Indy embraces new tech to better manage traffic

Tucker Born, traffic signal systems engineer for the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, wants you to get nothing but green lights when you’re driving down Indy’s streets.

New technology the Department of Public Works is installing might help with that.

The department has contracted with two companies to provide technology that will help it monitor intersections. Devices are being placed on stoplights and utility poles throughout the city to better time and maintain traffic lights and collect traffic data. The goal is to make streets safer and traffic engineering more efficient.

An online-based advanced traffic management system called Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System is helping city engineers monitor the status of 156 intersections. The system provides engineers a broad map of the city, allowing them to see the status of stoplights, including which streets have a green light and when a signal is flashing.

It also allows the department to remotely alter the signal’s timing for major events or rush hours to prevent congestion. The city holds a $700,000 contract for 250 intersections through 2026, and Born said DPW is “making an effort to expand it throughout the rest of the city.”

“It really allows us to more proactively adjust the traffic signals to be better for the users, and not just [regarding] volume,” Born said. “They can give us other performance measures that we can get really nitty-gritty on.”

Also, Miovision 360 cameras are deployed at 39 intersections. They monitor intersections 24/7 with artificial intelligence that can detect near-miss crashes and show engineers the location of cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles. They provide live counts of how many vehicles are at an intersection and allow engineers to adjust traffic signals accordingly.

The city is also using Miovision Scouts, smaller cameras that can be used in locations without a permanent camera. They can conduct speed studies and count traffic volume.

Miovision touts 5,000 customers using its cameras across 63 countries, while Centracs says more than 500 North American cities use its software.

Chicago implemented much of this type of technology—including red light cameras and speed cameras, which are illegal in Indiana—in 2013 and 2014. In Detroit, 450 intersections are monitored through Miovision cameras and a remote traffic management system.

Darcy Bullock, a Purdue professor of civil engineering and transportation with a research interest in intelligent transportation systems, told IBJ that innovation in traffic signals has been a race for the last 50 years.

Older signals are powered through loop detectors, which use an electromagnetic field to detect cars stopped at an intersection. This type of detection, introduced in the early 1960s, is “rather limited,” Born said.

The underground detectors don’t provide a full picture of what happens at an intersection. And when contractors break through the asphalt for road projects, those detectors are often broken and rendered useless, DPW spokesman Kyle Bloyd said.

Born said many intersections where DPW has already installed the Miovision cameras and Centracs technology happen to be high-traffic. The department has prioritized larger intersections where loop detection systems have previously failed. DPW is also considering installing video detection at new intersections when a road project requires the intersection to be ripped up.

The most recent installations were along East 86th Street and Center Run Drive, near Castleton, and along Allisonville Road. Born said the latter is a widely used commuter corridor that historically has lacked any detection but sees congestion during peak hours.

“It’s always good when you upgrade detection,” Purdue’s Bullock said. “You can’t have an efficient traffic signal if you don’t have good detection. I applaud the effort for [Indianapolis] to make those investments because it’s always a challenge for agencies in financially constrained conditions coming up with these resources.”

In total, the cameras and sensors have cost about $2.1 million, with some procured through outside entities like IndyGo or the Central Indiana Community Foundation. Born described the purchases as relatively cheap investments for the department, which has a budget of $246 million in 2025.

“These technologies will be making people safer on the road, all users, but the way that most people will experience these changed technologies will be making them much more efficient, i.e. less time that you’re stuck at a stoplight,” Born said.

Street safety goals

The technology might help Indianapolis meet its ambitious goal of ending preventable road deaths by 2035.

Indianapolis convened a Vision Zero Task Force in 2024 to implement changes in road design, traffic signals and driver education that will make city streets accessible and safe for drivers, bus riders, bikers and pedestrians. It’s an effort adopted by peer cities such as Columbus and Cincinnati.

DPW has been charged with securing traffic software for signal-timing improvements at intersections with a higher-than-average number of crashes and injuries. It’s a short-term solution listed among four pages of goals in a draft action plan for the city’s task force.

Born said the new technology will meet that need. Data collected from the Miovision cameras, for example, could allow engineers to extend the time at some intersections between one light turning red and the other turning green, helping to avoid collisions caused by drivers running red lights.

At least for now, however, Indianapolis won’t be able to take full advantage of traffic technology peer cities are using because of restraints on how Indianapolis can use cameras on its streets. State law prohibits automated enforcement, like red light cameras or speed cameras. Street safety advocates have said that technology would be helpful, particularly when the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department lacks the manpower to conduct frequent traffic stops.

In the draft Vision Zero plan, DPW, IMPD and the city’s newly hired Vision Zero administrator, LeAndre Level, are tasked with “continuing to support a push for equitable, automated enforcement technology.”

Future funding

So far, DPW administrators have liked what they’ve seen from the technology, Bloyd, the department’s spokesman, said. He called it “a big step for us in terms of modernization, as well as efficiency.”

When the contract expires and funding needs to be approved to extend it, DPW will have to share data that shows the technology yields worthwhile results.

Already, DPW is sharing praise.

At a July meeting of the Indianapolis City-County Council’s Public Works Committee, councilors were enthusiastic about future uses of the devices following a presentation by Born.

Democratic Councilors Dan Boots and Crista Carlino both suggested using the devices for crowd control to decrease the amount of overtime pay that goes to police officers monitoring intersections.

“We’re paying millions of dollars in overtime just to direct traffic and direct pedestrians, so to the extent we can use that technology to reduce that staff substantially, it would be an incredible financial benefit,” Boots said.

Born told the committee DPW is working with the Indianapolis Indians to reduce the number of officers needed outside the downtown baseball stadium. The intersection of West and Maryland streets becomes overrun with pedestrians before and after the minor league games on summer nights and requires a police presence.

DPW is exploring instead creating a signal phase for the light that gives all vehicular traffic a red light and allows for a “pedestrian scramble” where fans could walk directly through the center of the intersection, catercorner, rather than potentially crossing the street twice.

“You wouldn’t necessarily need as much oversight from officers for that,” Born said.•