The City of Colorado Springs, in collaboration with El Paso County and various academic, research, and private industry partners, received a 1.7-million-dollar SMART Grant to test leading edge technology. This work aims to enhance traffic safety, reduce congestion, and optimize traffic flow by using advanced sensor technologies such as radar, LiDAR, and video analytics.
Background
In the 2000s, the City of Colorado Springs identified the need for an alternative to the 170 controllers. An in-house team consisting of field technicians, traffic engineers, and an electrical engineer developed a PC/104-based controller, which was prototyped, tested to CALTRANs standards, and then deployed city wide. In a continuous effort to keep improving, the city expanded its capabilities by integrating telemetry data from Wavetronix Advance sensors - allowing for real-time updates on vehicle speed and distance. The telemetry-based traffic control system, implemented in 2016, focused on optimizing traffic flow and safety. These efforts laid the foundation for the current Perception-Based Adaptive Traffic Management project, which aims to integrate advanced sensor technologies and develop intelligent infrastructure to support safer intersections, the integration of autonomous vehicles, and enhance overall traffic management.
Purpose/Goals/Benefits
The primary purpose of this project is to improve traffic management and safety in the City of Colorado Springs and El Paso County. The goals include:
- Enhancing traffic safety by reducing intersection-related accidents and improving protection for vulnerable road users.
- Reducing congestion and optimizing traffic flow to decrease travel delays and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Creating a scalable and replicable model for traffic management that can be implemented in various contexts.
The benefits of this project include improved safety for all road users, reduced emergency response times, and enhanced efficiency of the transportation system.
Funding
The project is partially funded through the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant program from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The City was awarded $1.7 million for Stage 1.