Skip to main content

McCain to synchronise traffic signals in Temecula

The city of Temecula in California has approved McCain as the sole supplier for its citywide adaptive traffic signal synchronisation system.
February 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

The city of Temecula in California has approved 772 McCain as the sole supplier for its citywide adaptive traffic signal synchronisation system.  The project aims to improve traffic flow and safety along several of the city's major corridors, while simultaneously reducing congestion and fuel consumption.

McCain's solution, approved unanimously at last week’s city council meeting, features the company’s QuicTrac adaptive control software, which will leverage the city's existing traffic control equipment and provide a system upgrade to the current control software.

"By utilising our existing infrastructure, McCain offered us a turn-key and cost-effective solution for reducing traffic congestion," said Greg Butler, Temecula’s director of public works. "Most importantly, their solution has been successfully deployed in other regions and can integrate with Caltrans intersections, impacting drivers the moment they exit the freeway."

McCain's QuicTrac adaptive control software operates by collecting and analysing real-time data from field detectors, loops or video, to establish traffic flow and demand.  The software then runs a series of advanced algorithms to determine and coordinate optimum signal timing for the entire corridor.  By coordinating traffic signals based on current conditions, QuicTrac creates a series of green lights, expediting groups of vehicles through the arterial.

"A major cause of congestion for main arterials across the nation is that [traffic] signal coordination does not respond to prevailing traffic conditions," said Steve Brown, director of technical services for McCain.  "By implementing sophisticated monitoring and synchronising programmes, the city of Temecula will not only reduce traffic congestion but increase safety and make a positive impact on the community and the environment."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Measuring the effectiveness of winter VMS
    August 5, 2013
    A survey into the effectiveness of weather-related variable message signs on a trans-mountain highway has some interesting results, as Alexis Bacelar told ITS Europe. A study in the Massif Central region of France evaluating the usefulness of winter weather warning signs has highlighted the effect of variable message signs on driver behaviour. During the winter of 2009-2010, road operator Massif Central Direction Interdépartementale des Routes (MC DIR) started installing bad weather-specific variable messag
  • 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
  • Integrated corridor management aids multi-modal transport planning
    January 24, 2012
    Telvent’s Jorgen Pedersen and Tip Franklin discuss how integrated corridor management can create synergies within a multimodal transportation infrastructure, while promoting modal shift. The mantra ‘We cannot build ourselves out of congestion’ has long been stated and too often ignored. But with the economy in dire straits, funding deficits and pressure to reduce governmental spending, this is now being taken seriously by almost everyone who has an interest in the flow of traffic. By ‘everyone’ we include
  • Derq embarks on smart corridor project 
    December 14, 2021
    Derq software will detect 'near miss' interactions at intersections and pavements