Traffic Management Systems

Traffic Management Center

The Traffic Management Center (TMC) features a dedicated room with 18 screens that help monitor traffic at the city’s 90 signalized intersections. The TMC is set up with four (4) dedicated workstations, that are used to manage the city’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). The center is equipped with: 

  • The ability to modify traffic signals via a central management software
  • Pan-tilt-zoom cameras
  • An adaptive signal timing system on SH 6
  • Permanent Dynamic Message Signs (DMS)
  • Bluetooth travel time readers
  • Railroad monitoring system and wayside horns along US 90A
  • Magnetometers that collect turning movement counts at over 50 intersections (for 24 hours/day and 7 days/week)
  • An ITS website that is integrated with Waze to help identify and report traffic incidents.
This technology serves as a foundation to provide better service through a data-driven approach. It allows staff to be responsive to traffic conditions real-time and use the stored data to troubleshoot reported concerns or produce performance metrics. The TMC has two (2) dedicated operators who manage the systems on Monday-Friday from 6 am to 7 pm, on Saturday 11 am to 3 pm, and during special events that generate significant traffic.
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Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Website

The City’s Intelligent Transportation System Website allows residents to view traffic event locations (like incidents, construction work, flooded or icy road conditions, and special event traffic) throughout the Sugar Land area. Website users can also view the city traffic cameras and DMS units, the status of rail crossings along US 90A, and connect to the City’s Capital Improvement Project (CIP) map. The ITS Website now receives Waze traffic posts and sends city-posted traffic events to the Waze Traffic Map.

Residents who want to receive email notifications of current or upcoming traffic events (including Waze events) can subscribe to one or more notifications through the ITS Website. Subscribers can receive traffic accident, road construction, and other events by weekdays and weekends (either daytime or 24-hour periods). Users can also select blocked crossing alerts for individual crossings (when a crossing has been blocked for an extended amount of time). When changing your email subscriptions, current subscribers will need to re-select their current subscriptions with their changes (or the current subscriptions are removed).

Adaptive Signal Control Systems


The Adaptive Signal Control System is a traffic management strategy in which traffic signal timings adapt to real-time
vehicular demand versus signal timings that are based on a set time of day schedule. The system is comprised of traffic
sensors embedded in the pavement that measure traffic, and software that runs on a server which performs calculations in
real time every cycle to optimize the signal timings along a coordinated corridor.

This automated process benefits traffic with faster response times to fluctuations in traffic along a day, week, and even year.
As conditions change, the system makes changes to help improve traffic flow on the main corridor while considering the
opposing movements. The adaptive system implementation has shown travel time reductions along SH 6 during where it
is currently implemented. The City is in process of implementing two more systems on University Blvd and US 90A.