(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2023)
Westbound on Quaker Road at Glenwood Avenue.
The busiest intersection in Queensbury will get an upgrade to the traffic light system, if all goes according to plan. The Queenbury Town Board listened Monday evening Feb. 28 to Marissa Tarallo of the Troy-based environmental engineering firm AKRF Inc. as she identified signal-timing solutions that will relieve traffic congestion on Quaker and Aviation roads.
Her preliminary presentation comes after a study that ran last fall and into the winter and included vehicular traffic along the corridor and improvements to pedestrian and bicycle safety.
The study found outdated technology, such as no vehicle detection, at the busiest intersections. It also showed a lack of crosswalks and signals for pedestrian traffic, Tarallo said.
“The current signal system is unable to coordinate or react to traffic demand,” said AKRF engineer Marissa Tarallo during her presentation to the town board.
Tarallo explained that implementing Adaptive Signal Control Technology can reduce the number of stops and decrease travel time by using an algorithm that can adjust in real time.
Improvements for pedestrians include the installation of the sidewalk curb ramps and pedestrian push buttons, as well as high visibility crosswalks and additional signage, according to Tarallo.
According to the study, the estimated annual benefits of Adaptive Signal Control Technology are:
- 46,500 fewer hours traveling.
- Motorists will save 5,200 gallons of gas.
- 27,800 fewer hours of delay.
- 9 fewer crashes.
- Motorists will emit 47 fewer tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
The study cost about $81,000, according to Queensbury Supervisor John Strough. A $60,000 grant from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation helped cover the cost.
The board still needs to decide how to proceed. Any movement forward would include Warren County, which is planning to repair much of Quaker Road this year, along with NYSERDA, and the state Department of Transportation, Senior Planner Stuart Baker said in an email.
“The corridor carries upwards of 25,000 vehicles a day. The Quaker-Aviation intersection sees about 40,000 vehicles a day,” Strough said. Citing 2018 data, Strough remarked that “the corridor experienced over 156,000 peak hours of excessive delay, making improving traffic flow a high priority regionally.”
Improvements to the system are not expected to affect the town budget.
“This study produced what will be in my opinion a slam dunk grant application,” said Tarallo when asked how the Adaptive Signal Control Technology will be funded.
“The system would likely cost around a half a million, well within a grant application,” Tarallo said. She mentioned the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, as well as several state grants, that would likely be enticed by the implementation of innovative technology that will cut down on greenhouse gas emissions caused during peak traffic hours.
In the future, this technology could also be applied to the Route 9 traffic corridor at the Lake George Outlets, Tarallo concluded.