Increasingly, communities are adjusting the timing of traffic signals, based on traffic volumes.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a 10-county planning agency, recently completed the first phase of a long-term project that ultimately will adjust the timing of about a quarter of the region‘s 2,750 traffic signals…

 SPC project manager Domenic D‘Andrea said studies are under way for the second phase, expected to cost $5 million and improve about 250 intersections by early 2015, he said. Similar work is planned in the third and final phase.

A Carnegie Mellon University-led pilot project that targeted nine intersections in Pittsburgh‘s East Liberty neighborhood showed the so-called adaptive signals cut travel times through the area by 26 percent.