PHOENIX — More safety and less congestion in Chandler.
That’s what the city hopes new cameras will do, once they are installed above traffic lights, modernizing more of the intersections there.
ABC15 went inside the City of Chandler Traffic Management Center, overlooking 237 intersections.
Now that the City of Chandler approved a roughly $2 million contract with technology construction, at least 42 intersections will be revamped with signal timing detection cameras.
“It’ll also add 15 CCTV (closed circuit TV) cameras, which are the ones we can pan, tilt, and zoom in the intersection, which again gives us better eyes on the intersection. It’s also been beneficial to our police department,” said Dana Alvidrez.
Dana Alvidrez with the City of Chandler says many of the detection cameras in place are more than 10 years old, which is past their shelf-life.
Alvidrez says these new ones come with added benefits.
“Now we’re adding that thermal component and we’re starting to add bicycle detection as well so we can better respond to all road users,” she added.
The hope is that similar technology will detect pedestrians soon.
“Hopefully someday we’ll see pedestrian technology too. I know it’s being tested out there right now,” Alvidrez told ABC15.
For now, with the new detection capabilities, traffic lights can change automatically.
Which in turn gives the team more time to focus on other things and helps first responders along the way.
It’s the technology most people we talked to are in favor of. Some were concerned about privacy.
The city says the cameras that were replaced under the program cannot generate traffic citations and usually last around seven years.
“We’re really excited to get this deployed out there,” said Alvidrez.
Alvidrez says these cameras will most likely be installed by the end of the year.
