By Staff
August 2nd, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Sitting in your car at an intersection waiting for the light to change in your favour is part of being in a city that experiences some grid lock
That is, hopefully, in the process of changing. As part of the Integrated Mobility Plan, Transit Signal Priority (TSP) aims to align our transportation network with our City’s long range mobility objectives.
A team, led by Steve Vrakela (Supervisor – Traffic Signals) in partnership with Burlington Transit, Tacel Ltd, and Applied Information Inc. has commenced the testing of V2X at city intersections.
Tacel provides much of the hardware while Applied Information, an American based company handles the software side in tandem with Tacel. They are using AI level software that figures out a lot of the processing of traffic information. Getting into the details is quite exciting. Well maybe not exciting – but certainly interesting. Give the installation a couple of more months and we will all get to experience the improvements.
One cup of coffee and a search of other jurisdictions tells me that $10k per intersection on a well-travelled transit route will shave off an optimum 10% from the journey, all examples of these journey benefits range from -38% to + 25% only one site mentioned that the downside to this, was an increase in traffic on side roads as drivers sought solutions to hold-ups.
Will there be a reciprocal arrangement for improvement of pedestrian ability to cross major roads or is the priority the car?
Traffic congestion at intersections is often caused by the conflict of pedestrian traffic and turning vehicles. A three way traffic pattern, one light for pedestrians in all directions, one for east/west vehicles (including turn lanes) and a third for north/south (including turn lanes) could potentially speed everyone through intersections in a more safe environment. Perhaps a test pilot on this would provide some interesting feedback.