MS2 Press

You may have missed it, but in addition to being April Fool’s Day, this April 1st was also National Census Day.  What you probably haven’t missed are all the TV and radio ads talking about the importance of filling out the forms and how it can benefit your community.  Beyond all the publicity, the Census is really just a national housekeeping effort to make sure congressional seats and federal funding are allocated proportionately to populations throughout the U.S.

In the transportation field, a similar effort occurs with traffic signal retimings / optimizations.  The traffic signal retiming process involves collecting current traffic volumes and properly allocating green time to the various signal phases.  While most road agencies have programs to keep their traffic counts current, the subsequent retiming of traffic signals to reflect those current traffic volumes is an effort that is sorely lacking.

In fact, the National Transportation Operations Coalition gave the nation a D for overall traffic signal operations in the most recent National Traffic Signal Report Card (2007).  A primary reason for the poor grade was cited as outdated traffic signal timings.  Traffic signal timings are recommended to be reviewed at least every three years.  The reality is that many traffic signals can go several years, even decades between timing changes. The Report Card report estimates that these outdated traffic signal timings account for approximately 5 to 10 percent of all traffic delay or 295 million vehicle-hours of delay each year on major roadways alone.  With the benefits outweighing the costs by an estimated 40:1 or more, additional investments should be made into traffic signal retiming / optimization projects. 

So let the Census serve as a reminder to retime those traffic signals, just don’t wait until the 2020 Census before retiming them again.