# Presentation: 002446

## Investing in Traffic Signals?

- Paul R. Olson, P.E., PTOE
- _[Paul.Olson@fhwa.dot.gov](mailto:Paul.Olson@fhwa.dot.gov)_

## Disclaimer

- I have NO answers!
- Only YOU have the answer!

## Poor Operations 

- Increased Crash Frequency
- Increased Travel Times....
- Economic Impacts
- Traffic Diversion to Side Streets
- Citizen Complaints
- Non-Compliance
- Viscous Circle of Congestion

## Better Operations

- Delay would decrease by 15 to 40%
- Travel time would reduce up to 25%
- Emissions would reduce up to 22%
- Fuel use would reduce up to 10%
- B/C ratios up to 40:1

**Your Mileage May Vary !**

## What does this all mean?

- How do these numbers relate?
- 30 minute travel time => 7 min saved
- 20 MPG => 22 MPG
- Do you individually measure these?
- Can drivers recognize these savings?

## Can you believe this?

- B/C Ratios of 100+/1
- Fuel savings of 847,950 gallons
- Stops reduced by 36,085,590
- Delay reduced by 745,490
- Reduced operations costs by $13,376,556

- Public perception is key!

## However......

- We can’t make cars disappear
- Traffic volumes will still increase (maybe)
- We can’t fix poor land use decisions
- Our duty to achieve maximum benefit?
- We may be overselling and not delivering.

- No Silver Bullet!
- Not a one shot deal!

## Investments in Signals

- How Much is needed?
- Where will the $$ come from?
- Do you know if the investment worked?
- Will public see results?
- Will more $$ solve the problem?
- How do we define good operations?

## Audience Participation Required!

- Don’t be shy.
- Your input is valid.
- Your input is important.

- United We Stand
- Divided We Fall
- This is a group exercise!

## How Much $$?	

- How much are you currently spending per intersection?
- Recent survey data
- High $18,000
- Average $7,500
- Low $1,500

## How many people?

- How many engineers per signal
- How many techs per signal
- What is the level of expertise
- How much time is really spent on operating the system?

## Recent Data

|  | Signals | Ops $ | Maint   $ | Staff     | NTOC |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| High | 220 | 568 | 12,000 | 7 | C- |
| Ave | 240 | 2000 | 7,500 | 7 | C- |
| Low | 114 | 6400 | 1,000 | 4 | D |

- Huh?

## What is the Key?

- Is big spender best operator?
- Is spend thrift worst operator?
- Is the number of people key?
- Is the spread Hi/Low important?
- Where would you fit?
- How do we explain the data?
- How we translate into an action plan?

- See Handout

## Questions, Questions, Questions

- How do we know how much to invest?
- How do we decide where to invest?
- Do you know if that investment accomplished its intended goal?
- Is your program linked to system size?
- Shouldn’t we attempt to measure this?

- Maybe?

## Performance Measures

- What is your current #1 measure?
- What do you really want to know?
- What does the public really want?
- Do we have a goal at all?
- What is your plan for the future?

- How much are folks willing to pay?

## Complications

- We don’t really have a plan
- We don’t know what to measure
- We haven’t been successful at telling our tale.
- NTOC Report Card
- 1990’s GAO and other reports
- No real vocal constituency

## What do we know?

- Investing in signal operations is good.
- We can see the results.
- We do have a few measures.
- We try to promote this.

- But!

## We have limitations

- We are not English Majors
- We are not Poly Sci Majors
- We are not PR experts
- We ARE Engineers and Technicians

## We Should Invest In

- Developing a long range program
- Performance measures
- Long term system monitoring
- Long term data archiving
- Building constituency
- PR to sell the program
- People to make the systems work

## Conclusion

- We have a lot of work to do
- We may not know where to start
- We don’t even have a plan
- Not easy tell how much $$ is needed
- You can’t change this alone

**Only You Can Change This!**