Article Contributed on: 1/12/2009 5:25:02 PM
"Eye in the sky" is a term that comes to mind when describing
Jim Richey's job; his responsibilities include watching live surveillance footage of Lakewood intersections. But don't worry -- Richey is not Big Brother and he's not out to get you.
Richey is the traffic operation manager for the City of Lakewood, and on the morning of Jan. 7 he's sitting inside the city's Traffic Operation Center looking at video monitors, checking traffic signals and flow at busy intersections.
The traffic engineering division uses video technology in two ways: vehicle detection and monitoring and managing traffic congestion. Using a total of 25 pan tilt and zoom surveillance cameras, Richey and traffic engineering staff monitor traffic flow at the city's major intersections. This gives them the opportunity to react to incidents quickly to help alleviate rising traffic congestion.
"They are a very useful tool for watching traffic," he said. "We're not interested in zooming in on someone's car -- what we're interested in is the flow of traffic."
Richey, who has been in this position for 20 years, and with the city for 32, said the traffic engineering division will add two more cameras this year.
Richey said he starts work from home at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday by getting online with the Traffic Operation Center system from his laptop. He then arrives at the office at 8 a.m.
"My typical day is 8 to 5, but my day starts at 6:30 a.m.," he said. "I need to make sure the system is functional for rush hour."
Jan. 7 turned out to be not such a typical day for Richey, as the entire building, located at 480 S. Allison Parkway, was evacuated by West Metro Fire Rescue at around 9:30 a.m. because paint fumes traveled into the ventilation system from the reception area of the attached Cultural Center. After about half an hour, Richey and staff were allowed to return to work.
Back inside, Richey performs a system check on the computer, which gives him "great detail of what's going on in an intersection."
He scrolls through a list of all the intersections, and each has a colored circle next to it: Green means good; yellow means the signals are going through a transition, such as from morning rush hour to off-peak; and red means there is a failure with the data.
Richey said the traffic engineering division's video technology is part of the Metro-Wide Fiber Ring, also including the Colorado Department of Transportation and the City and County of Denver. If an incident warranted it, Richey said any of the three groups could gain access to one of the others' camera systems for surveillance purposes.
Richey said staff watched live footage of downtown Denver intersections during the Democratic National Convention in August; he said staff manned the Traffic Operation Center for 12 to 14 hours a day.
"We saw a couple of riots," he said. "It's just bizarre to see a group of people assemble and explode. It was a surprise -- best to see from a distance."
Richey said he has a number of other duties, including budgeting for the traffic engineering division, contracting work, supervising field staff and attending meetings with other city staff.
Richey, 62, lives near Conifer with his wife of 12 years,
Edith. He enjoys playing golf and traveling.
Fun traffic facts
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*There are 198 signalized intersections in Lakewood, 126 are on the master signal system.
*Ninety-five of the major intersections have battery back. These intersections will continue to operate in the event of a power outage.
*The city uses Light Emitting Diode (LED) modules in the traffic signal displays. The modules consume approximately 25 watts of power in comparison to 150 watts for a standard traffic signal bulb.
*The traffic engineering division changes traffic cycles up to seven times a day to accommodate different traffic flows: There is a morning off-peak cycle, a.m. peak cycle, mid-morning off-peak, noon peak, mid-afternoon off-peak, p.m. peak and evening off-peak. SOURCE: JIM RICHEY |