Transportation equipment developer and supplier Trafficware is celebrating the presentation of a Best of ITS Texas Award to one of its Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) customers.
During this year’s Texas Intelligent Transportation Systems Annual Meeting in Houston, Trafficware customer The City of Baytown was awarded the Distinguished Service Best of ITS Award for the implementation and testing of an adaptive traffic signal network in a project that spanned two years. The fully deployed system now provides Houston metropolitan area motorists with one of the most advanced traffic management systems in the region.
Baytown is a major hub for oil refining, chemical, plastics and rubber manufacturing, and the city authorities implemented the adaptive system on some of the region’s busiest corridors that serve as vital links for a concentration of commercial and retail businesses, which had been experiencing unpredictable levels of traffic congestion.
The initiative included the deployment of a complete solution that included the installation of centrally-based Trafficware ATMS.now platform and SynchroGreen adaptive software, new Linux-based 980ATC traffic controllers, the company’s Pod wireless magnetometer detection sensors, a wireless communications network, CCTV video for monitoring real-time traffic conditions, and TrafficCast’s BlueTOAD Bluetooth-based travel time equipment for validation.
To measure the overall system effectiveness, Baytown used data from the BlueTOAD Bluetooth readers for precise, accurate and historical travel time comparisons. Before and after data clearly showed travel-time reductions averaging a healthy 20‐25%. For cost savings and to meet tight commitments, the city’s Public Works Department took ownership of the system installation and self‐installed 100% of the detection, communication and validation system.
“Communities are challenged to increase the capacity of existing roadway systems, maintaining environments conducive to healthy economic growth, and sustaining a high quality of life for the community,” explained Trafficware’s senior vice president, Jeff Spinazze.
“Baytown particularly stands out because they used independent data from TrafficCast Bluetooth readers to precisely measure and quantify results, validating the positive impact that our SynchroGreen adaptive traffic system can deliver and subsequently warrant future investments in the infrastructure.”
Trafficware’s CEO, Jon Newhard, added, “Baytown serves as a role model for other Texas communities challenged to deploy advanced traffic systems and manage increasing demands on their infrastructure network. We measure our success by the success of our customers. We congratulate the recognition that Baytown has received as we have celebrated the success of other Trafficware agencies that have received Best of ITS awards, such as Sugar Land, Texas; Palo Alto, California; and Norwalk, Connecticut.”
