Los Angeles tinkers with signal light timing

As I posted earlier, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his sidekick, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, held a news conference this morning to announce that the city is going to adjust the timing of 60 traffic signals in Los Angeles to relieve known bottlenecks. The fix was being billed as Operation Bottleneck IV.

The idea is to give some motorists at key intersections more green-light time, which of course means some other streets will get more red. The city is already in the process of syncing all its traffic lights -- a project expected to be done in 2011 -- and that program gives the city engineers the ability to tinker more with individual lights. In this case, the idea is to get the lights to more accurately reflect traffic patterns.

The announcement was made in the city's traffic center, four stories underground in City Hall East. It's one of those cool rooms with a bunch of video monitors on the wall, and there's always a few traffic engineers diligently watching computer screens. Well, at least they are during news conferences.

Me being me, and clearly not intelligent nor caffeinated enough, I couldn't quite get my mind wrapped around the big news that lights were being adjusted. So when it was my turn to ask a question, I said:

"Not to sound like a grumpy bear, but isn't adjusting lights what these guys are supposed to be doing anyway? Or are they reading blogs all day?"

Villaraigosa agreed that I was a grumpy bear, then couldn't resist the softball I had just tossed him: "They're not reading your blog. I'm just going to be honest. The number of people who read your blog are going in the other direction, my friend."

Greuel loved that line. She practically fell over laughing at the mayor's joke. I was left wondering whose leaking my blog ratings to the mayor's office.

The mayor then turned the lectern over to John Fisher, an assistant general manager for the city's Department of Transportation. Here's his answer to my question:

"What we're doing here, Steve, is we're adding the human element to tackle the most congested intersections in the city," Fisher said. "And as you know, ATSAC [that's the city's computer system that oversees traffic signals] operates 75 percent of the signals within the city, and we're using the human element to take it one step further.

"So we're using the tool of ATSAC with the engineers knowledge of traffic patterns and analytical skills to zero in on the true bottleneck," Fisher added. "So that when you zero in on the true bottleneck that may cause congestion at other nearby locations, you then solve the problem of the bottleneck, but you also solve the problem of other intersections as well."

The mayor then jumped back in: "To put it more simply, ATSAC can do a lot of things automatically, but you still need engineers, and these are some of the highest-trained engineers anywhere in the country, and what they are doing is taking the technology of ATSAC and adding to it, adding the value of human capital and brainpower."

So there you have it. The news release and list of intersections is below. One note about the list: My understanding is that most often the busier street of each pair will get more green lights. But I'm checking to see if that's always the case.

--Steve Hymon

photo: Steve Hymon / Los Angeles Times

Operation Bottleneck IV will target the following intersections:

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA ANNOUNCES OPERATION BOTTLENECK RELIEF PHASE II AND III RESULTS AND LAUNCHES PHASE IV OF THE TRAFFIC RELIEF PROGRAM

Mayor Villaraigosa to reduce traffic delays and cut commuter wait times through the Operation Bottleneck Relief program by adjusting traffic signal timing and adding more “green light” time to L.A.’s most congested intersections

LOS ANGELES -– Seeing the need to offer immediate traffic congestion relief to commuters, today Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, joined by Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel and Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) General Manager Rita Robinson announced the results of the Operation Bottleneck Relief II and III traffic congestion relief programs and launched Operation Bottleneck Relief Phase IV.

“We will allow commuters to see green, as we launch phase four of the Operation Bottleneck traffic congestion relief program,” said Mayor Villaraigosa.  “This traffic relief program will focus on the city’s worst traffic hotspots where the rubber meets the road and get traffic moving faster.”

Operation Bottleneck Relief IV, the fourth installment of the City’s traffic signal timing adjustment program, will task LADOT engineers with making technical adjustments, signal timing improvements and optimizing “green light” time, in real-time, at 60 of LA’s most clogged and congested intersections during FY 08-09 (fiscal year). The improvements and adjustments will deploy real-time traffic fixes to alleviate congestion and get the traffic lights moving with real-time traffic patterns.

Operation Bottleneck Relief I (FY 05-06), Operation Bottleneck Relief II (FY 06-07) and Operation Bottleneck Relief III (FY 07-08) programs have made technical adjustments, improved signal timing and optimized “green light time” at 103 intersections throughout the City of Los Angeles.  The program to date has been successful in reducing traffic delay by almost 4,057 hours each day, or an average of 29%, and has shaved commuters' wait times at red lights by 8 seconds.

“It’s important that we push the envelope and constantly work to find creative and innovative ways to use our resources to alleviate traffic,” said Mayor Villaraigosa. “Operation Bottleneck is one element of a comprehensive strategy our city needs to improve the flow of traffic and provide a convenient and reliable alternative to using a single passenger vehicle.”

