Are there any ways that new technologies like GPS can be used to help with congestion?
We’ve been building a traffic management system throughout the city that can manage all of our streets and traffic signals. We have about three more years to go before we complete it, but we now have online congestion information for 80 percent of the city where we can see in real time what the congestion levels are. And we don’t just observe them–we have a computerized system that will automatically revise the signal timing in response to congestion. We’re using about 100 miles of fiber optic cable that eventually feeds to all the intersections. It includes 17,000 roadway detectors that tell us the congestion levels. We have about 400 video cameras where we can observe our intersections and streets in real time. And we have 25 changeable message signs where we can give information to motorists to advise them of congestion or a road closed ahead. Now we’re trying to send some of that information back to the public. They can go to a website and actually see what the congestion levels a
