Adaptive signals installed on Gilmer Road to move traffic in Lake County
Evidence of roadwork intended to improve your driving experience is plentiful, but heavy equipment isn't the only way to get the job done.
That's the case for five intersections along a stretch of Gilmer Road in the Hawthorn Woods area where equipment was installed this week to improve how the signals manage traffic.
Optimizing the equipment in place is one way to describe the adaptive signal control technology being tested by the Lake County Division of Transportation. Basically, it involves modifying the equipment so it controls traffic signals more precisely.
"Because the signals are talking to each other, they can estimate when the traffic will arrive as opposed to the traditional system," said Bill Eidson, traffic signal engineer for the division of transportation.
The adaptive system doesn't have as many limitations for how the signal timing works, Eidson said. Coordinating signal timing also is effective, but this takes it a step further.
"It can make choices about when to give the green light to different legs of the intersection that traditional traffic systems can't do," he said.
Last year, Lake County said it was the first entity in Illinois to implement the system, targeting about a four-mile stretch along Aptakisic Road between Route 83 in Lincolnshire and Route 21 in Long Grove. Results show an average of about 27 percent more traffic moves along that corridor in the same amount of time as before the system was installed, officials said.
"The biggest difference that we've really seen is more cars are able to use Aptakisic Road in the same travel time. That tells us the system is working well because it's added capacity," according to Eidson.
Lake County received federal funding for the program. Gilmer Road, which is two lanes, will be the second corridor where it will be used. The idea is to find areas where traffic will benefit, Eidson said.
Besides the five intersections on Gilmer, an intersection at Route 176 and Hawley Street is part of the system connected by fiber-optic cable, a prerequisite for the technology.
Signals will operate normally for about two months or so as the equipment gathers data, Eidson said. That will be examined, and the most efficient timing determined. Adjustments will be made, and the intuitive part of the system will be operating.
"I think on Gilmer, we're more likely to see the other scenario - the same traffic volume with less delay," Eidson said.
The only clue for motorists, and the source of most questions, is more cameras are being installed at intersections. Cameras for the adaptive system will be on the mast arms of traffic signals. The other cameras will be removed once the latter are functioning correctly, Eidson said.
The Aptakisic system cost about $590,000 and the Gilmer system about $950,000, Eidson said. This won't be an annual program, Eidson said, but the agency has applied for more federal funding, which covers 80 percent of the cost.
While the technology in this system may be in the background, "like an umpire at a baseball game," he said, drivers eventually will notice a difference. "It is perceptible."