Vice Mayor Les Presmyk has a quick answer when asked the biggest reason that Gilbert is performing a study on the coordination timing of the town's 172 traffic signals.
"There are council members, the mayor and a whole host of residents who are unhappy with the way things are," Presmyk said, chuckling. "We all have to drive in it. I can think of a few more reasons, but that's the most important one."
With traffic signals in better synchronization, flow will improve, accidents should decrease, and emergency vehicles will have fewer clusters of cars to navigate through, Presmyk said. Also, there would be less pollution from idle and accelerating vehicles.
"We're never going to have a completely seamless system, but we should move traffic better than we do," Presmyk said.
Timing updates have already been conducted on six signals on Power Road, between Village Parkway and Pecos Road.
A $500,000 federal grant is funding the study, which uses computer simulation to recreate travel on town roads, test timing plans and implement changes. Adjustments will be made based on observations, with new studies expected every 3-5 years.
"That's something that will be important, to keep on top of it," town spokeswoman Beth Lucas said. "Every time a new store opens, that will be something that can potentially change the traffic flow."
Much has changed in Gilbert since the last timing study was done in 2005, when the town had about 100 signals.
The completion of the San Tan Freeway and more lanes on U.S. 60 have changed the primary flow of traffic in Gilbert from east-west to north-south. Large shopping centers and other attractions have opened.
And, in many ways, technology is still slow to keep up with the explosive growth Gilbert has experienced in the last two decades.
"One of the things that kept us from doing this earlier is that we decided that, when we had the technology that could expedite traffic, we wanted to have enough to do it all," Presmyk said. "In the past, we (grew so quickly), if we had tried to get technology, it would have been obsolete by the time we were ready to use it.
"Now, we feel we can have all of that technology in place where in 10 or 20 years, we can capitalize on it, figure out how traffic patterns have changed, and make any adjustments."
Also, Gilbert has secured $44,800 in federal funds for 224 countdown pedestrian signals that display the number of seconds before the "don't walk" signal takes effect.
SocietyGoneWild posted at 4:28 pm on Tue, Aug 3, 2010.
$500,000? This is where transparency would be great.
Computer: $1000.
How difficult is it to time everything out? How many people are needed to determine this? Seems like the kind of thing you could "outsource" to a local college math department for grad students to work on and get experience for their careers.
Please, someone justify even $100,000 in cost for this. How many major N/S streets in Gilbert? Figure ten? Maybe work on one per day... How many major E/W streets? Figure ten? I figure it's a month of work for one person or two weeks for two people.
Leviathan posted at 12:49 am on Wed, Aug 4, 2010.
SocietyGoneWild,
* Computer: 1,000
* Two grad students, two months: $8,000 plus junk food
* Rent for a 10x10 room for two months: $1,000
* Graft, bureaucracy, payoffs, OSHA, unions (see payoffs), impact statements, MSDS for the lead in the computer board solder: $5.2 million
Now that the study is underfunded, we'll need to send the grant back for revamping. Of course, revamping costs money. So let's be charitable and tack on another $7.2 million. Your tax dollars at work.
Seriously, though: How about one traffic engineer futzing with each street for a week? Mesa's lights are down pretty well. How about copying their math?
SocietyGoneWild posted at 6:54 am on Wed, Aug 4, 2010.
Right on Leviathan. ASU was used for this in the past. It feels like political friends are about to make some money on this.
Government's job is to spend our money. Give a kid $200 to spend vs $2000 to spend and watch the wisdom change in purchasing decisions.
Then again, I'm just a whack who thinks the entire 1070 debacle is an extremely successful political diversion from our financial mess during an election year.
gilbertrez posted at 8:51 am on Wed, Aug 4, 2010.
You people obviously don't live or drive in Gilbert. There are 3 lights between my house and the 1st major N/S road, and it takes me more than 7 minutes sometimes to travel that 1/2 mile stretch.
So, SocietyGoneWild and Leviathan, I'll be waiting for your own independent study in about two weeks. . .
ofuque2 posted at 1:45 pm on Wed, Aug 4, 2010.
I'd like to know why the Town of Gilbert hires its own traffic engineers. If we have our own, why do we have to fund a study by outside engineers? If our guys can't do it, then lay them off and use their salaries to hire outsiders. It doesn't matter where the money is coming from, it is just a complete waste.
AmosENeuman posted at 10:01 am on Thu, Aug 5, 2010.
It's about time!
Some of those lights are programmed so stupidly it just blows my mind -- I think one of the worst has to be the no-ryme-or-reason one at Williams Field Rd & San Tan Parkway (Greenfield Rd)
CrosleyV8 posted at 10:35 am on Sat, Aug 7, 2010.
As fast as Gilbert has installed traffic lights int he past 10 years, I thought they got paid extra for each one.
it is true , it seems they never thought of controlling them properly. 202 and San Tan Village parkway traffic lites are so far off a child could time them better.
Drive north from Pecos and Greenfield 700 feet, stop at Discovery Park lite. Drive 700 feet , stop at lite for 202 over-pass. Drive 700 feet to Market Street lite and stop again