Smart traffic signals that coordinate flow may be able to help with the typical congestion on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By John Pacenti
The tourist season is almost upon us and Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue — like a bear coming out of hibernation — will soon roar to life.
Foot traffic will rival that at Disney World. Good luck with restaurant reservations. And local motorists will curse aloud, finding themselves on Atlantic, stuck in the traffic equivalent of lava, possibly wondering if they are destined to be discovered — still clutching the wheel — in the faraway future by archeologists.
Could new technology be the salvation?
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney said he is pursuing a pilot of smart traffic lights to relieve congestion on Atlantic Avenue, recently setting up a meeting with city staff and the Florida Department of Transportation.
Using old and new technology, smart signals employ sensors to collect data and modify the timing of signals according to traffic volume and velocity. Smart signals also can be used by emergency vehicles and public transportation to get them through faster, and even provide data that newer cars can use to provide drivers with better route suggestions.
“When I was running for office, one of the things I heard the most was, you know, what are we going to do about the traffic? The traffic is terrible both from a vehicular and a pedestrian experience, right?” Carney said.
At the same time, he heard about how Palm Beach County was planning test pilot programs of smart signals.
County Commissioner Gregg Weiss said there will be one pilot program in Palm Beach Gardens along Hood Road and State Road A1A. Another is planned for Okeechobee Boulevard east of Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. The state is also planning to install smart signals on State Road 7, he said.
With more high-rise development nearer the coast, cities like Delray Beach, West Palm Beach and Boca Raton are each looking at one main east-west artery into their downtowns — Atlantic Avenue, Okeechobee Boulevard and Palmetto Park Road, respectively.
Weiss said there is simply no way to build more lanes on those roads; the rights-of-way don’t exist.
“If we’re going to try to move people more efficiently and in a way that is better for the environment, then we are going to have to do some things differently,” Weiss said. “Technology is one of the ways to help us to do that in managing our traffic networks.”
Smart traffic lights use old technologies (cameras) with new (artificial intelligence) to determine the quantity and type of vehicles on the roadway.
Carney said he reached out to Palm Beach County shortly before his election in March.
“I think Atlantic Avenue is the best test area you can have because it has all the features that you’re worried about,” Carney said. “You’re worried about traffic, you’re worried about cross-traffic, you’re worried about the safety of pedestrians.”
Weiss said there was no county money this year for another pilot. Yet, as luck would have it, Carney was at an event when he ran into County Commissioner Marci Woodward, who the mayor said is heavily involved in transportation issues.
Woodward arranged a meeting with Delray Beach staffers and FDOT at the mayor’s office in late September. FDOT officials explained to the city the criteria they needed and that Delray Beach would indeed be a great test area, Carney said.
“So it’s evolving,” Carney said. “We are waiting to hear back but there is dialogue going back and forth.”
Public Works Director Missie Barletto, in an Oct. 17 email to City Manager Terrence Moore, said FDOT’s liaisons to the city were assigned hurricane recovery duties. “Once they return to the regularly assigned duties, we will be working with them to coordinate these ideas into the Swinton and Atlantic Intersection Improvement Project,” she wrote.
The discussion between FDOT and the city was to use smart signals on Atlantic from Congress Avenue east to A1A. Carney said he is excited to see how smart traffic lights can help the intersection at Swinton and Atlantic, the source of many backups.
The smart signals are pedestrian-friendly and will respond to foot traffic, decreasing jaywalking, “because the lights will be responsive as opposed to waiting to cross for two minutes when there is no traffic,” Carney said.
Weiss said public transportation would also be able to use smart signals to be more time-efficient.
The length of a bus trip would be shorter, giving people more incentive to use public transportation. That would decrease the number of cars on the road and reduce pollution, Weiss said.
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