Sonoma County Reduces Traffic Costs and Congestion

USAT Reduces Congestion and Costs for Sonoma County Taxpayers

Situated in the northernmost part of “Wine Country,” Sonoma County, California, consists of 30 cities and towns across 1,768 square miles, and is home to more than 350 wineries. As the largest producer in Wine Country, Sonoma County welcomes 8.4 million tourists every year in addition to its resident population of over 488,000 people.

To service the residents, businesses, and tourists in the area and reduce traffic accidents and congestion, Sonoma County manages a network of roadways throughout their municipality. Their IT team provides support for traffic signals and intersections. In any municipality, ensuring the safety of all motorists is a primary concern. In Sonoma County, this concern is magnified by a large number of tourists - and, therefore, individuals who are unfamiliar with the local roads and traffic patterns.

In 2015, a year before this project was implemented, it was noted that traffic fatalities - and incidents in general - were on the upswing in Sonoma County, increasing 9% over the year before. While many of them were attributed to motorists driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, many of them involved speeding and unsafe turns. This uptick in accidents and fatalities, in addition to issues with increasing congestion throughout the county and problems with keeping the existing signal infrastructure connected, was seen as a further catalyst for ensuring that all traffic signals in the area were functioning properly at all times and could be maintained remotely when needed.

The Challenge

Connecting Traffic Signaling Systems To Better Monitor And Match Traffic Flows 24/7

Each of Sonoma County’s traffic intersections is connected via a SCADA system, with a typical intersection containing traffic signals, pavement sensors, and a controller typically located in close proximity to the system. The controller is connected to county operations and enables the operations team to remotely monitor and control traffic flow across the region. When connected, these components can be outfitted with new software and traffic signal schedules, which keep traffic flowing day and night.

For many years, each intersection was hardwired to the county’s operations using landlines. Each intersection is “always on,” and the system pings and polls each signal regularly to get status.

This wasn’t without its challenges, however, and proved increasingly unreliable, with breakdowns every few days. In addition, when polls received information, the county’s operations team didn’t receive a notification, so a traffic signal could be down, and the county would have no way of knowing in real-time, other than to rely on law enforcement and the community to let them know.

County Traffic Light Management with AirLink Devices

The new timing could be downloaded to each intersection, but, when failures occurred, all timing information was lost, resulting in manual re-loading of software on the controller. In addition, the cost of 24/7 operations was approximately $220,000 per year.

As if all of those shortcomings weren’t enough of a reason to make a change, the county’s carrier partner announced they would no longer provide the hardwire solution, forcing the county to look for alternate ways to keep intersections connected. This was made more difficult by the fact that much of the equipment in the traffic control system is 20 years old, and any serious contender for a communications solution would need to support legacy infrastructure.

The Solution

AirLink® LTE Gateway Wirelessly Connects Traffic Signaling System

The county evaluated several wireless gateways that they hoped would provide a replacement for their hardwire solution. They had difficulty finding a reliable solution; one product was faulty, and others couldn’t be configured to work with a 3-layer VPN and static IPs. That’s when they brought in the experts at USAT to help narrow their selections and implement their solution.

USAT, around the time of their project in late 2015, was able to bring them up to speed on the newly launched AirLink RV50 Industrial LTE router. When USAT outlined its features and married them up to the county's needs, it was proposed as the primary solution.

The county enlisted USAT to help them run a proof-of-concept trial first, installing the gateway in a single intersection to see how it would work with their application. It worked perfectly. And after performing a cost-benefit analysis, brought on USAT to assist them with a county-wide rollout of the devices.

Note: While the RV50 is now end-of-life, AirLink’s RV50X is a newer and improved gateway more suited to current applications. We typically recommend the RV50X be paired with Mobile Mark CVWG302 (covert) LTB302 (slim) or LTMG302 antenna for traffic applications. For traffic management applications that utilize Wi-Fi or CBRS, the even newer RX55 is more well suited to the task, especially when paired with the Mobile Mark CVWG502 (covert and non-crbs) or LTMG502 antenna.

The Results

Over 90% Cost Savings and Constant Connectivity

The county was able to configure its new solution out of the box and received support from USAT for the VPN configuration. They got the system activated in one day, and immediately had a solution that not only provides uninterrupted connectivity but notifies them of problems like polling errors. The county can now download new software to the entire system at once or select specific systems to accommodate special events and can push signal timing on demand. What’s more, the communications cost of nearly $250,000 had been reduced to $16,000 per year – a 93% savings using cellular communications over landlines.

Traffic Management with Cellular Networking Solutions

“The equipment paid for itself in 4 weeks,” said Mark Wein, then Civil Engineer of Sonoma County. “We’re getting ready to install two new intersections, and being able to deploy a wireless solution simplifies deployment. With our savings, we’re able to look at upgrading our traffic signal controllers.”

In addition to the immense cost savings, Sonoma County enjoyed other benefits such as:

Improved ability to remotely monitor locations, traffic signals, and download new software
Remote monitoring of video cameras at specific
Reduced monthly communications
Reduced implementation time for new intersections which will no longer require landlines to be
Sonoma County’s Business Challenge
Sonoma County Traffic Management with AirLink devices

Our Team

Device Provisioning, Activation and Installation Services

USAT specializes in designing and deploying mobile wireless data connectivity solutions for public and private healthcare organizations — complete with implementation, training, proof of concept (POC), system auditing, and on-site RF surveying services with optional engineering maintenance contracts. Our team not only helps you select, provision, and activate devices, we make sure they work in practical applications and real-life situations.

For over 25 years, USAT has provided mobile communications solutions for healthcare applications across the USA. With our extensive catalog of world-class routers, gateways, and software designed for remote monitoring and management in even the harshest environments — you can count on us to get and keep you connected.

Better mobile connectivity translates to less manual equipment maintenance, reduced downtime, and an overall increase in your business’s ROI. Contact the experts at USAT to learn how our wireless networking solutions can help meet your organization’s exacting needs.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on June 23, 2016, and has been updated to include newer products and services available to county traffic and transit authorities interested in implementing similar solutions for improved intersection management.