Source: City of Las Cruces
To smooth out the crawls and jams that choke the life out of our afternoon commutes, the City’s Traffic Management Section has switched on a new system along Lohman Avenue that promises a breath of fresh air for weary drivers and crosswalk-weary pedestrians alike.
Between Walnut Street and Nacho Drive, an artificial intelligence-driven traffic signal timing plan is taking the wheel during peak hours, from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., to steer Lohman Avenue’s traffic towards a more bearable experience.
This fresh approach, which is the brainchild of a collaboration between the City, Kimley-Horn, one of the nation’s leading engineering consultants, and Intelligent Transportation System frontiersmen Econolite Systems, seeks to tackle the corridor’s notorious traffic snarls head-on. The six intersections along Lohman Avenue have been re-timed to better match the pulsing rhythms of daily traffic, though not without its share of pocket-protector crunching challenges.
According to the City of Las Cruces, this adjustment has already shown promising results in its initial week, with eastbound traffic speeds noticing a surge, up by 53 percent, and westbound flows also gaining an additional 18 percent over prior figures.
Not to be downplayed, the financial forecast looks sunny too, with projected fuel savings hitting around $339,000, not to mention an added $43,000 shaved off emissions costs, all within a year’s cycle.
Yet, the change is more than just what can be tallied up in dollars or miles per hour. The AI-driven signals are expected to cast a wider net of benefits, including an uplifted quality of life with smoother mobility and curbing driver aggression. In ecological terms, the plan pledges a drop in Greenhouse gas emissions, cutting down on carbon dioxide by 594kg, carbon monoxide by 8,320kg, and nitrogen dioxide by 1,612kg on an annual basis.