Falls Church Takes Another Step Toward Becoming Transportation ‘Smart City’

Ever been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Broad Street wondering when that infernal red light will ever turn green? Or, how cool it might be to own your own signaling device to turn red lights green whenever you’re driving through?

Well, the City of Falls Church is on its way to developing such red-to-green light signaling systems, though the technology will be designed for the public good of circulating more people more efficiently through the City’s transit grid. 

The City is conducting a pilot test to begin developing its own Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) as part of its vision to become a transportation “Smart City.” Working with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), the City is focusing on using smart technology to enhance its rapid bus transit (BRT) systems. 

For this story, The Falls Church Independent interviewed Principal Planner for the City, Kerri Oddenino, AICP, and heard from City Council member Dave Snyder who represents the City on the Northern Virginia Transit Authority (NVTA). 

We wanted to know more about why this project is a priority, how it’s proceeding, and the City’s goals relating to improving its BRT on its way to becoming a “Smart City.” 

The ‘Smart City’ Concept

In 2021, the City of Falls Church, partnering with VTTI, received a $10 million “Smart City grant” from VDOT. 

According to a June 10, 2022 presentation from VTTI, the grant will be used to assess and analyze transportation needs and begin implementing “technologies to address those needs” in a “real world environment.” Residential surveys will assess improvements to quality-of-life and environment and “foundational Smart City standards” will be developed.

The following “Smart Cities Applications” were funded by VDOT: 

Smart Intersections ($1M)

 • Sensors provide presence of vehicle and pedestrians to adjust signal behavior, optimizing flow to reduce potential for delays and vehicle stoppage. Signal status can also be provided to an automated or connected vehicle to allow for safety warnings, conflict detection, and vehicle speed optimization. 

Roadway & Infrastructure Development ($2M) 

• Build roadway and coordinate sensors with infrastructure (for example, type of roadway and/or building materials to avoid impacting sensor signals) to adequately house and protect the sensors. 

Smart Parking and Payment ($1M) 

• Provides information on the availability of parking spaces while reducing the need to hunt and seek for parking options. Information can be provided through signage and/or connected applications. Also provides a convenient payment while ensuring compliance.

Adaptive Lighting ($2M)

 • An adaptive lighting system reduces energy consumption and the potential negative aspects of lighting such as an impact on sleep, safety, crime, and the environment. 

Smart Cities Data Exchange and Management System ($2M) 

• Real-time and archive data integrated from multiple city resources to support application of algorithms for active planning and decision making. This system is the common integration point for Smart City applications. 

Data Access & Evaluation Tools ($2M)

• Provides historical and longitudinal data to allow informed and efficient placement, maintenance, and purchase of city resources. This is the performance analysis and audit system of the Smart City applications which will also provide data for expansion.

The presentation also highlighted VDOT’s identification of Broad Street (Rte. 7) as a “Top Pedestrian Safety Action Plan Corridor,” noting “traffic congestion” and “intersection signal timing concerns.” 

Creating “Smart Intersections” would provide maximal benefits in “increased safety and mobility,” the presentation suggested:

SMART INTERSECTIONS

BENEFITS

Benefits to Citizens – Increased Safety and Mobility 

• Conflict detection

• Jaywalking detection 

• Pedestrian alerting 

• Adaptive signal timing 

• Traffic signal priority 

Benefits to City 

• Better traffic flow

• Remote command, control and communication of traffic signals 

• Information to support development of optimized timing plans 

• Vehicle counting and speed per lane

VTTI also cited a McKinsey report in favor of “smart-city strategies": 

“After a decade of trial and error, municipal leaders are realizing that smart-city strategies start with people, not technology. ‘Smartness’ is not just about installing digital interfaces in traditional infrastructure or streamlining city operations. It is also about using technology and data purposefully to make better decisions and deliver a better quality of life. McKinsey and Company. ‘Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future’, June 5, 2018.” 

Cindy Mester, Community Relations & Legislative Affairs Director for the City

According to Cindy Mester, community relations and legislative affairs director for the City, progress on the Smart Cities Demonstration Project is moving along well. "The first phase being delivered is upgrades to the Traffic Signals in the City that then interface back to the West Falls Redevelopment Project at W. Broad and Haycock as well as the adjacent VT Redevelopment and the WMATA West Falls Church Metro Station Redevelopment," Mester told us. "The traffic signal upgrades will allow for improved pedestrian safety, synchronize signals, improved movement to reduce congestion and important data collection for safety improvements. We will be holding a traffic control box unveiling event on August 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the corner of W. Broad and S. Virginia by the Broaddale Shopping Center."

