Ingenuity Magazine Summer 2020

4 Pond | www.pondco.com INNOVATIVE INTERSECTIONS Enhancing Transportation’s Corridor Safety and Efficiency O n average, drivers who commute through our nation’s largest cities spend almost 100 hours stuck in traffic. Not only is this staggering statistic disheartening at best, it also poses the question of the potential toll the increased road time is taking on our physical and psychological health. More time in traffic means more potential exposure to road risks and vehicle conflicts. The stress drivers feel when they are crawling down the road in bumper-to- bumper traffic feels completely unavoidable and unsolvable. While acknowledging that congestion is a side effect of a growing commuter population and might not be something that can be handled overnight, transportation engineers are working to propose solutions that will reduce commuter despair. One of which begins at our intersections. Arterial corridors, which serve as a city’s visible path of movement, deliver high volumes of traffic from local streets and expressways and connect them to urban centers. They also provide direct access to businesses, provide connections to local roads and streets, and serve as major thoroughfares for long-distance travel. As arterial corridors experience more use and congestion, new obstacles arise in their operation. The combination of uses has resulted in growing traffic and a corresponding increase in vehicle conflicts.