Kootenai County traffic management faces roadblocks

COEUR d’ALENE — Most Kootenai County motorists have experienced the frustration of hitting a seemingly endless series of red lights.

Rathrum resident Tom McNulty is no different. He said congestion gets so bad that it sometimes takes an hour for him to drive to Coeur d’Alene for groceries or to a medical appointment with his wife.

“I don’t mind getting stopped at a light occasionally, but I do mind getting stopped at six or 12 straight lights,” McNulty said. “We’re almost forced to go to Coeur d’Alene to do any shopping, but I’m trying to find a way not to because it’s too frustrating.”

When McNulty heard about a study on a possible countywide traffic management center, he was skeptical that such a hub could make a difference. He’d rather see road authorities improve the systems already in place.

“If you drive up and down 95, we’ve conclusively proved that it doesn’t work,” he said. “What we’ve got doesn’t work.”

Many people can agree with that much, even if ideas differ about how to solve traffic flow problems in Kootenai County.

“Some intersections aren’t operating well,” said Glenn Miles, Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization director. “On Government Way, you’re basically going to stop at every light. That’s what causes the corridor to perform poorly. Each intersection may be doing OK, but as a system, they’re doing poorly.”

A recent survey conducted by KMPO showed that most respondents are dissatisfied with current traffic signal timing and the level of available information about traffic conditions. About 80% of respondents expressed concern about growth and believe Kootenai County roadways are congested.

One possible solution is a countywide traffic management center, capable of observing the transportation network in real-time via video cameras placed at key arterials. The idea is to identify traffic flow issues and allow for coordinated interagency response.

A study launched last year by KMPO and the Idaho Transportation Department sought to answer key questions about a traffic management center: Where would it go? How would it operate? What would sit cost? How might it benefit Kootenai County?

The study proved controversial, with many county residents speaking against the idea of a traffic management center, calling it a “spy hub” that would be used to track the populace.

The KMPO board voted Aug. 10 to kill the study, which was in its final phases.

But Kootenai County’s traffic flow problems persist and are likely to increase. Traffic volumes on Interstate 90 alone are expected to double by 2045, according to ITD.

“We predicted this traffic 10 years ago,” Miles said. “We’re now looking at 2045. If it looks like this now, imagine when we go from 180,000 to 340,000 people.”

KMPO knows where the delay hotspots are. The agency receives data from INRIX Signal Analytics, which collects anonymized traffic data and provides it to cities, automakers, road authorities and others. The data is aggregated from connected cars and mobile services, as well as cameras and sensors on roadways.

Miles pointed to data collected the week before Memorial Day. At the intersection of West Appleway Avenue and U.S. 95, the average delay per vehicle was 42 seconds. At Appleway and Government Way, the average delay was 49 seconds and rose to a peak of 52.5 seconds.

All those seconds add up. In the month of May, the Appleway and Government Way intersection saw 448 hours of delay on average. In other words, many thousands of drivers collectively spent more than 18 days waiting at the intersection.

“You start seeing why it gets expensive when things don’t work right,” Miles said.

Kootenai County has a complex latticework of signals. It’s easy to oversimplify traffic flow issues by pointing to certain areas, Miles said, but the problem can’t be boiled down to any one spot.

“If you fix 95 but you harm side streets, you’ve actually made the system worse, but the people who only drive on 95 are satisfied,” he said.

Traffic signals are a big piece of the puzzle. In order to time the signals, entities like the Idaho Transportation Department monitor traffic flow with cameras, radar and loop detectors, which are embedded in roadways and can sense vehicles passing over them. Signals can be connected to one another and work in concert.

In Kootenai County, traffic lights owned by different entities — including cities, highway districts and ITD — operate independently and may be unable to communicate with one another. The signals can’t all work together. This limits the ability to provide regional responses to traffic flow.

“One of the greatest benefits of the traffic management center was to get all signals talking,” said Megan Jahns, ITD spokeswoman.

Non-recording, real-time traffic cameras are also in use in Kootenai County, albeit without multi-jurisdictional coordination.

“The ability to remotely address traffic congestion at a signal is incredibly helpful and saves a lot of time,” Jahns said.

