In the city of Kirkland, Wash., a corridor that spans from Lake Washington Boulevard to 100th Avenue Northeast is about to become a networked system of traffic signals equipped with technology that allows drivers to see real-time traffic images and transportation engineers to monitor and adjust traffic signal-timing remotely and immediately.
Electric company workers recently upgraded Lake Washington Boulevard’s traffic signal at 38th Street NE to intelligent transportation system technology that will meld the corridor into a single, seamless network. The last along this north-to-south corridor, this signal is the most recent of 11 traffic signals the city has upgraded along this corridor and 85th Street NE.
Kirkland will also be upgrading 85th Street NE’s intersection signals at 120th, 122nd and 128th Avenues NE. Further ITS application will connect each of the intersection’s signals to the City Hall-based Transportation Management Center, from which Kirkland’s transportation engineers can already monitor traffic at 15 intersections throughout the city.
Transportation engineers expect have complete remote access to the 11 newly upgraded intersections within the week, and real-time imaging will be driver-ready by summer 2016.
