The city of Santa Clarita and its unique landscape is one of the fastest growing cities in Los Angeles County.
“It makes it unique and very challenging because we don’t have, we don’t have a grid system like other cities do. We’re the third largest city in LA County,” said Joel Bareng, Assist. City Engineer Santa Clarita
Traffic is a challenge for most major cities.
“Because there’s no grid system where you have city blocks, where you have alternate, alternative routes of travel. That is not the case in Santa Clarita; we have, you know, mountains, we have rivers. So it doesn’t allow us to place to develop the city in a grid system,” said Bareng.
The city’s Traffic Operations Center monitors traffic in real time through its smart system, enabling it to adjust signal timing for emergency vehicles and other incidents quickly. 24/7, new technology modifications have been implemented at the city’s heavily traveled Bouquet Canyon and Newhall Ranch Road.
“That is the busiest intersection in the city. We have 207 intersections that we control and manage. That intersection experiences about 125,000 vehicles per day. AI technology we’ve been using it for safety reasons. Recently, we’ve done a modification so that a U-turn is available during certain times of the day,” said Bareng.
The city implements numerous travel-reduction strategies.
“Everybody who’s riding a bus is getting a car off the road, and that’s going to help with traffic. It is a reliable and safe way to get around town,” said Doug Campbell, a bus driver who works for the Santa Clarita Transit.
Driver distractions are the leading cause of traffic disruptions.
“We all have distractions. I mean, even as a bus driver, you are responsible for more than just driving, but that has to be your number one focus,” said Campbell.
California leads the nation with over 39 million residents and over 13 million vehicles. So, California drivers, it’s time to switch gears and drive smarter and be part of the traffic solution.
