Georgia has completed the first phase of an ambitious project that will eventually see about 9,000 intersections in the state upgraded to the latest ‘smart’ traffic control technology.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), in partnership with traffic technology developer and supplier Intelight Inc, has announced the deployment of state-of-the-art ‘smart’ signals at the first 1,000 intersections throughout the state of Georgia. The milestone was achieved in late July, and marks the beginning of the final project goal of deploying ‘smart’ signals at approximately 9,000 intersections across the state.
The project includes signals in the metropolitan Atlanta region, Cartersville, Thomaston, Gwinnett County and Athens-Clarke County. The Intelight MaxView ATMS (advanced traffic management system) software was launched in autumn 2015, and is scheduled to be fully deployed on GDOT-maintained signals across the state by autumn 2017. The department is also providing this system to local agencies at no cost, with statewide deployment expected to be complete by 2018.
The project is part of a statewide upgrade that converts traffic lights in Georgia to an up-to-the-second traffic signal controller technology. The new Intelight MaxView ATMS software provides significant improvements to how GDOT and local agencies can operate their signal systems. The proactive response will no longer require engineers to rely on citizen complaints or on-site checking of signals, rather the system will allow for signals to automatically provide feedback to a central system in the Traffic Operations Center (TOC) in real time. This allows for engineers to focus attention where it is needed, providing instant response to operational issues, which improves signal operations on Georgia’s busiest corridors while also providing transparency to the public on system performance.
Intelight’s MaxView ATMS is a cloud-based software system that allows multiple users to manage an entire traffic network from a real-time map view. It allows engineers to see which devices are online and follow graphically the network path from the devices back to all the servers. MaxView includes online real-time data graphs and usage charts, and has trend analysis capability. The software also retains and displays a history of system events that can be used to monitor operations and/or troubleshoot.
“We are thrilled to reach this major milestone on such a quick timeline, and look forward to continued deployment throughout the state,” commented GDOT state traffic engineer, Andrew Heath. “The software allows us to understand the performance of each signal by monitoring data that comes in every tenth of a second. Our engineers are able to make real-time adjustments to the signals to optimize performance based on actual roadway conditions.”
