If you notice a quicker commute on MacArthur Boulevard these days, it’s because the city collaborated with Newport Beach and Caltrans to synchronize 23 traffic signals from the 55 freeway to Pacific Coast Highway.
The result? An average 15% improvement in travel time along the 7.5-mile stretch.
It follows the city’s synchronization of 31 traffic lights along Culver Drive and Bonita Canyon Drive a year earlier – giving Irvine 20 fully synchronized corridors.
Irvine’s Master Plan created a unique, hierarchical street system to keep traffic out of neighborhoods by using city-long corridors to connect residents to jobs and amenities. By synchronizing over 300 signals on these corridors, the city has eliminated nearly one-third of the stops a motorist would have otherwise encountered.
Traffic management center
The city manages all of its 380 signaled intersections from a traffic management center, where six full-time and two part-time staffers monitor road conditions using a wall of TV monitors.
“Our traffic management center sets us apart from other cities,” Director of Public Works and Transportation Jaimee Bourgeois says.
From here, traffic engineers adjust the timing of lights during work commutes, construction activities and special events. They also synchronize traffic signals.
By summer, they will have synchronized another 28 signals on Red Hill Avenue, from Bryan Avenue to Bristol Street. And like the MacArthur Boulevard project, it will be funded by the Orange County Transportation Authority.
