes. With this system we can go back and look at if there was a problem” at certain intersections Yi said.
Yi then asked Assistant Traffic Engineer Cesar Romo to pull up recorded video footage of an intersection from Sunday night. A dimly lit intersection became visible on the plasma screen, and Yi explained that the sensor readings on the video indicated the intersection was functioning normally.
No Information Overload
In any information system that receives real-time input, there’s a risk that engineers and operators will be drowned in a sea of data. But the City’s new traffic system avoids that problem and even allows for engineers to make predictions about traffic.
‘Just receiving a lot of data is not necessarily good. You have to know how to mix it, massage it, and utilize it. All this information is helping us to forecast traffic changes, volumes, and conditions,” on Santa Clarita’s roads Yi said.
Sensors on Sierra Highway near a residential development, for instance, detected over 2,400 vehicles traveling south bound per hour in the morning yesterday. At 5 p.m., the same sensors detected over 1,500 vehicles traveling northbound per hour –presumably residents on their way home after work- allowing traffic engineers to model future traffic patterns.
Remote Management and Control
Access to the new high tech system is not limited to staff inside City Hall. After hours, in an emergency, or while out of town, engineers can log into the TOC from anywhere in the world, even on a mobile phone.
“We don’t even have to be in the office to monitor traffic,” Romo said, while viewing live video footage of Sierra Highway and Soledad on his smart cell phone.
Romo then tapped the tiny screen several times with a stylus and forced the camera at Soledad & Sierra to point south rather than east. The corresponding camera image changed on his phone and the plasma screen.
System not used for surveillance
Such powerful and comprehensive technology might give privacy advocates pause. Yi said the City uses the TOC strictly for traffic monitoring and not for surveillance. When asked if the City was responsible for keeping camera footage in the case of a traffic accident or crime, Yi said no.
“This system is for traffic monitoring and traffic operations. We’re not using this for surveillance,” Yi said.
Yi said only two City traffic engineers have access to the system, though a fact sheet given to reporters at the TOC indicates that the Sheriff’s Department has access to it as well. All access is password protected, according to Romo.
"Why can't they synchronize these lights?!"
One of the most frequent complaints traffic engineers hear from residents is that traffic lights on a given roadway in the SCV are not synchronized or coordinated. But Yi says that’s not the case. “All 167 signals in Santa Clarita are coordinated.”
Motorists may not realize it, but there are also several intersections in the Santa Clarita Valley that are not controlled by the City. In Stevenson Ranch, for example, lights are controlled by the County of Los Angeles, while traffic lights near freeway on ramps are controlled by CalTrans.
Despite this multi-agency arrangement, Romo and Yi said the City is making progress in coordinating the lights it controls with the lights the County and Cal Trans control. “At the Old Road in Stevenson Ranch, where McBean crosses over the freeway, we’re trying to coordinate the signals between the County, Cal Trans, and the City,” Yi said.
Center helps manage emergencies
The system was given its first big test last month on October 2nd when a widespread power outage struck the SCV. Though the TOC did not have a backup generator or battery system at the time, once electrical power came back on, traffic engineers were able to manage the effects of the power outage.
“As soon as the power came back up, we changed the signal timing in Valencia to force the traffic out,” said Yi. The engineer said that the TOC system allows staff to react in real-time to situations on Santa Clarita’s roads.
In the future, Yi said he hopes that each traffic signal will have its own battery backup, enabling engineers to manage traffic lights even during a power outage.
The Traffic Operations Center was 65% funded by grant money with the remainder funded by the City.
City unveils intelligent traffic management system
City unveils intelligent traffic management system
Attributed to Jeff Wilson (editor-supplied)
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