NORFOLK, Va. — Transportation leaders in Norfolk have been planning, and now implementing, an upgrade to the city’s traffic control network for the last six years.
Project Manager Olga Beltsar said they’re about to complete an overhaul of the hardware and software that control signals and lights across the city.
The system they used to use -- and that many cities still do -- lacks intuition and the ability to tailor a light or an entire corridor to keep traffic moving efficiently.
A common problem is an internal clock for a signal being thrown off.
“That’s what allows us to synchronize our traffic signals,” said Beltsar. “If you’re going down a corridor and you’re expecting to get greens at the right time, you have to have the controllers on the same clock for that to work well.”
In order to fix a mistimed traffic light, someone would have to go out to said light and manually change its internal clock. With the new system upgrade, that will no longer be the case.
They can do it all remotely now.
The new system is also capable of detecting traffic patterns also. That allows them to give the right amount of time to the right directions of traffic at a light.
“So we’re not giving a green to a direction that doesn’t have any cars,” said Beltsar. “While another direction is waiting with a long queue of cars.”
The project also includes new cameras at 89 intersections.
The cameras will allow them to monitor traffic conditions remotely and change light patterns in real-time, rather than having to wait for an accident to be called in before traffic flow is improved.