How Minor Tweaks to Traffic Networks Can Translate into City-Wide Benefits

STELLA WILHELM, TRAFFIC OPERATIONS VIA MIOVISION BLOG (JUL 4, 2019)

When it comes to improving a city’s traffic network, there seems to be a common perception that the only way to truly affect change is by spending massive amounts of money to fix major infrastructure problems. However, using the traffic data we collect here at Miovision, we’ve proven the exact opposite to be true. We’ve helped cities reduce congestion and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and improve traffic flow all by making minor tweaks to their traffic networks. We’ve worked directly with cities, agencies, and engineering firms across North America and around the world to implement Miovision technology and achieve impressive results.

The work engineering firm DRMP is doing in Florida, is just one example. Upon completing a signal retiming project along two major corridors in Escambia County, DRMP gathered data using Miovision TrafficLink to provide the traffic team with a before-and-after study that detailed improvements along both corridors. Following the retiming project, the data showed minor changes could be made to improve progression, resulting in staggering cost and emissions savings. When calculated cumulatively, the savings equaled $7 million dollars in delay and fuel savings over three years. You can dig deeper into the details by reading the full Case Study. This is a great example of our permanent hardware solution providing real-world results to solve traffic problems. But, we’re also able to help cities and engineering firms who use our portable traffic data collection units.

A great example of our portable Miovision Scout solution in action can be seen through the results of our Case Study featuring Imperial Traffic & Data Collection (Imperial) and their work using traffic volume counts and travel time data from Miovision to quantify the benefits of signal timing changes in Burlington, New Jersey.

We know that signal retiming studies can help identify opportunities to improve mobility, but it’s often difficult to measure the ROI on these types of studies leading cities to delay the process and only re-time signals once every three-to-five years. Imperial wanted to showcase the benefits of using traffic volume counts and travel time data collected using Miovision Scout with Connect, to quantify the results of a signal retiming study for their clients. Among other benefits, their analysis revealed a measurable reduction in fuel consumption and improved travel times for citizens. And, once again, this was all done thanks to minor signal timing changes to a traffic network that resulted in hugely positive impacts to the city.

These are just two examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of Miovision solutions in the real world. Check out Miovision’s resources page to learn more about how traffic data from Miovision is helping provide insight into how cities can solve complex problems like reducing GHG emissions, one small step at a time.

Source:

https://miovision.com/blog/improving-city-traffic-networks/