MDC ATMS Project Benefits

The Miami-Dade County Advanced Traffic Management System (MDC ATMS) will reduce delay and improve mobility within the County. Traffic flow will be improved by reducing congestion on roadways County-wide as major arterials are coordinated to run more like an integrated network system rather than individual entities.  This is achieved through the use of upgraded traffic control devices (Type 170 traffic controllers), an advanced ATMS software system (KITS), implementing the latest communication technologies (Digital Subscriber Lines [DSL], wireless), and new ATMS workstations.

The ability to oversee and manage the County’s transportation network from a central location, the Traffic Control Center (TCC), will allow the County’s Traffic Engineers, Transportation Practitioners,  and Maintenance staff to respond to traffic incidents with a much higher degree of efficiency.   The MDC ATMS will enable the County to be even more proactive, as opposed to simply responsive; allowing them to apply timing changes virtually “on-the-fly”.  The goal of this is to improve progression and help minimize vehicle delay; resulting in shorter travel times and…

It is expected that all the signalized intersections in the County, upwards of 2600 intersections, will be converted over to this system in the next few years.

TCS Evaluation

An evaluation of the TCS was performed in order to document its benefits to the public. Instrumented test vehicles were driven along most arterials before and after system implementation to record peak period travel times and running speeds.  This basic data was used to calculate other measures such as fuel consumption, air pollutant emissions, and vehicle operating costs.  The results of the evaluation were as follows:

• 40% reduction in the total number of vehicle stops;
• 25% increase in average travel speed;
• 20% reduction in travel time (35,000,000 person-hours/yr. of driving time saved);
• 15% reduction in fuel consumption (worth $20,000,000 annually);
• 15% reduction in other vehicle operating costs;
• 20% reduction in pollutant emissions;
• 20% reduction in traffic signal repair response time.