St. Petersburg's roadways are being infused with new technology that officials say will help lessen congestion on two of the city's busiest and most dangerous roadways.
A $1.16 million grant from the Florida Department of Transportation will allow the city to update its traffic signal equipment along 15 intersections on 66th Street and Tyrone Boulevard.
St. Petersburg transportation manager Cheryl Stacks said the new tech will update the intersection software and add video detection cameras so signals can monitor traffic in real-time and adjust the lengths of signals if there's a glut of congestion in a certain area.
"If we see that we're having a lot of traffic on 66th Street, we need to adjust the green times, it'll adjust the greenlight length to allow more green time on 66th Street, and maybe take some from the side streets if nobody's waiting there anyway,” Stacks said.
The tech can also change turn signal times, so if a particular turning lane is backed up, it can have the signal run through multiple green light signals consecutively to clear the congestion.
Right now, the signals rely of electromagnetic detectors in the asphalt, which Stacks says can break or collect debris, making them less effective.
The money will also allow the city to implement roadside units between intersections on Tyrone and 66th, to communicate with cars and send traffic messages on upcoming hazards or traffic conditions.
Stacks said some areas of Pinellas County are already using this type of technology, so this infusion will do a better job of adding connectivity throughout the county’s roadways. The SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit also uses the technology, since it gets priority on the roads if it's behind schedule.
“And from a motorist’s perspective, as far as construction goes, most of that's going to happen outside of the curbs,” Stacks said. “There might be occasional lane closures to allow the crews to upgrade the cabinet or install the camera over the lane, and those kinds of things. But by-and-large, the construction of this is not going to be very disruptive at all.”
Stacks said 66th Street and Tyrone Boulevard were selected because they contain a lot of “closed space intersections” without much room for cars that don’t make it through traffic signals. They’re also some of the most highly congested roadways in the county, making them some of the most susceptible to crashes.
"Particularly in the west side of St. Petersburg, because we don't really have the space to widen the roads or to make additional turn lanes and do those types of treatments that could more easily adapt to having more vehicles there,” Stacks said. “We have to kind of squeeze more juice out of what we already have."
A separate $4 million grant for the entire county will implement some more of the roadside units near 8th Street and MLK Street between 1st Avenue South and 1st Avenue North near the SunRunner stations, which is close an area navigated more by pedestrians.
Stacks said the tech should be up in running in those two corridors by the end of 2025.