City of Falls Church Signal Prioritization Project

Focusing on the City’s BRT system, the City now hopes to develop the most advanced Transportation Signal Priority (TSP) system to essentially allow public buses to breeze through more green lights. 

TSP is defined on the City’s project website as “a technology that allows transit vehicles to communicate with signals. The installation of transit signal priority technology results in truncated red or extended green phases and creates green waves along transit travel routes.”

So, if you’re taking rapid bus transit through Falls Church, get ready to ride those “green waves”!

By combining the latest in traffic signaling, cloud-based GPS systems, multi-sensor data collection, machine learning, and algorithmic traffic-control analysis for its BRT, installing such a smart bus traffic-control system is expected, based on studies so far, to provide a wave of benefits. 

Not only will such systems reduce traffic congestion, bus waiting times, and auto emissions, but they’ll incentivize more people to opt for public transportation, enhance multi-modal transportation options, and improve the City’s commerce, livability, and environment. 

Where Will TSP Be Installed?

According to the City’s website, “The City of Falls Church Signal Prioritization Project includes the installation of Transit Signal Priority (TSP) technology at up to seven intersections in the City of Falls Church. Updates to cabinets, controllers, communications, and artificial intelligence, to connect the TSP technology with the City’s existing Smart Cities demonstration project, are also included with the project.”

“Transit Signal Priority will be installed along the future Route 7 BRT route within the City of Falls Church, which mirrors the current 28A bus route. The intersections of: (1) W Broad St. & Lee St. (2) W Broad St. & Spring St. (3) W Broad St. & S Virginia Ave. (4) W Broad St. & Little Falls St., (5) W Broad St. & S Maple Ave., (6) N Washington St. & Park Pl., and (7) N Washington St. & Columbia St., are included in the project.

“Transit Signal Priority (TSP) technology improves transit options and operations, without taking up additional space in the roadway or right of way. The project will enhance service frequency and capacity at bus stops and stations, resulting in more consistent schedules and reduced waiting times for passengers. The project cost is estimated at $1.4 million, and design for the project is slated to begin in Fiscal Year 2028.”

NOVA Transit Authority Finalizing Funding for City’s ‘Signal Prioritization Project’

News flash: NVTA has just announced that the City of Falls Church’s $1.4 million budget request for its Signal Prioritization Project is up for public discussion the evening of July 11, but will likely be adopted after committee approval. 

In a breathy July 9 press release, the NOVA Transportation Authority (NVTA) announced that the City of Falls Church’s “Signal Prioritization Project” is slated to receive $1.4 million in regional funding as part of its Six Year Program (SYP) for Fiscal Years 2024-2029. NVTA is “thrilled to share an exciting update – Northern Virginia is on the brink of receiving a monumental investment of nearly $700 million to advance our region's multimodal transportation network!,” the press release began. 

“Mark your calendar!,” it continued. “This Thursday [July 11] at 7:00 p.m., [Planning and Programming Committee] PPC funding recommendations will be brought before Authority members for final funding consideration and adoption of the FY2024-2029 Six Year Program. Be sure to tune into the meeting live on NVTA's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NVTAuthority.

See NVTA’s SYP website for more information and for a breakdown of Falls Church's "Signal Prioritization Project" relative to other projects in the region. 

Council Member Dave Snydor, Representing the City on NVTA

“The NVTA six year plan, if approved tomorrow, will provide critical funding for all transportation modes and will advance the region’s goals of sustainability, equity and safety,” Council member Snydor said. “The City of Falls Church’s specific project will help make transit a more effective alternative and put in place a key piece of the future Route 7 Bus Rapid Transit initiative. When completed, the Route 7 BRT will move more people throughout the region who rely on transit, add a convenient option as an alternative to travel by car, serve our businesses by providing an easy and convenient way to patronize them, and improve the environment.” 

Principal Planner for the City, Kerri Oddenino, AICP

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

FCI: As principal planner for the City, what do you find exciting about the City’s Signal Prioritization Project? 

KO: The City has been supporting the envisioned Route 7 effort that’s been headed up by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission for a while and it’s a regional effort for bus rapid transit between Tysons and the Mark Center in Alexandria.

