Engineers reviewing traffic data
Contractor warns that only incremental improvements are possible on U.S. 71
A traffic engineering firm collected traffic data all along U.S. Highway 71 and is putting it to use to find out what improvements can be made to stoplight timing.
The Oklahoma-based firm, Traffic Engineering Consultants, has a $25,000 contract with the city to perform a traffic study and make recommendations to improve the flow of traffic.
“It’s an open project,” said Chris Suneson, director of Community Development Services.
The project was outsourced, he said, because the city lacks the expertise and manpower.
The idea, he said, is to make whatever improvements in timing are possible all along the highway’s run through Bella Vista.
“The big thing the public needs to understand,” he said, “is this is a small, incremental improvement.”
Actually fixing traffic on U.S. 71, he said, would require construction of alternate routes or widening the roads.
The firm has also suggested some hardware improvements, he said, which could cost between $400 and $1,000. These
improvements, he said, could allow the city to sync up all its lights on U.S. 71.
Another thing the firm is looking into, he said, is automating the internal clocks’ transitions for daylight saving time, which has proven problematic in previous years.
The clocks the lights operate on do not automatically change.
“It saves us a service call and provides continuity to what everybody’s doing,” Suneson said.
Steve Hofener, Traffic Engineering Consultants’ founder, said that the firm spent the first couple weeks of 2017 collecting data.
They used video equipment to gather more complex data, like turning movements, he said, and simpler road tubes — air hoses that signal a control box when wheels roll over them — to count the number of cars passing through in a day.
“It takes some time,” he said. “The data collection is really important because it kind of gives us a picture of what needs to occur over there.”
As of right now, he said, the firm has a lot of data to look through before it can start coming up with adjustments.
He expects to start implementing the changes in 30 to 45 days, he said.
The firm will be studying traffic flow after they implement changes, as well, he said.
Moreover, they will return to take a second look in the summer.
The highway and streets, he said, are over capacity, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any improvement.
“If we could get probably a 3 to 5 percent improvement at that intersection,” he said, referring to the infamous Benton County 40 intersection, “we’ll see even greater improvements at other intersections.”
Suneson said that the next step, before any implementation occurs, is to take the firm’s suggestions to the Arkansas Highway Transportation Department for feedback.