More traffic lights on Red Deer’s busy streets may be synchronized in the future.
Early results from the city’s 30th Avenue light synchronization pilot look promising, suggesting a smoother and faster ride.
The lights on 30th Avenue between 32nd Street and 55th Street switched to fixed-time synchronization during peak hours for northbound and southbound traffic in early August.
The aim behind the pilot is to improve the traffic flow on one of Red Deer’s high-traffic streets.
“We have done some initial trial runs after the lights were changed,” said David Arnott, a city traffic engineer.
“The results look promising so we are encouraged by that. We are continuing to make minor adjustments to see if we can improve what we have.”
Arnott did not give specifics on the trial runs but indicated the times to travel on 30th Avenue during these peak times were reduced.
The city is measuring travel times and delays along 30th Avenue compared to the real-time monitoring system.
More information will be available after the pilot wraps up at the end of September.
Based on the results and public feedback, the city will determine if the lights will remain synchronized on 30th Avenue and whether to introduce other similar pilot projects on busy streets.