HighLight Heading
May 2009
'Smart Signal' receives award
Henri Liu
A system to monitor the performance of urban arterials and improve traffic flow received this year’s CTS Research Partnership Award. Dawn Spanhake, CTS assistant director for program and financial management, presented the award at the CTS Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon held March 25.
The system—known as SMART-Signal (short for “Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road Traffic Signals”)— is a real-time arterial performance monitoring system that uses traffic data from existing signal systems. The project was a joint effort of the University, Hennepin County, Mn/DOT, and the private sector. The research was funded by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institute at CTS and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board, with significant in-kind support from Hennepin County.
Henry Liu, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, accepted the award on behalf of the project partners. Although traffic engineers have tools to measure real-time freeway performance, he said, similar approaches for urban arterials do not exist but are urgently needed. The development of SMART-Signal fills in this gap. “We can do much better to manage traffic...if we have the right tools.”
In their research, Liu and his students developed software and hardware to collect and archive data—about vehicles, signals, and pedestrians—and calculate real-time performance measures. The system contributes to scientific knowledge and also “has practical value to traffic engineers,” he said.
Bob Green, Henry Liu, Steve Misgen, Eric Drager, Dawn Spanhake
SMART-Signal has been instrumented on 11 intersections along France Avenue in Hennepin County since February 2007 and on six intersections of Mn/DOT Trunk Highway (TH) 55 since January 2008; another test site with 14 intersections will be instrumented on TH 13. Continuing research is focused on enhancing the system to allow automatic signal adjustment based on traffic conditions.
The University is currently in the patent application process to protect the intellectual property, Liu said. He also noted that his team has received a grant from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program to extend its work on SMART-Signal, and that the system is used as an education module in a civil engineering course at the University.
Project Partners
- University of Minnesota, Department of Civil Engineering: Henry Liu, Wenteng Ma, Xinkai Wu, Heng Hu
- Hennepin County: Eric Drager, James Grube, Roy Doron, Darryl Dobesh, Tom Switzer
- Alliant Engineering: Bob Green
- Mn/DOT: Steve Misgen, Ronald Christopherson, Mike Dittel, Shirlee Sherkow
Spanhake also gave special partnership recognition to one other project: “Pervious Concrete Research in Minnesota.” This project brought together the Department of Civil Engineering, Mn/DOT, the City of Shoreview, Holcim USA, Cemstone, and Iowa State University’s Concrete Pavement Technology Center. The purpose of the project was to study the performance of pervious concrete for cold climates and develop suitable mix designs and construction practices.
Project Partners
- Mn/DOT: Bernard Izevbekhai (also with University of Minnesota, Department of Civil Engineering), Benjamin J. Worel, Bruce Holdhusen
- University of Minnesota, Department of Civil Engineering: Lev Khazanovich
- City of Shoreview: Mark Maloney
- Holcim USA: Joe Clendenen
- Cemstone: Kevin MacDonald
- Iowa State University Concrete Pavement Technology Center: Paul Wiegand