News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
New traffic light programming could help improve Cookeville’s traffic flow.
Public Works Director Greg Brown said the Central Software and Support system will allow the city to better coordinate traffic signals and ease congestion.
“It’s a program that we’ll install that will link our signals together, particularly after we get them all connected with fiber,” Brown said. “We can monitor what they’re doing a lot better. We can keep tabs on them from the office or in the field. We can also change them from a remote location.”
Brown said installing the program won’t lead to any delays across the city and shouldn’t take long to implement.
“We’ll order it right after we get approval, then we’ll install it. They’re still working on trying to get fiber to all the signals,” Brown said. “We get all that, then we’ll start trying to implement some things with it then. It’s just a program we’ll have to install. It’s not any hardware or anything that we’ll have to do anything with. When we get it installed, hopefully we can start seeing results soon after.”
Brown said the nearly-$98,000-project would help improve areas like Willow Avenue, 10th Street, and Jefferson Avenue where traffic delays are more common.
“Some of the signals aren’t tied together so we’ll try to get them coordinated to keep a platoon of traffic moving through without having to stop at every light,” Brown said. “If we get a few more things in the field, hopefully we can monitor the progress of traffic during busy days. We might be able to help the traffic move better on certain days. At least, we can see actually what’s happening so if we need to, we can put in another pattern to make it work better.”
Cookeville City Council will consider approving the system purchase during Thursday’s regularly-scheduled meeting starting at 5:30 p.m.
