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

  • April 11, 2022
    Yunex takes control in Miami-Dade
    Seven-year ATMS upgrade begins with mass deployment of traffic controllers in US county
  • June 22, 2016
    Enforcement comes in many guises
    Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world. It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.
  • March 19, 2014
    New opportunities in a data-rich future
    Jason Barnes looks at where the detection and monitoring sector is heading. In the future, there will be no such thing as an un-instrumented road. Just a short time ago, that could have been a quote from a high-level policy document but with the first arrivals of vehicles with 802.11p connectivity – the door-opener to Vehicle-to-X (V2X) applications – it’s a statement which has increasing validity. The technology which uses our roads will also provide information on road conditions but V2X isn’t the only
  • June 12, 2015
    Close shave for Brazilian project
    Signing the order to equip a new control room just 45 days before the city hosts a major sporting event is challenging - but some deadlines just cannot be moved. There is nothing like a deadline to concentrate minds and effort as Mitsubishi and the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte discovered in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup. Although municipal authorities had been considering a new command centre for years, it was the hosting of the World Cup last summer that provided the final impetus.