FCI: Are we talking about the future Route 7 BRT Route?

KO: Yes. That’s correct. So, it's about moving more people using transit and rapid-bus on Route 7 and providing alternatives to single occupancy vehicle trips.

FCI: And what sorts of benefits might the program bring?

KO: It should increase surface frequency and capacity at bus stops and stations. It creates more consistent schedules for the bus. It reduces waiting times for passengers. [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] WMATA has seen a 10 percent reduction in waiting times at locations where they have TSPs. 

FCI: So WMATA already has it?

KO: Yes. And it improves transit options and operations without taking up additional space in the roadway or the right of way. It’s relatively inexpensive compared to other types of projects because it’s just a technology project. It creates those truncated red or extended green phases. It creates a green wave along the transit bus route. 

FCI: In other words, the buses just keep flowing through the green lights?

KO: Exactly. So, there’s technology on the bus and with the signal and the bus communicates with the signal and it keeps the signal green so it can flow through.

FCI: Does it use AI?

KO: Well, this is not my area of expertise. But, we've got a lot of tech [information] from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the WMATA staff because they have experts. And WMATA is sort of moving right now to a centralized cloud-based software system to help simplify integration with the different transportation signals across the region.

FCI: Is that something the City of FC is considering for the future?

KO: Yeah, the City will be coordinating with WMATA and VTTI for this project. And the City's also transitioning from a legacy closed-loop traffic signal timing system to an upgraded traffic signal timing system as part of this Smart Cities Project. So, that creates a centralized system that can be used to manage the traffic control system. Right now, we have people who go out to the boxes out on the street. But, there will be real-time data available as part of this data-exchange system.

FCI: So this is part of the Smart Cities Demonstration Project?

KO: Yes, it's a transportation project. The City was awarded a $10 million grant in 2021 with Virginia Tech, and it’s looking at –I don’t know if these are all still part of the project because I’m not the [project manager] PM on it – but, smart intersections, roadway sensors, smart parking and payment, adaptive lighting, Smart Cities data exchange and management system, and data access and evaluation tools.

It makes riding the bus a more appealing option. Over the years, we’ve seen on the 28A Bus Route, the headways – the time between when the next bus was coming – on that route were made shorter down to 12 minutes, so it’s more convenient. I’ve been using it personally. So, it’s not so long a wait. It’s definitely an easier wait than 20 or 30 minutes. So for trips around town, if you’re trying to connect to the East or West Falls Church Metro station or if you’re trying to make it to a meeting or event in D.C., it’s just much more convenient.

FCI: Sounds like it would cut emissions. And, I read that it would help property values?

KO: There probably is literature about that. Generally, property values are higher where there’s better transit options. 

FCI: And I suppose it helps multi-modal transportation?

KO: Absolutely. And the City does try to meet additional travel demand using alternative modes of transportation, so transit, pedestrian and bicycle. It tries to link them together.

FCI: So, it reduces traffic, cuts emissions, helps multi-modal, cuts wait times, probably increases property values? Those are a lot of benefits.

KO: Yes.

FCI: So, NOVA sent out a press release for Thursday, July 11 for the final funding recommendations and they invite everyone to their site. And Falls Church is going to be receiving a $1.4 million grant for the 6-year program and it’s basically this one Signal Prioritization Project. So, how do you feel about this one allotment for the City of Falls Church relative to the other counties and areas?

KO: That is the amount of money the City applied for. The City chose that amount and created a cost estimate for that amount. 

FCI: So the NOVA Authority has been responsive to the City?

KO: Yes, absolutely. 

FCI: Anything else you’d want people to keep their heads up on this issue?

KO: I do think there’s a ribbon cutting event that’s coming up. I can send the date to you.

FCI: Thanks. And, I saw the design phase doesn’t start until 2028?

KO: That's a function of the way the programming budgeting is structured. All the programs are done that way. With a lot of regional and state programs, you have to apply for funding maybe five or six years out.... It’s just sort of advanced planning.

FCI: Final question: What adjectives would you use to describe how you feel about this project?

KO: “Excited” and “enthusiastic.”  We’re very excited about this project. We’re looking forward to moving it forward. This is something that Council wants and that City residents want. And we’re excited that this project funding is likely to become available to make it happen and bring the benefits to everyone.

By Christopher Jones