City of Kent to take on traffic signal update project
The city of Kent will update the traffic signals on Water St. to a computerized system in 2018.
Water Street will be updated and will gain some modernized changes over the course of this year. Three traffic signal will be replaced and connected by a fiber optic cable going all the way from Rt. 261 to Summit street.
“This is predominantly a signal project. We will be replacing the traffic signals at School Street, Bowmen and Cherry,” Jim Bowling, the City Engineer said. “We will be modifying the signal at that location and putting them on the inner-connected system.”
The system will run on a fiber optic cable buried along the distance of the project. This cable connects data from the traffic signals and sends it to the traffic engineer’s office where the overall function will be monitored and maintained.
The current system does not allow for that kind of monitorization. “Right now they are on a timer, just going ‘tick, tick, tick’ and then it gets to a pin and the light changes color,” Bowling said.
Bowling’s full title is the Superintendent of Engineering/Deputy Service Director. Bowling supervises the engineering division, which is responsible for planning and implementing the capital improvement projects for the city. He also maintains city standards and records and assists all other departments.
In addition to the three new traffic signals, this will allow for connection to lights that are already updated and to integrate them into the system. “That will take all those that aren’t connected and connect them to our system so that we can actually look at them all and, make sure they’re functioning properly,” Bowling said.
In order for the wire that connects the lights to the system some construction on the side of the street will take place. “In addition to the signals, when we place the wire, we’re basically digging up the ground, we’re going to take out a sidewalk. The entire length of it and replace it and then we will be adding another turn lane coming up 261 to 43 south,” Bowling said.
The turn lane is expected to help with the congested traffic area and allow for drivers to turn left quicker. In addition, the part of School street next to McDonalds on Rt. 43 will also be constructed with pavement and curb work. “So we’re going to make it un-bizarre, really were going to make it look permanent, because right now it looks temporary,” Bowling said.
Bowling expects this part of the project to take roughly 15 months.
“Today’s traffic engineers are starting to give the humble signal new responsibilities—programming them to not only react to the flow of traffic, but also to predict driver behavior,” Keith Barry, of citylab.com, said. “The signals of the not-so-distant future may help cities cut congestion without adding lanes or building new roads.”
To determine which roads will be repaired the pavement condition index is referred to. The pavement condition is rated every two to three years Bowling said. A rating from zero to 100 is assessed on what Bowling describes as rigid criteria. Simply put the better the street, the higher the number will be.
“So the first thing we do is look at what streets are the worst on the list. Then there is that factor, but we also layer in the volume of traffic,” Bowling said. “For instance, a cul-de-sac street with six homes, the pavement condition, will accept getting worse than say, State Route 43 with 20,000 cars a day on it.”
Another major factor that comes into play, is where funding is being pulled from which can range from federal funds to grants. For State Route 43 the funding is a collaborative effort between the city and The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT.)
The city receives the federal funding, so with this project ODOT’s role was to review the environmental documents, the overall plans and the right-of-way plans. In addition they oversee the way the money is spent Justin Chesnic, ODOT District fours Public Information Officer, said.
“Basically they (ODOT) come to us and say look we will pave this street, we will pay 80 percent of it you need to pay 20 percent of it, it’s a yes or no question. If it’s a no they leave and you have to do it on your own,” Bowling said.
ODOT goes through a rating system to determine which streets to repair as well. They use a pavement condition rating versus a pavement condition index that the city uses. It operates similarly, with a 0-100 rating, which is used to balance all needs in said ODOT district and is funded through the state said Bowling. Whether the roads have federal significance or regional significance is determined by the locals municipality organization, the Federal Highway Administration and the ODOT.
“There is a lot that goes into becoming federally classified. The roads that are federally classified could access federal cash tax dollars to pay and that is a competitive process to get. It is maintained by the municipal planning organization,” Bowling said.
The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study oversees the Portage and Summit County areas which provides them the ability to submit certain streets to be paved, to receive grant money for the projects.
By the end of 2018 around half of the traffic signals in Kent are expected to be on the central control system, with the completion of the State Route 43 improvement that will bump up to two-thirds.
History & Use of Computer-Controlled Traffic Systems
Safety concerns, congestion and air quality control, all of these factors are included when determining whether a city should implement new computer-controlled traffic signals. As these concerns increase, so does the need to emphasize need for better traffic control, at intersections which have increasingly old and inefficient traffic signals. Today, computer applications are designed to help improve and create better controlled and operating traffic signals to provide effective traffic control. When a city inputs an interconnected system as accurate and optimal as today’s traffic control technology, the benefits can be substantial.
“A digital computer-controlled signal system, as exists today, can vary from as small as 20-30, to 700-800 intersections.” The technology available is highly efficient and accurate at creating working patterns for complex intersection systems.
Digital computerized traffic control tools, which first became available in the 1950’s, have gone through various updates since their original release. Computer-controlled systems have gone through two different generations before arriving at the system we use today.
Use of First Generation Computer-Controlled Systems:
- Interpreting and analyzing detected traffic parameters like: speed,
volume, occupancy, etc. - Searching from tables of timing patterns previously designed for
incremental demand conditions the optimal timing plan for the
detected level of demand. - Sending appropriate signals to the controllers for implementing
selected timing patterns. - Monitoring the implemented plans.
- Accumulating, analyzing and summarizing traffic data for offline
analysis. - Detecting equipment failure and reporting in the form of printed
copy and audible alarm, etc.
Use of Second Generation Computer-Controlled Systems
- The second generation of computer-controlled traffic signal systems
perform on-line design of optimal signal-timing plans for the entire
and/or part of a system besides the functions as noted in the first
generation system. - Use of a digital computer as a traffic control tool is relatively recent; however, analog computers have been in use for quite some time. Still, communities with a limited number of signals tend to favor an analog system rather than a digital computer system.
- Some of the package systems offered by system suppliers today are so compact and easy to operate and maintain that it is worthwhile to use digital computers for even 20 to 30 signals as a system.
New Mini Computers
- In recent years the manufacturers of digital computers have de-
veloped mini computers with a memory capacity from 4K. - This enabled the system designers to put together compact small systems.
- The communication system consists of controller and computer interface units, and communication interconnection.
- The interface units are mostly solid state and are purchase items. The interconnection can be either owned lines or leased telephone lines. Type of multiplexing used through a communication line may be either frequency-division multiplexing or time-division multiplexing, both having advantages and disadvantages.
Source: “Application of Digital Computers in Traffic Signal Systems,” by Dr. Tapan K. Datta, assistant professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
