Toulouse: how are red lights regulated?
Toulouse Métropole has 700 traffic light intersections, managed remotely by PC Capitoul technicians. Thanks to a network of 85 cameras, they can increase or decrease the time spent at certain traffic lights, regulate traffic and reduce the time in traffic jams.
Who has never cursed against a particularly short fire, in a car, on a bicycle or as a pedestrian? Each crossroads in Toulouse and the municipalities of the metropolis is regulated to the nearest second, depending on the vehicles that present themselves there: bus, tram, cars. And wait times at lights can vary, depending on the time of day, a work zone or a variation in traffic. Some, however, are particularly short.
At the Arènes coming from Saint-Simon, “the losing flow” and a very short passage time
This is the case, for example, of a fire at the Barrière de Paris crossroads (see elsewhere). Or again, from a traffic light at the Arènes, arriving from the road to Saint-Simon.
” the turns left which heads towards the hopper and the avenue de Lombez is short for cars. This is clearly the “losing” flow, compared to cars turning right towards Déodat, or coming from Déodat, or those going towards rue de Cugnaux, for example. The tramway, with its specific rules, is preferred, and the buses that come from the Arena as well,” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Ribot, head of the dynamic equipment and flow management department for Toulouse Métropole.
Clearly, the more traffic flows at an intersection, the shorter the crossing time will be for certain flows.
Public transport, bus and tram, favored over cars
“We set the traffic lights in such a way as to favor public transport. At a crossroads with a bus or tram, the latter will have more passing time than cars. This is why at certain intersections, the passage time for cars and pedestrians will seem very short”.
Another example is at Fer à Cheval. “The tram is preferred. Nevertheless, we succeeded in better regulating this fire, by better anticipating the passage of the tram, by working on the placement of the detection loops. Cars wait a little less than at the beginning, 5 or 10 years ago. There are also fewer vehicles, the modal relationship towards transport or the bicycle is also gradually being made, ”explains the manager at Toulouse Métropole.
Six seconds minimum says the regulations, in which case you must add 10 seconds of “clearance”
Cars, but also pedestrians. Some lights may seem extremely short to cross the roadway. “At the Palais de Justice, the crossing time for pedestrians may seem very short, but you should know that regulations require a minimum of 6 seconds, with 10 seconds more clearance, in the event that a pedestrian enters the pedestrian crossing at the last moment”, explains Pierre-Emmanuel Ribot.
The Campus Trafic flow department also acts as a traffic flow regulator. “Look, we have been notified of an accident on the ring road to the Rose Garden, show the technician on his screen. There, we see that many motorists leave the ring road on the road to Agde, to avoid being stuck in traffic jams. So we are going to increase the green lights in their direction, to make them move faster, and clear the traffic”. There are a total of 84 cameras dedicated to traffic throughout the territory of the metropolis, to observe the flow of traffic.