Improving safety, reducing congestion, and increasing capacity
To more efficiently connect people to services, we must also focus on improving safety, reducing congestion, and increasing capacity on our limited roadways. We have seen great results and served as the testing ground for several new technologies because of our regional approach towards advancing traffic management.
One of those technologies is a platform from Waycare, which allows for quicker real-time reporting of traffic crashes or other incidents that enhances safety and reduces congestion. Through the Waycare platform, RTC harnesses the power of crowd-sourcing through apps such as Waze; this two-way communication provides RTC information from drivers in real time on incidents and road conditions, as well as the RTC sharing real-time traffic alerts with Wazers.
During our initial pilot, Waycare technology enabled emergency responders to respond to crashes up to 12 minutes faster, which means clearing incidents more quickly, allowing traffic to flow again, and reducing the chance of secondary crashes. Waycare’s analytics and artificial intelligence technology can also predict where dangerous driving conditions or congestion may occur, helping to reduce primary crashes by 17% along I-15, which runs through the urban core of Las Vegas.
We broadened our partnership with Waycare through additional vehicle telematics data partners to acquire connected vehicle data from up to 60,000 vehicles on daily traffic operations, such as the percentage of vehicles that stop and turn at an intersection as well as the average speed and the length of the vehicle queue. This data will assist in identifying hot-spots that are subject to harsh braking and swerving maneuvers to better inform road safety improvements, real-time traffic operations, and driver alerts for proactive crash prevention. The access to and use of this data is the first of its kind at this scale.
In partnership with the city of Henderson and Clark County, the RTC recently launched an adaptive signal control technology pilot program along a consistently congested corridor in the valley. Instead of using traditionally timed traffic signals, adaptive signal control technology can dynamically adjust signal timing based on actual demand, helping make traffic signals more efficient and potentially resulting in reduced traffic delays and congestion, improved travel time reliability, decreased vehicle emissions, and improved safety. Unlike the traditionally restrictive and somewhat static time-of-day plans, adaptive traffic signals are intended to react to changing traffic conditions caused by special events, road construction, and other roadway incidents to provide the best solutions to traffic signal phasing based in real time.
Developing data-driven solutions
With the millions of data sets we collect, analysis is key to developing data-driven solutions that will help us achieve the goals of connecting people to services and enhancing safety and capacity on our roads. Data and connectivity are pillars of advanced ITS technologies and provide guidance on actionable, real-time traffic management.
Our partnership with INRIX uses a state-of-the-art platform called AV Road Rules to digitize and communicate traffic rules and restrictions—such as speed limits, crosswalks, turn restrictions, and bike lanes—to connected and autonomous vehicles, allowing them to operate safely and effectively. In turn, connected vehicles will communicate through our regional traffic management system to report infrastructure issues, such as potholes, inadequate lane striping, and insufficient signage. The data in this platform will be extremely valuable to automotive manufacturers as they continue to develop the technology for connected and autonomous vehicles.