KMPO’s recent survey, which closed Aug. 4, aimed to help road authorities understand what areas of regional transportation performance need to be addressed.

The survey received 1,567 responses, but review by research firm the Moore Information Group indicated that 288 of those responses showed signs of “artificial manipulation.”

Responses flagged as suspicious came in during the same brief window — as frequently as six in one minute — and only answered the last question, which gauged respondents’ feelings on the use of a joint traffic management center.

Setting aside the flagged responses, 1,369 completed surveys remained. All told, 59% of respondents indicated they support or strongly support a TMC, while 13% of respondents were neutral.

Just 3% of respondents opposed a TMC, while 16% strongly opposed one.

In total, 72% of those who answered the survey had positive or neutral feelings toward a potential TMC, while 19% opposed it.

To see how such a system operates, look no further than the Spokane Regional Transportation Management Center.

Tucked away inside the bus terminal at 221 W. First Ave., most Spokane drivers probably don’t realize the multi-jurisdictional traffic management center is there.

In a dimly lit room, a wall of monitors shows feeds from more than 130 live-streaming cameras pointed at roadways throughout the region. Operators work here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, monitoring road conditions and scanning for problems.

Glenn Ayers is one of them. After eight years at the TMC, he’s developed a keen eye for abnormalities: abandoned cars, debris on roadways, pedestrians in places they shouldn’t be.

“You get so used to the cameras, when something’s out of place, you just see it,” he said.

Early Friday morning, Ayers called emergency medical services for a woman he spotted walking up an on-ramp. She appeared visibly unwell, but first responders soon arrived to help. Hours later, he noticed a man doing the same thing.

Ayers flicked through different video feeds, trying to keep up with the pedestrian. But even from a bird’s-eye view, it’s tough to follow along with a person or vehicle using the live cameras. The system just isn’t set up for that kind of surveillance.

Before long, Ayers found the pedestrian again and watched him turn around and walk back to safety, apparently none the worse for wear.

Drivers, passengers and license plates are virtually invisible on the publicly available video feeds. Nothing is recorded or stored.

Ryan Medenwaldt, who does IT support for the TMC, said it would take massive amounts of hardware in order to store footage from the cameras. Even if it weren’t wildly impractical, Medenwaldt said there would be no incentive to do it.

“Our mission is congestion management, not recording video,” he said.

Operators have a limited ability to pan, zoom and tilt the cameras. For example, Ayers might zoom in on a multi-vehicle crash in order to relay information to first responders. While he’s zoomed in, he can temporarily obscure the public feed, so that personally identifiable information like license plates aren’t blasted onto the internet. He can restore the feed once he zooms out.

“We want to respect people’s privacy,” said operations manager Mike Kress. “These cameras are on the roadway, not on homes and businesses.”

Spokane’s traffic management center provides the information for dynamic messaging signs and traveler alerts for construction, closures and more.

“We’re not just sitting in silos keeping the information to ourselves,” Kress said.

The TMC also plays an important role during emergencies.

As the Gray Fire in Medical Lake prompted mass evacuations, operators coordinated with state maintenance crews to help with road closures. In winter, snow plow and sand truck drivers call in slide-offs and crashes to TMC operators, who relay the information to first responders and other agencies.

When other motorists aren’t inclined to call in crashes — assuming, perhaps, that somebody else will do it — TMC operators are there, noticing and reporting what happened. They coordinate with other agencies to get traffic moving in a safe, controlled manner to prevent secondary collisions.

“It’s staffed by people who live in the community, who want their friends and family to get safely from point A to point B,” Kress said. “We’re not here to spy on anybody. We’re here to monitor traffic.”

The canceled KMPO study estimated the initial cost to develop a traffic management center in Kootenai County to be $6.2 million, a price that includes site work, construction and equipment. To build a TMC and operate it for 20 years would cost $14.8 million.

The net benefit over the same time period is projected to be $137.6 million.

Though there are no current plans to create a local traffic management center, the information gathered before the study’s cancelation will remain available if jurisdictions choose to pursue the idea in the future.