The Office of Travel Management recently conducted two nationwide surveys of the traffic engineering community. The April 2000 survey was sent to agencies in the 78 largest metropolitan areas. The purpose of this survey was to determine the needs of local practitioners, to learn how important traffic signal optimization is in their agency, and to learn how FHWA can best assist practitioners especially in the area of traffic signal operation. Based on the findings of this survey, it appears that the biggest impediments to efficient local arterial management programs are staffing and monetary shortages. The most common comments deal with staff shortages that tie into budgetary constraints.
Many agencies only optimize signals on a complaint-based system.
The potential use of adaptive control strategies appears promising, however many agencies are still waiting for the benefits to be proven. The video will contain testimonials from those who have made the investment. The Arterial Operations Team is a sub group of the Operations Council. The team consists of FHWA field and headquarters staff who address Arterial Management issues. It is this teams mission to provide technical assistance and expertise to our state and local partners through outreach and awareness on issues that effect performance and operations on arterials and surface streets.