Strategic Methods for Modernizing Traffic Signal Maintenance Management and Quantifying the Impact of Maintenance Activities

In a period of increasingly constrained budgets, traffic engineers must develop more cost-effective maintenance strategies for traffic signal systems. Existing literature suggests that many agencies lack methods to systematically identify signal maintenance opportunities, and even fewer measure the impact of maintenance activities. This paper presents a method of using high-resolution signal controller data to identify intersections with failed inductive loop detection, which can result in substantial misallocation of green times and unnecessary vehicle delay. An application of this methodology is explored on a major urban arterial, with the resulting repairs translating to approximately $900,000 in annual user benefits. The results presented in this paper are easily implementable, given the increasing adoption of high-resolution signal controller data. Such methods can also be used to more clearly communicate maintenance success stories with the general public and elected officials.