Miami has some of the worst traffic congestion in the country. But that's no surprise to anyone who drives in it. I recently spoke with Alice Bravo, director of transportation and public works for Miami-Dade County, about how the county is dealing with it.
What is the system that we use right now for our traffic signals and what is a better system that might help alleviate some of that congestion?
Well, right now we have basically over 3,000 signals in Miami-Dade County. And over the past two years we've worked to connect all those signals to a central computer. That way when something's wrong or something changes, one of our traffic engineers can log in and make changes as necessary. What we’re doing right now is taking a lot of traffic data on the major corridors so that we can run computer models and adjust the signal timing along the corridor. That way we can make it more efficient throughout. We're working to synchronize the signals. Ultimately where we want to be is to have an adaptive system. The controllers at each intersection would have eyes and ears. Basically there would be cameras and speed detectors etc. The signal itself would be able to track changing conditions and make timing adjustments.
How long will it take for us to have that kind of system?
Well, right now this is an emerging technology. So we are working with F.T.C. very closely to test out different types of systems and see what works best in our condition.
What do we know about an adaptive system and what it would actually do?
It helps you increase your percentage of times that you hit a green light. When you're going down a corridor or again, if one direction is very congested, you get more green time to the other directions. So you know in some places you might be able to improve your capacity at an intersection by 20 percent or it might be 5 percent. And it varies on the conditions, but basically what you're guaranteeing is the most efficient flow of traffic possible.
Miami doesn’t have as much as some other cities when it comes to public transportation. Is that the better solution?
The more people that we can get to use mass transit the fewer cars we're going to have on the road. Often if you're stuck in traffic, look around; you have one person per car and that's a very poor use of our infrastructure. And that is actually what's causing the congestion. So if we can continue to adapt our public transportation system so everyone has effective options regardless of where they live, we get more and more people to use that system. And then ultimately that's really the only solution to congestion.
Where is the worst congestion? Which are the worst traffic lights in Miami-Dade? In Broward? In Palm Beach County? Share your worst on twitter @WLRN.
