INSTRUCTOR: Joshua Pack, P.E., T.E.

Purpose and Background

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that 75% of the nation's 260,000 traffic signal could be improved by updating signal equipment or signal timing plans. It also estimates that poor traffic signal timing accounts for 5 to 10% of all traffic delay in the United States. As a result, the National Transportation Operations Coalition gave the nation's municipalities a score of 69 (D+) for the management and operation of traffic signals in 2012, an improvement from a score of 65 (D) in 2007 and 62 (D-) in 2005.

Traffic signal timing and coordination improvements are a cost effective strategy to reduce average vehicle delay. In addition, these improvements can result in significant benefits to a community, including improved mobility and reduced travel times, reduced Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and fuel consumption, and reduced collisions and vehicle stops.

While developing signal timing and coordination may be a fairly straightforward concept, there are numerous steps necessary to ensure that your planned improvements are successfully implemented. Failure to adequately navigate these potential pitfalls can affect a jurisdiction's ability to successfully implement needed signal timing and coordination improvements.

This webinar is designed to provide a 'holistic' approach to traffic signal timing improvements that bridges the gap between fundamental traffic signal timing principals and real world applications and will help walk you through the necessary steps to avoid many of the pitfalls that doom otherwise perfectly acceptable signal timing improvement plans.

Primary Discussion Topics/Webinar Outline

While many webinars and training courses are available in developing signal timing and operation improvement plans, this unique webinar will focus on many of the steps necessary to successfully develop, implement and maintain successful signal timing improvements. These milestones include:

• Developing a consensus with elected officials, key decision makers, and the public
• Understanding traffic inequity, and how every trip is not necessarily equal
• Discuss how every significant timing improvement program has negative impacts
• Traffic Microsimulation Models, ONLY A FIRST STEP to a successful program
• Developing realistic expectations on system performance improvements
• Role of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) infrastructure in successful signal timing and coordination
• Data collection, before and after studies, and their role in a successful program
• Critical timing parameters to consider when developing signal timing and coordination
• Testing and implementing signal timing and coordination
• Developing regular system performance checks and measures
• Public outreach and customer service post project

Learning Outcomes/Webinar Benefits

Some of the key learning outcomes have been established for webinar participants:

• Know how to develop consensus prior to developing a signal coordination program and strategy and educate local officials, key decision makers and the public
• Developing realistic expectations and educating stakeholders on those expectations
• Balancing intersection and corridor improvements that maximize benefits while minimize impacts to local (side street residential) traffic
• Critical elements to consider when developing signal timing and coordination strategies
• Critical data to collect before and after timing and coordination implementation
• How to respond to public requests before and after program implementation

Intended Audience

• Public and private engineers
• Planners, technicians and administrators involved in traffic signal timing and operations
• Policy and decision makers who may have an interest in implementing signal timing and coordination improvements