Upper Arlington to spend $84K on radars to enhance traffic flow, safety
New radar vehicle-detection units will be added to some of Upper Arlington's higher-speed thoroughfares in 2023 to enhance signals and traffic flow for motorists and bicyclists.
According to the Upper Arlington Electrical Division, the city has used video-detection technology for about 20 years to detect vehicles in intersections and to help manage "intelligent transportation systems" that collect data to manage traffic flow.
City officials said the ITS equipment is designed to learn if a vehicle is approaching an intersection and send signals directly to the signal controller to extend the length of time a light stays green.
A Nov. 7 staff report to City Council from Gary Wilfong, the city's public service director, and Rick Howard, the city's electrical division supervisor, said video detection gradually replaced an older system of induction loops that were state of the art in the 1970s for detecting vehicles at intersections and managing intersections.
However, induction loops often failed to detect carbon-fiber bicycles and proved easily broken and then costly to replace because they had to be buried in the ground under roadways, the report said. In addition, it said video systems are no longer top of the line for vehicle detection.
"For nearly 20 years, the city has been using video detection, but this, too, is not optimal as video detection is easily affected by spiderwebs, fog and sun glare," the report said.
Roughly five years ago, Wilfong said, Upper Arlington began converting its ITS systems to radar vehicle-detection.
On Nov. 14, council unanimously approved the $83,900 purchase of 14 new radar vehicle-detection units from Wavetronix, a company that creates ITS tools and other equipment to improve traffic.
That’s slightly less than the $85,200 the city had budgeted for the project, according to the report. According to City Manager Jackie Thiel, Wavetronix was the only company to bid on the project.
The radar units will replace induction loops and video-detection equipment as it breaks. The report said the city also could use the units on thoroughfares with higher speed limits, such as Riverside Drive, to extend green-light times "in an effort to minimize right-angle collisions."
"The new radar detection units will be installed at the Cambridge Boulevard-Riverside Drive, Lane Avenue-Tremont Road and Redding Road-Zollinger Road intersections," Wilfong said. "These will replace the video detection that is currently in place at these intersections."
Wilfong said the radar units are "a far superior product" without any of the problems associated with induction loops or video detection.
According to a 2017 article for Wavetronix written by Josh Huntsman, radar vehicle-detection was developed around 2000 and is the favored method for vehicle detection and intersection management.
The technology also has been adopted by the Ohio Department of Transportation, which invested $3 million in 2018 to replace induction loops with radar-detection systems on all freight corridors across the state.
Thiel said she's confident the new units will perform well with Upper Arlington’s existing ITS equipment, which also is from Wavetronix.
"It kind of is specific because of everything that ties into the traffic signal box," Thiel said. "We're trying to maintain just one system, but we can look at options in the future."
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Upper Arlington to spend $84K on radars to enhance traffic flow, safety
