The City’s MBATS System Project is an extension of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) South Bay Fiber Network project, which is still in the design/construction stage, will provide a fiber-optic broadband infrastructure “ring” that offers cost-effective, high-speed broadband to municipal facilities throughout the South Bay sub-region. This ring will support enhancements to the region’s mobility and accessibility systems, and to the networks that provide community services to South Bay residents.
Currently, the traffic signals along the City’s main corridors are activated using one or more standard traditional technologies, including loop detection, video detection and pre-set signal timing. These intersections carry a significant amount of outbound, inbound and through traffic during peak commute periods of the day. The traffic signals’ controls are limited by current technologies and the advanced traffic signal synchronization is not implemented. Traffic signal synchronization is a traffic engineering technique of matching the green light times for a series of intersections to enable the maximum number of vehicles to pass through, thereby reducing stops and delays experienced by motorists. With the traffic signal synchronization, the intersections along a traffic corridor will coordinate with a designated master intersection to optimize the signal timing. The traffic signals in the City are physically maintained and programmed on-site by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LAC-DPW) through a long-standing maintenance service agreement. With the traditional technologies, the signal malfunction incidents are not automatically detected or alerted to the signal maintenance team. The signal maintenance team’s response time to incidents usually depends on the request from the callers who observed the incidents.
The City’s MBATS System Project proposes to upgrade and connect signal controller equipment through a fiber optic backbone infrastructure that will support emerging traffic management technologies, such as dynamic signal timing, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, autonomous vehicles, public safety preemption and other smart cities initiatives that can improve traffic signalization and operational efficiencies. The infrastructure will enable enhanced signal timing, relieve congestion during peak hours, improve traffic progression, and allow the system to be more responsive to changes in traffic conditions, and prepare for the future of more Internet of Things (IOT) communication. The project will allow both City staff and a semi-autonomous control system to remotely monitor and control the signalized intersections to maximize synchronization and minimize backups through real-time data analysis and timing changes.
