"A brave new world" is a phrase sometimes used to describe our lives in the 21st century. Arguably, it also seems particularly fitting to the transportation services we, as professionals, need to provide to our customers, the traveling public. Almost everyday we read or hear about new technology being applied to transportation. From signal systems that adapt to changing traffic conditions to the host of technology involved in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), like it or not, transportation technology is moving ahead at remarkable speeds - but what about the fundamentals, what about the basics? This paper will answer this question as it applies to traffic signal timing - more specifically, to signal timing for highway emergencies. In the 1970's and 1980's we placed a huge emphasis on optimized signal timing to save energy. Now as cities and regions "dust off" emergency evacuation plans as part of homeland security initiatives, optimized signal timing, even in it's most basic form, is a critical, yet often overlooked component. Optimized traffic signals also play a key role in effective traffic incident management when sometimes they can literally be the difference between life or death for incident victims. The paper will further discuss these issues and will propose a set of signal timing maintenance guidelines for agencies to consider when developing regional traffic operations plans. It will also define suggested roles and responsibilities for state and local transportation agencies. Finally, relevant elements of the on-going Southeastern Wisconsin Emergency Traffic Management Program planning initiative will be presented as a case-study.
Abstract