Traffic Engineering

The Traffic Engineering group addresses community concerns relating to traffic safety and efficiency, reviews development projects to mitigate current and future traffic issues and manages traffic safety and traffic calming projects.

Data Collection

Traffic engineering technicians use several methods to collect traffic data, including turning movement (TMC) counts, automatic traffic recorder (ATR) counts, and other data collection as necessary.

For a Turning movement count, an engineering technician tallies each vehicle as it passes through an intersection. This information is recorded for each leg of an intersection with left turn, right turn, and through vehicular movements counted separately. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and large trucks may also be tallied separately. At busy intersections, two technicians are required to complete the study. The data collected is used in various traffic engineering studies.

For an automatic traffic recorder (ATR) count, an engineering technician installs pneumatic tubes in the roadway that connect to an automatic traffic recorder device. The technician then programs the device to collect the desired type of data, including volumes, speeds, and vehicle classifications.

Engineering Studies

Traffic Engineers conduct several different types of engineering studies. These studies are used to determine, for example, the appropriate type of traffic control for an intersection, the appropriate speed limit for a roadway or curve in a roadway, the appropriate types of traffic calming devices to implement, or the appropriate design of roads, signals, signs and markings to improve safety.