Virginia to Use Variable Speed Limits to Control Congestion

Tag : Variable Speed Controllers

Beltway traffic is always a gamble when approaching the seeminglypermanent construction zone that is the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, andsummer Friday getaways are probably the worst. Now, however, theVirginia Department of Transportation (V-DOT) is going to trysomething new to untie the the traffic knots. V-DOT is erecting newspeed limit signs with digital readouts that can be altered inkeeping with current conditions. Traffic engineers will be able tochange the limits, higher or lower, based on the congestion and theconstruction.

Wilson Bridge project spokesman John Undeland says that "byregulating the speed we actually get a lot more vehicles throughand a lot more safely."

With the new signs in place, the hope is that traffic will be bothsafer and more efficient. The current speed limits will be basedon information collected with cameras and road sensors.

Undeland add, "So the speed limit may be 55 at the Springfieldinterchange, [and] it'll go down to 50, 45 and so forth."
Plans are already in place to boost enforcement in the area to makesure drivers comply with the posted speed limits.

The project is expected to be up and running just over a month fromnow. At that time it will largely be used to deal with laneclosures around Telegraph Road at night. If the signs work, V-DOTwill expand the times and locations where they are used

Officials at V-DOT offer the following metaphor for the trafficproblems and the way that the variable speed limits will addressthem: if you pour a bag of rice all at once into a funnel, itclogs and stops the flow. If you pour the rice at a measured pace,no clogs.

V-DOT believes that the variable speed limit, which organizes carsas if they were grains of rice, will have the same affect.