- Rose Avenue and Walgrove Avenue
- Sepulveda Boulevard and Vanowen Street
- Sherman Way and Winnetka Avenue
- 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue
- Colby Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard

- Devonshire Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard
- Hillhurst Avenue and Los Feliz Boulevard
- Arlington Avenue and Santa Monica Freeway
- Franklin Avenue and Vermont Avenue
- Lincoln Boulevard and Mindanao Way

- Adams Boulevard and Harbor Freeway
- Barrington Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard
- Beverly Boulevard and Vermont Avenue
- Blackwelder Street, Fairfax Avenue & La Cienega Blvd.
- Hollywood Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Boulevard

- La Cienega Boulevard and La Tijera Boulevard
- Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue
- Crenshaw Boulevard and Washington Boulevard
- Purdue Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard
- Sunset Boulevard and Wilton Place

- Crenshaw Boulevard and Washington Boulevard
- Franklin Avenue and Highland Avenue
- Gothrie Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard
- Haskell Avenue and San Diego Freeway
- Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard

- Highland Avenue and Odin Street
- Jefferson Boulevard and La Brea Avenue
- Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Ventura Boulevard
- Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Ventura Place
- Motor Avenue and National Boulevard

- National Boulevard and Robertson Boulevard
- National Boulevard, Overland Avenue and Santa Monica Freeway
- Roscoe Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard
- San Diego Freeway, Sepulveda Boulevard and Skirball Center Drive
- Santa Monica Freeway W/B ramps & Vermont Avenue AM

- Veteran Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard
- 1st Street and Vermont Avenue
- 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue
- 6th Street and Vermont Boulevard
- Argyle Avenue, Dix Street, Franklin Avenue and Hollywood Freeway

- Beverly Center Dwy and La Cienega Boulevard
- Burbank Boulevard, Lankershim Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue
- Centinela Avenue and Santa Monica Freeway
- Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Ventura Freeway
- Fountain Avenue and Orange Drive

- Franklin Avenue and Gower Street
- Hyperion Avenue and Rowena Avenue
- Olympic Boulevard and Purdue Avenue
- Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Venice Boulevard
- Barham Boulevard and Cahuenga Boulevard

Comments

[IAWG]

Villaraigosa what a joke. Since when do city officals hold press conferences to announce people are doing their jobs, that the Traffic Engineers are engineering.

Quoting your blog: "Me being me, and clearly not intelligent..."

The Mayor is undoubtably of your ilk so why should this matter?

"...couldn't resist the softball I had just tossed him"

Should'nt have thrown a softball to a whiffle ball bench warmer like Villaraigosa.

Not sure what transpired, but he didn't even give you an answer. You should hhave pinned him down. When you joke around with a joker, nothing gets done.

[Boo Radley]

Sal - Synchronizing traffic signals in one direction can be done very easily wherein a motorist traveling a constant speed (read "posted speed limit") would get through every signal without ever having to stop for a red light. Getting perfect coordination in two directions, however, is nearly impossible without master planning the distances between city blocks (aka traffic signal locations). When you add to this equation multiple arterial cross-streets which also expect to have perfect progression in both directions, the process really breaks down. Traffic engineers cannot make up for the fact that city planners and politicians did a poor job of street layout and unwarranted traffic signals installed to placate whiny constituents.

Mark - Please don't post on topics of which you have no understanding. No communication to 25% of traffic signals does not equal bad progression. They are not free to run willy-nilly and "screw up flow", as you say. Even signals which are not connected to a traffic management center can be well coordinated amongst themselves, as this is the way the vast majority of signals in the country operate; pre-existing timing plans already programmed into each intersection's computer controller. If you don't believe that traffic control centers work, especially those as "cutting edge" as LA City's ATSAC Center, I'm sure you can petition the City Council to turn the Center off for a week. You would pretty quickly recognize just how good you have it. Please attempt to understand a topic before you post, unless you are out there just to increase your post count.

[Sal B]

When I was a child in the 1950s, the lights between Houston, TX and Galveston were timed, using old-fashioned mechanical timers. You could drive a steady, posted speed and hit green lights all the way... about 40 miles.

It's only taken 50 years and modern electronics to get the same thing accomplished here in Los Angeles, and we're not even sure it works yet.

Whee!

[Mark]

Thank you for questioning the rosy pronouncements the Mayor and his DOT people make. This ATSAC system they always brag about is garbage and all you need to do is drive around LA to see how poorly it performs. If you control only 75 per cent of signals then you have no control of the remaining 25 per cent. They are free to screw up flow and they do. Just look at LADOT's own website and you get an idea of lack of control. Go Grumpy Bear !

http://trafficinfo.lacity.org/index.html