New Traffic Signal System About To Be Operational On McKnight Rd.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A new traffic signal system designed to ease traffic on McKnight Road in the North Hills is just weeks away from operation. Right now, it is accumulating all the data it needs.
It's the kind of change you hardly notice, small cameras now stand watch above the traffic signals and computers are tucked away in big silver control boxes.
McKnight Road's new adaptive traffic signal system is now in its learning phase.
"That means the traffic signals, the computers in those traffic signals are accumulating all the data," said PennDOT District 11 Traffic Engineer Todd Kravits. "The data that they're going to use to automatically time the traffic signals during the course of the day."
That learning will take a couple of weeks, and then the system goes to work.
"Then, for a couple weeks after that, we'll be making some tweaks to the traffic signal system to make sure everything is operating properly."
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It's the same process used on the first adaptive system installed on Route 19 in Wexford, which drivers have given mixed reviews.
The system in place on 22 in Murrysville certainly kept KDKA moving from the Turnpike East without stopping on Tuesday. It's been working for about a year.
"We've seen reductions in delays upwards to 75 percent during certain times of the day in the Route 22 corridor," said Kravits. "As traffic moves smoother through the corridor, we've seen a reduction in aggressive driving and in the number of rear end and angle crashes that we've been seeing.
PennDOT hopes to duplicate those results in Monroeville, announcing it will start installing the equipment in the Miracle Mile Corridor this summer and get it into operation late next spring.