FERGUSON TOWNSHIP — In an effort to address limited transportation funding and the frustration of stopping at multiple red lights along Centre Region corridors, one official suggested taking a regional approach to signal coordination.
Jeff Luck, a Patton Township supervisor, made the argument for doing so at a Council of Governments Transportation and Land Use Committee meeting earlier this month.
“We spend a lot of time driving on roads that are signalized,” he said. “We’re not going to get a lot of money for capacity issues, so we have to use efficiently what we have.”
Luck referenced state and federal funding that officials worry, in the best-case scenario, will remain flat.
PennDOT recently completed one regional project, coordinating 17 traffic signals along Atherton Street between Valley Vista Drive in Patton Township and Rolling Ridge Drive in College Township. Such projects are identified through a regional operation plan, on which PennDOT District 2 partners with other planning and transportation organizations.
The $1 million Atherton project coordinates signals using spread spectrum radio, designed to be resistant to interference. Closed-circuit television cameras monitor traffic conditions along the corridor.
PennDOT is conducting post-project studies and plans to give a preliminary report early in 2012. Initially, overall travel time along the corridor was reduced by an average of 12 percent, according to a project information sheet.
To determine whether signal coordination would be beneficial, PennDOT District 2 spokeswoman Marla Fannin said officials consider the proximity of adjacent signals and average daily traffic. Signals can be coordinated according to peak travel times.
“For effect, optimal motorists should be driving the corridor at the posted speed limit,” she said, which is 35 mph for most of North Atherton. “Coordination of signals is intended to provide smoother, more efficient traffic flow, not to necessarily allow a driver to hit all green lights anytime they are on the road.”
Pedestrian and traffic volumes and vehicle speed make a difference in the way a coordinated system works.
The pedestrian impact is evident in the system connecting downtown State College and parts of Penn State’s campus since the mid-1990s. The project was funded with a Safety and Mobility Improvements grant and includes hard-wired signals on College, Beaver and Park avenues, Atherton Street and University Drive.
The goal was to keep traffic flowing through town, and borough engineer Amy Story said it both is and isn’t successful. When a vehicle is first in line at a red light at, say, East College Avenue and South Garner Street, once it turns green, that vehicle should be able to get to Atherton through green lights, with normal acceleration and without exceeding the speed limit.
“Unfortunately, when you get someone who parallel parks or you have to stop for a pedestrian that walks out in front of you, then your timing to get to that next signal is off,” she said. “Some times of day, it works wonderfully.”
Borough Public Works Director Mark Whitfield said the system will soon get another look, now that the South Fraser Street realignment is complete.
“Our bottleneck in the timing system was Fraser,” he said.
Patton Township also has experience coordinating its own traffic signals, starting a decade ago when the Colonnade shopping center was developed. Township manager Doug Erickson said signals on North Atherton were hard-wired together for timing coordination. The $20,000 project was low-budget and no-frills.
Signals on Waddle Road also are wired for coordination and the township is working on the timing of connected signals around the corner of Valley Vista Drive and North Atherton.
“You reduce the number of stops, you reduce the amount of delay,” Erickson said, adding such projects reduce fuel use and vehicle emissions. “If you can coordinate your will reduce those things.”
Luck’s suggestion speaks to a line in the transportation section of the region’s update to its comprehensive plan, which addresses future development. It includes a subsection goal of extending the coordination of traffic devices to additional corridors, with a long-term goal of regional coordination.
Officials from other municipalities expressed general support for the concept, and COG transportation planner Tom Zilla said staff will talk to PennDOT and municipal engineers, and identify a few corridors that would be “likely candidates.”
Jessica VanderKolk can be reached at 235-3910.
