City of Valdosta


A Traffic Monitoring and Communication System to Improve Safety, Connectivity, and Efficiency



The City of Valdosta will use the GA Smart Communities Challenge grant funding to pilot a smart traffic management system connecting all 128 city traffic signals, with enhancements to the system including hardware and software upgrades at signals and in the traffic control operations center and installation of communications responders in certain fire trucks. Valdosta will test new signal timings from a recent traffic signal timing study as well as implement Emergency Vehicle signal pre-emption and roll out the TravelSafely smart phone application for all drivers. The city will set up community outreach and training workshops about these new smart traffic systems and the TravelSafely App. During this pilot implementation the city will evaluate the effects of the new system on the city’s traffic operations and the behavior of the traveling public by comparing before and after traffic patterns and travel times. Surveys will measure citizen’s attitudes towards these technologies. The project team will also engage with Valdosta State University students in research activities and internship opportunities to assist the city in the successful implementation of these smart traffic technologies. Additionally, educational and workforce development materials will be prepared to engage the next generation of engineering and technology professionals at VSU.

Dr. Baabak Ashuri, Professor and Fellow, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), at Georgia Tech School of Building Construction and Civil & Environmental Engineering, is partnered with Valdosta on the project and will actively participate in all engineering and research aspects of the project, including data collection, methods for statistical analysis of data and development of models related to studies on decision analysis of including other emergency vehicles and school buses in the connected vehicle system in the city.

Read Valdosta’s Georgia Smart Proposal HERE