One of the world’s leading providers of integrated wireless traffic detection and data systems for the transportation industry, Sensys Networks, has released a new system that measures turn movements to provide agencies with new levels of insight at intersections.
Sensys Networks has launched released SensTurn, an automatic data-collection and analytics system that optimizes the signal timing of intersections and arterial corridors based on turn movement counts.
The new system, part of the company’s widely-used SensTraffic data management platform, helps address the problem of capturing comprehensive turn movement information for a sufficient period of time.
Rather than relying on manual, error-laden counts captured for a study period of only a couple days or weeks, SensTurn automates the data collection and does so continuously over time to fully represent how traffic flows at a given intersection. The result is increased turn movement accuracy based on reliable detection and advanced data analytics.
Sensys Networks says the new SensTurn system combines the accuracy and reliability of the wireless sensor-based vehicle detection system (VDS) with the powerful data analytics and reporting capabilities of the company’s centralized SNAPS server platform. The software module can be a hosted application or run from a customer’s server. The SensTurn system includes:
• Wireless sensors, repeaters and access points comprising the VDS deployed at intersections to generate and collect vehicle detection data and signal phase data;
• Data analytics based on a minimal number of sensors at the stop-bar and in the departure lanes related to signal phasing and lane movements;
• Browser-based SNAPS server application to provide a rich suite of 24×7 intersection turn movement count reports that can be flexibly aggregated over different months of year, days of week, and time of day; and
• A one-click software ‘button’ that creates a Synchro-ready file of turn movement counts for selected busy periods.
The company notes that SensTurn provides high availability of the data with minimal demand for agency resources. The system enables intersection signal timing to be transformed from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’, keeping existing controllers and operations.
SensTurn provides traffic agencies with a system to achieve reduced traffic delays and greenhouse gas emissions, while saving large amounts of investment by avoiding or delaying expensive road expansion projects. SensTurn is readily scaled to support the company’s full suite of SensTraffic applications: SensDiag, SensFlow, SensID, and SensMetrics.
“Thanks to SensTurn, a traffic engineer responsible for retiming the signals has all of the 24/7/365 data available and can view it aggregated by time-of-day, day-of-week and by month,” explained Christopher Flores, Sensys Networks’ director of product management. “Then with a simple click of a button, an accurate report of turn movements can be exported as a Synchro-ready file for any selected time period.”
