The US 22 study area is a major arterial with many national chain stores and businesses such as Costco and BJ’s along the corridor. It connects I- 287 and Bridgewater in the west to Newark in the east. As a member of the consultant team for NJDOT’s Traffic Signal Optimization on call agreement, JPCL was retained to conduct signal optimization study along a part of this corridor. The study area included seven signalized intersections in North Plainfield and Watchung Townships: starting from West End Avenue in the west to Terrill Road in the east.
Several complaints were received about congestion on West End Avenue, Wilson Avenue and North Drive during peak hours, particularly on the jug handles. The primary objective of this study was to address the queuing problems on these three side streets and other intersections to ensure traffic flows efficiently along the corridor during the peak periods.
JPCL performed traffic data collection and reduction using ATRs and Miovision cameras at intersections and TruTraffic to collect arterial travel times. Additionally, JPCL partnered with Michael Baker International to perform SimTraffic calibration to simulate the actual field conditions, and developed existing, no-build, and optimized models. Capacity analysis and signal timing analyses were performed using Synchro and SimTraffic to assess no-build, and optimized conditions in addition to visualizing traffic operations with SimTraffic.
