OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – Traffic lights have been added to the I-95 on-ramps at Oakland Park Boulevard in Broward County.
“We have seen that they’ve been effective,” said Ryan Drendel with the Florida Department of Transportation. “We have had around 80% of cars stopping at them.
“Without the ramp signals, you get large groups of vehicles merging into 95 all at once,” he continued. “And it really creates a backup. Ramp signals won’t eliminate all the congestion, but they work together as a system with our other solutions we have in place, including the express lanes, road rangers.”
Those types of traffic lights have been used across Miami-Dade County for over a decade, and now Broward County is adding more.
They are already up and running at ramps for Cypress Creek Road and Atlantic Boulevard, but the question is, are they effective?
A system of road sensors and cameras makes the lights traffic-responsive. They can also gather data that helps officials in future planning and placement.
Broward’s system is fairly new. The goal is to have them posted on every on-ramp.
Miami-Dade officials have noted a difference in flow before and after the lights were installed by double-digit minutes.
Across the country, different studies have also been done.
In Minnesota, they turned off all ramp lights for roughly six weeks and found a 9% reduction in freeway volume but travel times increased by 22%.
Speeds went down and crashes went up by some 26%.
Broward County will be studying the results of its lights and traffic patterns as it continues to add more.
The Florida Highway Patrol is teaming up with the county to ticket drivers who do not obey the signals.