CITY HALL — Traffic department officials are currently in the midst of implementing a new strategy to improve traffic flow in Burbank.
Plans are in the works for a state-of-the-art traffic-management center that will enable traffic workers to assess real-time traffic conditions and respond more quickly to problem areas, city traffic engineer Ken Johnson said.
"You really can't solve traffic congestion in Southern California — it's a management of traffic congestion," he said.
Since 1990, the Texas Transportation Institute, which tracks national trends, has named Los Angeles the most congested large community in the nation, Johnson said. Driver bottlenecking and traffic incidents top the list of primary causes, but road construction and traffic signalization also make up a small portion of contributing factors, he said.
"The interesting thing is that traffic-signal timing is a fairly insignificant part of the whole range of traffic problems," he said.
But complicating the signalization process in Burbank is the fact that peak travel periods, which were traditionally confined to a few hours in the morning and the evening, are now spread across more than five-hour periods, he said.
"What really happened in a very finite and small time frame is now occurring over the majority of the afternoon," he said.
Large-scale infrastructure modifications like street widening and double-decking — or stacking roadways on top of one another — do little to ameliorate the situation, he said.
Within the next six months, engineers will be implementing "system detector routes" — a technology that monitors the volume and speed of traffic to develop a standard for signal timing, he said. The process is an improvement over "fixed" signals, which can fluctuate only according to the time of day.
Traffic officials will go before the council in May to propose appropriation items to cover new traffic management systems, aimed at improving the city's response to monitor accidents or signal problems, which account for 25% of traffic congestion, he said.
"We haven't really dealt with incidents up to this point and we need to do that," he said.
Johnson's report underscored a strong need for building and improving existing traffic mechanisms, Councilwoman Marsha Ramos said.
"I think it's clear that the two issues are: We need to further develop our timing plans, and system maintenance," she said.
The city of Los Angeles has recently implemented white-glove officers who direct traffic in especially crowded intersections at peak times, Councilman Jef Vander Borght said. Though Burbank may not be a good place for these types of officers, construction-related congestion may be well served by the system, he said.
"We don't necessarily have a policy that provides for traffic management that is a live person helping conduct traffic breaks or whatever is necessary to expedite traffic," he said.
The council will provide direction on Johnson's proposal at an upcoming meeting.
QUESTION
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