In the Bowels of LA's Traffic Control Center

Streetsblog posts another excellent Streetsfilm about LA, this time going inside the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) center, the central brain where all of the city's traffic lights and sensors are controlled and recorded (and the place that makes sure that all those limos avoid traffic on Oscar night). Just a handful of people work in the ATSAC control room in the basement of City Hall, overseeing operations of 3,200 of the city's 4,400 signalized intersections. All told, there are 17,000 sensor pads built into streets around the city that track traffic patterns, and more are coming. "Our intersections are more complicated than other cities'," explains Senior Transportation Engineer Bill Shao, pointing out that Los Angeles has far more left turn signals, for instance. The video is definitely worth a watch, just to see how Sim City it all is, and to watch Shao laugh and smile while talking about LA traffic.--Dan Caroselli
· Streetfilms: Behind the Scenes at LA Traffic Control [Streetsblog]
· Explainer: How All Those Oscar Limos Avoid Traffic [Curbed LA]