KANSAS CITY, MO — July 14, 2011 — The City of Lee’s Summit brought home the gold for showing more green. The Kansas City Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (KCITE) today awarded its top honor to the City of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The city earned KCITE’s 2010 Excellence in Transportation Award for its deployment of InSync adaptive traffic signal control on several busy roadways.
View the full project write-up and results at http://rhythmtraffic.com/KCITE_Award.pdf
“Road users benefit from reduced travel time and noticeably fewer stops when traveling along Chipman Road,” said Michael Park, City Traffic Engineer for Lee’s Summit. The InSync system delivers green lights to waiting vehicles sooner and coordinates signals along the corridor so motorists arrive to green lights at each intersection as they travel the road.
The annual award is given to a project that shows measurable and significant results achieved through innovation. Studies of the benefits of the project show travel times on the corridors decreased by as much as 55 percent. Park said the new system, which uses artificial intelligence to coordinate signals based on what computers see through Ethernet-based video cameras, creates efficiencies in his department as well as on the roadway.
“Road users also benefit from a higher level of signal timing, operational maintenance and agility, with less staff resources, enabled by the remote communication features provided by the system, that were otherwise unavailable,” said Park.
Rhythm Engineering of Lenexa, Kansas, who makes the InSync traffic management system, said the benefits of the system go beyond a quicker commute time.
“When cars stop less often and accelerate less often, you reduce fuel consumption,” said Reggie Chandra, CEO of Rhythm Engineering and traffic engineer. “With the level of benefit we see on Chipman Road, it is likely we are saving motorists millions of dollars every year in time and fuel. When you burn less fuel, you also emit less pollution.”
The same system was installed by the Missouri Department of Transportation on Missouri Highway 291 in Lee’s Summit in 2009. The Lee’s Summit Police Department attributed a 17% reduction in traffic accidents on Highway 291 to InSync.
“The benefits of this project foster a positive public opinion regarding traffic conditions in the area,” said Park.
About Rhythm Engineering:
Rhythm Engineering is the leader in innovative traffic solutions with its InSync system that uses artificial intelligence to adapt traffic signals to traffic demand in real-time. Dr. Reggie Chandra, PE, PTOE, founded the company in 2005 with the mission to deliver loved ones to their destination faster and safer. Traffic agencies in 13 states have chosen to deploy InSync at more than 450 intersections. Independent studies of these installations prove InSync reduces stops by up to 90%, travel time by up to 50%, and fuel consumption and emissions by 20-30%. To learn more, visit http://rhythmtraffic.com.