ANAHEIM : Touch of a Button Eases Traffic Jams

Getting a jampacked stream of cars into Anaheim Stadium and easing the growling gridlock around Disneyland might seem a task fit for divine intervention. But this city has turned to a small, space-age computer room in an innocuous office building near City Hall for its traffic miracles.

The Traffic Management Center is the nerve center for the city’s busiest intersections, tapping information fed from television cameras and sensors embedded in the pavement to ensure that cars keep moving, even on the busiest summer days.

Stuck at a red light trying to get into the stadium? Caught on Katella Avenue after getting your fill of Mickey, Goofy and the rest of the Disney gang?

Chances are a traffic system operator in the center will spot your predicament from one of the TV cameras perched high atop intersections and make the adjustments needed to send you on your way.

City traffic engineers say such an instantaneous eyeful of the congestion out on the streets allows them to change traffic signals to immediately respond to a given situation.

That sort of quick action can help push cars through busy spots up to 20% faster, which is important considering that upward of 20 million visitors each year make their way to the Magic Kingdom and a number of other special events the city hosts at the stadium and nearby convention center, said James M. Paral, a city traffic engineer.

The first computerized monitoring network of its kind in Orange County, the system is being watched closely by the Federal Highway Administration.

“Anaheim is really progressive in that area,” said Joe Hecker, chief of traffic management for Caltrans in Orange County.

Two full-time operators monitor TV screens that keep them abreast of congestion and fender benders at eight intersections, including the snarled confluence of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue.

Not only do the cameras show traffic conditions, but they also relay information about accidents or other roadside emergencies that warrant immediate response.

Although the $5.8-million system has been in use for two years, the TV displays were installed only last month.

In the past, the operators relied on information fed from sensors in the pavement.

The cameras provide a far more instantaneous reading of each bump and grind of a traffic jam, authorities say.

The system was put to the test once again Friday night when controllers maneuvered the flood of Angels fans that descended on the stadium for a game against the New York Yankees.

Traffic coming off the Orange Freeway gets clogged on Katella Avenue as motorists pack the left turn lane to get onto State College Boulevard and into the stadium.

Seeing this on the screen, Paral can increase the time alloted to the turning arrow, and let more cars through.

“We’re able to detect problems and make changes immediately, rather than wait for a response from the field,” Paral said.