Traffic Cams Installed on P’ville’s Bedford Road to Increase Safety
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There may soon be fewer traffic jams and safer pedestrian crossings at problematic intersections along Pleasantville’s Bedford Road.
New 360-degree panoramic cameras are monitoring traffic flows and generating information that could lead to changing the timing of traffic lights. The cameras are at Bedford Road and Pleasantville Road, Bedford Road and Marble Avenue, and Bedford Road and Wheeler Avenue.
Superintendent of Public Works Anthony Carr last week explained how the cameras collect data, which must be authorized by local legislation. The information gathered will determine whether any changes are justified.
“This is a video detection system, which is the eyes to the brain of the traffic controller box, or brain,” Carr said. “We can also see how fast cars are going.”
Once the data is retrieved, the timing for the red, yellow and green lights can be reprogrammed to reduce any backups while allowing more time for pedestrians to cross the street.
Last year the village hired DTS Provident Design Engineering to prepare a traffic signal timing and optimization study to analyze the three intersections along Bedford Road. The study, which cost $7,100, recommended certain signal timing improvements aimed at minimizing traffic delays and making pedestrian crossings safer.
Carr said that timing plans used in the study were based on models that are considered conservative.
“The lights will be reprogrammed to times that the consultants came up with but there might be little tweaks and adjustments to those timing plans,” he said.
The timing of signals is expected to be completed by Oct. 1, according to Carr.
In other village traffic news, Cooley Street, between Manville Road and Bedford Road, is now open to vehicular and pedestrian traffic and on-street parking. Parking meters will be installed in the near future, Village Administrator Eric Morrissey said.
Also, the Memorial Plaza slip lane is tentatively scheduled to close this Friday, Sept. 27. Parking will be restricted at the train station parking lot at Memorial Plaza. The northerly entrance closest to Manville Road will be closed.
To accommodate the slip lane closure, there will be a dedicated right-turn lane at the Manville Road-Memorial Plaza intersection. Parking spaces on the train station portion of Memorial Plaza will be restored once the project is complete.
The Manville Road Pedestrian Safety Project was first proposed by the village in 2007 because of traffic safety concerns at the Memorial Plaza slip lane leading to Manville Road. The anticipated cost for the project is about $600,000, and is supported by $450,000 in federal grant funding.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
