Skip to main content

Multi-million dollar system to ease Columbus’ congestion

Columbus, Ohio is to benefit from a US$38.1 million traffic management system to replace the one installed in the 1970s to allow the city to respond more quickly to problem areas and speed up travel throughout Columbus and even in its suburbs. The new system will wrap all signals into a single network. More data will funnel to new software in the traffic-management center, where operators can decide how to handle traffic congestion. Nearly 500 miles of fibre-optic cable will run to most traffic signals, and
April 3, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Columbus, Ohio is to benefit from a US$38.1 million traffic management system to replace the one installed in the 1970s to allow the city to respond more quickly to problem areas and speed up travel throughout Columbus and even in its suburbs.

The new system will wrap all signals into a single network. More data will funnel to new software in the traffic-management center, where operators can decide how to handle traffic congestion.

Nearly 500 miles of fibre-optic cable will run to most traffic signals, and others will sync wirelessly with the new system. The number of cameras posted around the city will triple from fifty to 150, while six, 60-inch monitors will display camera feeds and other data will go up in the new command centre.

“It definitely will make the commute smoother,” said Patti Austin, a city planning and operations administrator.

Upgraded software will give the city power to move traffic along during big events, Austin said.

“We’re pretty limited in what we can do certain times of day,” said project manager Ryan Bollo. “This new software will be able to cover whole corridors and have pre-timed systems we can run any time of day.”

Related Content

  • Xerox takes youthful view of future transport
    August 23, 2016
    Xerox’s David Cummins talks to Colin Sowman about the lessons for city authorities from its survey of younger peoples’ attitude to transport. There can be no better way to get a handle on the future of transport demand than to ask the younger generation about how they view and consume today’s transport. Sociologists have called this group Generation Z – those born between 1995 and 2007 – which will make up 40% of all US consumers by 2020.
  • Congestion charge: Big Changes in the Big Apple
    July 11, 2023
    New York City is falling in line with other major global cities in charging drivers for using its streets, writes Adam Hill: the Central Business District Tolling Program is on its way. Probably
  • Mexico’s Durango-Mazatlan highway sets tunnel safety standard
    August 26, 2016
    Mauro Nogarin looks at the management of the longer tunnels on Mexico’s Durango-Mazatlan highway. In recent years the National Infrastructure Fund of Mexico has increased investment in the installation of ITS systems on selected highways to increase road safety. One such major investment is the 230km long Durango-Mazatlan highway which is 12m in width and has an average speed of 110km/h.
  • Why integrated traffic management needs a cohesive approach
    April 10, 2012
    Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App