How to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Fort Collins
Getting from point A to point B may take some time due the word many people know and love, TRAFFIC! Transportation is something that is very time consuming. The city of Fort Collins did not plan to hold this many people, and the roads can get very congested.
Living three miles away from the CSU campus may take around a little more than 10 minutes to get there. It takes about seven minutes longer than projected to get anywhere around the town. The planning of the city was done in the 1800s and with the rapid growth it is a little behind. Fort Collins can reduce the traffic by having real time traffic feedback, adaptive traffic signals, and pedestrian tracking systems.
Public transportation is essential in cities that have large amounts of people that cannot hold all the people on the road. Many cities have tried to implement a public transportation system but have not succeeded. One place attempting to be successful is Kansas City.
They are developing free streetcars that carry over 6,200 passengers a day. These streetcars would run between big business districts.
This project in Kansas relies heavily on real-time traffic feedback. It helps the streetcars choose the best route to minimize time spent in the car. Citizens also can track the cars and see where they are on the roads, and when they will reach a certain location.
Using smart city tech is a way a city can lessen the congestion. This leads into the idea of having adaptive traffic signals. Columbus, Ohio gathers data from government fleet vehicles to improve the timing of the traffic signals.
An article from Geotab written by Maria Sotra writes, “ By getting a better idea of traffic flow and how long a vehicle idles at stop lights, the city can better modify traffic signal timing with the changes in traffic throughout the day.” To have those adaptive lights would better the city with a more regular flow of traffic, instead large amounts of cars backed up at one light.
It’s not just the cars that cause the traffic, the pedestrian traffic also plays a big role. It is a very essential piece when trying to understand a city’s traffic and how it works. From the Safety Resource Center, Chris Giarranta wrote about the traffic in different cities and stated that, “Cities like Las Vegas are using advanced V2I technologies to track how many vehicles pass throughout an intersection at different times and how many pedestrians cross the street.” This can help city planners by being aware of the patterns of the pedestrian traffic.
That way a city can have timed lights or adaptive lights depending on how many people are in that area and the patterns. This will also help not only with traffic flow but pedestrian safety.
Some people may think that a lot of this won’t help and it is only based on the capacity of people. Many cities have grown with the population and continue to innovate. Cities that use these type of technological advanced programs have people moving from point A to point B in no time.
Places like Kansas, Ohio, and Las Vegas are thriving with how many people they hold. These smart cities are paving the way for smaller places like Fort Collins.
Many people try to avoid the “T” word, TRAFFIC. Unfortunately it is something that no one can really avoid but there is ways to improve it. The City of Fort Collins needs to look into having real time traffic feedback, adaptive traffic signals, and pedestrian tracking systems. This will bring up the infrastructure and future planning of the city.
