STREETS PROGRAM

STREETS PROGRAM. Beginning in 2017, the City of Dubuque, East Central Inter-Governmental Agency, Iowa Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration began working together to create the Smarty Traffic Routing with Efficient and Effective Traffic System (STREETS). a next-generational traffic control program that when fully implemented would fully automate automobile traffic control in the city. The project was considered the first of its kind in the nation.

Officials believed that the project could improve Dubuque roadways from decreasing traffic times to providing city staff with more real-time data to make improvements in infrastructure. The program is expected to become more useful in the future as more vehicles are equipped with smart-technology and there are no self-driving vehicles.

Dubuque was ideal for the project. A larger community would have made the project too expensive while a smaller city would not have the financial resources to invest. There were also many pieces of the final project already in place. For twenty years the city had invested in installing fiber conduit and placing more than 1,300 cameras throughout the community. Estimates were made that if this infrastructure had not been present, the total cost would have been three or four times as much.

The first phase was expected to cost $3.9 million dollars which would primarily be paid by federal and state grants. The city investment would be $545,000. Beginning in August, 2023 city staff was expected to begin integrating STREETS into 42 intersections throughout the city covering primarily major traffic corridors on the west side of the community. The following summer the city would begin implementing Phase 2, a $1.9 million effort to connect STREETS to an additional 38 intersections mainly in the downtown area.

While the city in 2023 used a program that primarily relied pm traffic signals scheduled throughout the day based on anticipated use, STREETS would read traffic levels in real time and adjust signals as needed. The city's cameras would monitor and record traffic data which would be fed into traffic models which STREETS would use to determine traffic management. The program would also provide the city staff with readings of total cars on the road, travel times, turn volumes, and carbon emissions. This information would have in the past been collected through expensive traffic studies.

STREETS would also seek to reroute motorists by suggesting alternative routes to reach their destinations. From 2023 through 2024, city officials planned to install 19 dynamic messaging signs along the major streets to provide real-time traffic information for motorists. This would include the estimated travel time to get to a destination and traffic obstacles. Public entities such as the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT would receive daily update on how bus routes could be changed to accommodate traffic. Because of limited smart display technology in vehicles, STREETS will depend upon more on such large informational displays.

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Source:

Kruse, John, "The Future of Traffic," Telegraph Herald, April 30, 2023, p. 1