Skip to main content

New Mexico installs its first adaptive signal system

Work has begun on a US$343,000 project to install the first adaptive signal control system in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, to improve traffic flow along Alameda Boulevard, which has one of the highest traffic flows in the county. The system is a designated set of traffic signals that effectively communicate with each other and adapt to the traffic flow, reducing the frequency of red lights when traffic volume is high to improve overall traffic flow. County commissioner Lonnie Talbert said: “Up to 50,000 v
May 24, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Work has begun on a US$343,000 project to install the first adaptive signal control system in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, to improve traffic flow along Alameda Boulevard, which has one of the highest traffic flows in the county.

The system is a designated set of traffic signals that effectively communicate with each other and adapt to the traffic flow, reducing the frequency of red lights when traffic volume is high to improve overall traffic flow.

County commissioner Lonnie Talbert said: “Up to 50,000 vehicles per day travel along Alameda.  This system will improve their overall travel time on a daily basis.”

The county will install video detection cameras and the program software for the adaptive signal control system at seven major intersections to collect real-time traffic flow information. The information will be used to optimise the signal timing based on real-time traffic conditions throughout the day. Peak hour traffic flow will be improved by adjusting the green times to improve overall traffic flow while not significantly increasing the wait times on the side streets.

The recent installation of thousands of feet of fibre-optic cable helped to establish the county’s own infrastructure for voice and data communications, which will allow the county to remotely operate and monitor the system from its traffic operations office.

The system is expected to be fully activated by the beginning of September.

Related Content

  • Iteris’ focus on keeping things moving in the Bay Area
    May 31, 2016
    Iteris will use ITS America 2016 San Jose to highlight the company’s ITS solutions in the Bay Area. Santa Clara County leads the charge by using performance measurement systems at the arterial level with real-time Bluetooth data and turning movement count data.
  • New York DOT installs Sensys adaptive traffic control
    January 14, 2013
    In a bid to improve traffic flow, New York Department of Transportation (NYDOT) has installed Sensys Networks’ ACS Lite wireless traffic sensors on several streets in the city. ACS Lite is designed to provide adaptive technologies to arterial applications, calculating slight adjustments to timing patterns to optimise traffic through arterial flows. "The sensors will help with another system adapt to the times of the signal so they will change quicker and be more responsible to the current conditions," said
  • Cost Benefit: Utah traffic light scheme pays dividends
    March 15, 2019
    A traffic signal control scheme in Utah is being taken up by other US authorities. David Crawford finds out how the Beehive State is leading the way in DoT and driver savings Growing numbers of US state departments of transportation (DoTs) and their road users are gaining real financial benefits from an advanced approach to traffic signal monitoring recently developed in Utah. Central to the system is its use of automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPM) technology, brought in to improve th
  • Flir smart traffic management in Darmstadt
    October 20, 2015
    Part of a larger urban zone, the city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt, Germany, does not escape the problems of traffic congestion. In a bid to improve the situation, the city’s traffic authorities have installed more than 200 video detectors from Flir Systems, along with Flir’s video management system, Flux, which monitors the traffic streams coming from a wide variety of cameras. The city is also using various types of video sensors for vehicle, pedestrian and cycle detection, all of which are used to con