{"id":12180,"date":"2014-07-18T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa?p=12180&preview_id=12180"},"modified":"2014-07-14T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T18:47:08","slug":"doors-open-ottawa-2014-tools-traffic-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2014\/07\/18\/doors-open-ottawa-2014-tools-traffic-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Doors Open Ottawa 2014: Tools of Traffic Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back during the Doors Open Ottawa weekend, I found myself wanting to visit but one place above all others: the Traffic Management Centre.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ottawa<\/a>
Ottawa Traffic Management Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Located on Loretta Avenue, just short of the Queensway and within a five minutes’ walk of the heart of Little Italy, the building hosting that division of City Hall is a two-storey complex. Were it not for the support fleet and supplies stored in the back yard, and in an attached lot just across the O-Train tracks, you might not know it from any other light or medium industrial facility in town.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Light-standard<\/a>
Light-standard installation truck at the Traffic Management Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you get inside though, you can enter either of two different worlds. Or tour them both, as we did that day.<\/p>\n

The main nerve centre on the top floor is not unlike the bridges of several fictional starships. You can pick your favourite space opera’s “hero” ship for this comparison. It’s not up to us to decide for our readers the best metaphor for such things, after all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ott-Traffic-Mgmt-2\"<\/a>
Traffic Control Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Live video feeds are available from hundreds of major intersections across the city, and are kept on file for archival and research purposes for some years. If law enforcement feels the need for access to specific footage, they have to get a subpoena for that footage for those specific locations and dates.<\/p>\n

And even those intersections without video surveillance coverage can be watched to a more limited extent, in case of accidents, outages, etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ott-Traffic-Mgmt-4\"<\/a>
A closer view of the video feeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ott-Traffic-Mgmt-3\"<\/a>
Watching the intersection traffic signal status.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Downstairs is where the nuts and bolts work of physically maintaining, repairing and upgrading gets done, however.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ott-Traffic-Mgmt-10\"<\/a>
Bulk traffic sign production<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s the sign shop, where street signage – particularly the name markers – gets made. Blanks are produced by the private sector in bulk, but the actual detail work is done at Loretta Avenue.<\/p>\n

The names for the street identification blades are printed out on industrial plotters and hand-applied.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ott-Traffic-Mgmt-12\"<\/a>
The sign shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Customization<\/a>
Customization for specific neighbourhoods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Depending on the interest level of your local Business Improvement Area or Neighbourhood Association, your section of the city could get its own street name markers. Currently, such has been done for several areas including (but not limited to):<\/p>\n