Investing in Traffic Signals

1. Investing in Traffic Signals? Paul R. Olson, P.E., PTOE Paul.Olson@fhwa.dot.gov

2. Disclaimer

3. Poor Operations Increased Crash Frequency Increased Travel Times�. Economic Impacts Traffic Diversion to Side Streets Citizen Complaints Non-Compliance Viscous Circle of Congestion

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. Audience Participation Required! Don�t be shy. Your input is valid. Your input is important.

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

11. 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?

12. Recent Data

13. What is the Key? 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?

14. 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?

15. 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?

16. 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

17. 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.

18. We have limitations We are not English Majors We are not Poly Sci Majors We are not PR experts We ARE Engineers and Technicians

19. 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

20. 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