Better Traffic Flow in Edmonton (January 2024)

In early 2023 I wrote a blog post on a motion I made about how we can work to better improve traffic flow in Edmonton. You can read that post here to get caught up. In early December, the report on this motion came back to our Urban Planning Committee and it provided more details as to how we can help improve traffic flow across Edmonton no matter how you travel in our city.

This report provided a breakdown of different upgrades we can incorporate into our roadway reconstruction projects. I won’t go into detail on each but I will highlight one of the main differences that we see in many North American cities compared to one of the best countries for traffic flow: The Netherlands. If you want to see their technology in action, you can watch this YouTube video.

They use approximately 6 times the number of inductive loops which allows for more responsive traffic management no matter how you move. An inductive loop is equipment installed in the road or path surface that detects vehicle or bicycle presence to influence traffic signals or obtain volume counts. Typically used to detect vehicles on side streets or in turning lanes, or to detect transit vehicles and provide specific bus signals. These can be used to detect count, speed, length and lane position of vehicles.

Going into the meeting, I had worked with City staff on a motion to provide clear direction about implementing this going forward. Here was the motion that was approved at that meeting:

“That Administration provide a report along with an implementation plan for a review of the Traffic Signals program which includes updated guidelines with options for advance detection and full actuation of traffic signals along with prioritization criteria for upgrading existing or installing new traffic signals in alignment with the City Plan, the Safe Mobility Strategy and other roadway network guidelines and that the review explore options for service enhancements and resource requirements, including impacts to the 2025, 2026, and 2027-2030 Capital and Operating budgets.”

What this means is that the different technology solutions identified in the report, not just the inductive loops, will be standardized in future projects. The report asks for a list of critical projects in 2025 and 2026 that may need to have some of these upgrades included in the budget. Once those are addressed, the next budget cycle from 2027-2030 should have those upgrades included in the standard budget.

Over the coming years, we should start to see better traffic flow across the city and as the report shows, this is not an expensive solution as each of the inductive loops cost around $25,000-$45,000. When you consider that to the overall project cost of a new road, this shouldn’t add much to a project budget but it will produce far better results for the movement of traffic.