Beyond the obvious reasoning that traffic signals preserve safety at intersections and different junctures along a roadway, traffic signals are also largely responsible for maintaining a steady flow of traffic.
Most of the time, traffic signals are a passive factor in our lives. Much like driving in general, people often learn the patterns, speeds, signals, and overall behavior of traffic and it becomes a natural part of their usual commute around the city. So it’s rare that people actually ask themselves what the purpose of traffic signals actually is.
In 2017, 5,984 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S., according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). That marks the second year in a row that the death toll was near 6,000. Compared to less than 5,000 deaths in 2014, these recent statistics could point to an alarming trend in pedestrian safety.
There are a variety of factors that have contributed to the rise in pedestrian deaths from motor vehicle accidents, even while fatalities for other types of traffic accidents are declining. Possible reasons for increased pedestrian deaths include: more cars on the road, distracted driving, pedestrians distracted by smartphones, drugged driving, and drunk driving.
Gone are the days of worrying for the safety of students at Overton Ray Elementary School, located on a busy road in Burkburnett, Texas. In an effort to increase the safety for students and pedestrians, ELTEC worked in conjunction with Traffic Speed Modulation LLC and the city of Burkburnett to make this new technology of a retractable speed hump reality. Burkburnett is currently the only city in the country to use this technology, but this is only just the beginning.
Special to the news messenger
Thursday, ELTEC and 511 Technologies announced a strategic partnership to provide advanced cloud-connected products for the traffic and warning system industries.
The companies will collaborate to deliver an entire line of new IoTrafficTM products with a wide range of radio communication options that provide connectivity to the Internet as well as from sign-to-sign or “Machine to Machine” (or M2M).
Frenship High School in Wolfforth, TX installed a solar powered HAWK/hybrid pedestrian crosswalk. Early one morning before dawn a student using the un-signalized crosswalk from the parking lot across from the school was struck and killed by a truck. The school principle, city manager, and other city officials along with the local TxDOT district worked together to find a solution.
It’s a mad, mad world out there on the roads. Congestion is climbing along with the number of cars. Signs and intersections can be confusing. And bicycle commuting is up all over.
New kinds of traffic signs and signals can help keep it all flowing. Here are some notable innovations.
On July 25, 2014 the FHWA approved a “new and improved” flash pattern for RRFB (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons) uncon-trolled pedestrian crossings.
The new flash pattern is based on a flash cycle length of 800 milliseconds (ms) equaling 75 flash cycles per minute. It’s referenced as “WW+S” (Wig-Wag plus Simultaneous). The sequence is:
Because it could and do so safely now; both horse and rider. It sounds like an old joke, but with ELTEC’s focus on specific customer needs, system design helps to keep a precious horse (many valued over $250,000) safe and traffic moving.
The school zone flashing beacons in Longview, Texas (pop 85,000) used a paging system to program school signals. Keith Covington, Traffic Signal Supervisor, determined the system “limited us, not only communicating with the clocks but monitoring the clocks”. ELTEC’s SYSTEM 3000 was chosen to centrally program, manage, and monitor each TC-3000 IP time clock (36 total).
