Issaquah advances ITS work: feasibility study for adaptive signals, video analytics expansion and signal upgrades slated

John Mortensen, the city’s transportation engineering manager, told the Mobility and Infrastructure Committee on Oct. 14 that Issaquah is moving forward on multiple elements of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) plan the City Council approved about two years ago. The administration outlined a phased feasibility study for adaptive signal control, a video analytics pilot expansion funded by a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) grant, upgrades to signal controllers, and work to improve the city communications network.

The ITS plan’s stated mission is to improve safety, health, security and multimodal movement by using advanced technologies, agency coordination, and real-time traveler information. Mortensen said the plan identified several immediate technical gaps when the inventory was completed: about half of signal control devices had reached end of life, the communications network was roughly 10% of the speed needed for proposed devices and lacked redundancy, and many field devices could not send performance data to a central system. Those conditions, he said, produced reactive maintenance, increased overtime and constrained performance measurement.

“To get where we want — a managed, and eventually optimized, signal system — we need to be deliberate about staffing, communications and where adaptive signal control makes sense,” Mortensen said. “Adaptive signals are a tool; they are…