Bell Road Intelligent Transportation System

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Bell Road is the busiest arterial corridor in the State of Arizona. Due to the growing population and new developments Bell reached its traffic capacity and road users experienced significant delays. In 2000, Average Daily Traffic (ADT) reached up to 50,000 vehicles, well above the typical capacity for a 6-lane roadway. To address this problem, the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) opted for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). During the period from 2007-2010, MCDOT has implemented traffic management strategies and ITS infrastructure along the corridor including road sensors, fiber communications, DMS, CCTV cameras. Utilizing this technology, MCDOT is now able to manage traffic on Bell Road in the most efficient method possible, altering traffic flow and collision management. As a result of ITS implementation, operational and incident management strategies resulted in significant reduction in travel time while annual average daily traffic has grown to 80,000 on certain segments of the corridor. The before and after improvement study reported the reductions of 14% and 25% in travel time during the AM and PM peak hours respectively.