The Indiana Division

Investing in Traffic Signals?

Paul R. Olson, P.E., PTOE

Paul.Olson@fhwa.dot.gov

Disclaimer

I have NO answers!

Only YOU have the answer

Poor Operations

• Increased Crash Frequency
• Increased Travel Times….
• Economic Impacts
• Traffic Diversion to Side Streets
• Citizen Complaints
• Non-Compliance
• Viscous Circle of Congestion

Better Operations

• Delay would decrease by 15 to 40%
• Travel time would reduce up to 25%
• Emissions would reduce up to 22%
• Fuel use would reduce up to 10%
• B/C ratios up to 40:1

Your Mileage May Vary!

What does this all mean?

• How do these numbers relate?
• 30 minute travel time => 7 min saved
• 20 MPG => 22 MPG
• Do you individually measure these?
• Can drivers recognize these savings?

Can you believe this?

• B/C Ratios of 100+/1
• Fuel savings of 847,950 gallons
• Stops reduced by 36,085,590
• Delay reduced by 745,490
• Reduced operations costs by $13,376,556

Public perception is key!

However……

• We can’t make cars disappear
• Traffic volumes will still increase (maybe)
• We can’t fix poor land use decisions
• Our duty to achieve maximum benefit?
• We may be overselling and not delivering.

No Silver Bullet!
Not a one shot deal!

Investments in Signals

• How Much is needed?
• Where will the $$ come from?
• Do you know if the investment worked?
• Will public see results?
• Will more $$ solve the problem?
• How do we define good operations?

Audience Participation Required!

• Don’t be shy.
• Your input is valid.
• Your input is important.

United We Stand
Divided We Fall
This is a group exercise!

How Much $$?

• How much are you currently spending per intersection?
• Recent survey data
• High $18,000
• Average $7,500
• Low $1,500

How many people?

• How many engineers per signal
• How many techs per signal
• What is the level of expertise
• How much time is really spent on operating the system?

Huh?

What is the Key?

See Handout

• Is big spender best operator?
• Is spend thrift worst operator?
• Is the number of people key?
• Is the spread Hi/Low important?
• Where would you fit?
• How do we explain the data?
• How we translate into an action plan?

Questions, Questions, Questions

• How do we know how much to invest?
• How do we decide where to invest?
• Do you know if that investment accomplished its intended goal?
• Is your program linked to system size?
• Shouldn’t we attempt to measure this?

Maybe?

Performance Measures

• What is your current #1 measure?
• What do you really want to know?
• What does the public really want?
• Do we have a goal at all?
• What is your plan for the future?

How much are folks willing to pay?

Complications

• We don’t really have a plan
• We don’t know what to measure
• We haven’t been successful at telling our tale.
• NTOC Report Card
• 1990’s GAO and other reports
• No real vocal constituency

What do we know?

• Investing in signal operations is good.
• We can see the results.
• We do have a few measures.
• We try to promote this.

BUT!

We have limitations

• We are not English Majors
• We are not Poly Sci Majors
• We are not PR experts
• We ARE Engineers and Technicians

We Should Invest In

• Developing a long range program
• Performance measures
• Long term system monitoring
• Long term data archiving
• Building constituency
• PR to sell the program
• People to make the systems work

Conclusion

• We have a lot of work to do
• We may not know where to start
• We don’t even have a plan
• Not easy tell how much $$ is needed
• You can’t change this alone

Only You Can Change This!