San Anselmo Traffic Study Aims to Relieve Sir Francis Drake Gridlock

If you’re among the thousands of motorists who crawl though Sir Francis Drake Boulevard traffic on a daily basis, you’ve probably thought to yourself at least once that there just has to be a better way.

Transportation planners who work in stuffy Oakland offices have apparently had that same exact thought.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission announced last month it will fund a San Anselmo study to ease congestion.

The MTC, which coordinates traffic in all nine Bay Area counties, will foot the bill for signal-timing studies for 17 traffic lights on Sir Francis Drake and the Red Hill Avenue/Fourth Street.

Thirteen of the traffic signals are in San Anselmo, one is in Ross, one is in Fairfax and two are in San Rafael.

The grant is called PASS (Program for Arterial System Synchronization).

The purpose of the PASS grants is to provide technical assistance to Bay Area agencies to help improve the safe and efficient operation on arterial roadways of regional significance.

“The goal of the project is to analyze traffic patterns at these intersections to better coordinate signal timing for smoother traffic flow,” town officials said in a prepared statement.

“Synchronizing signals can reduce travel time and delay, as well as reduce motor vehicle emissions and fuel consumption.”

Temporary traffic counting devices have already been installed on a number of poles in the project area as part of the PASS grant.

Town officials say the devices will provide valuable traffic data, such as number of vehicles, wait times and turning movements. These devices are used solely for data collection purposes.

The PASS project has just started the data collection phase. The final project report due in June of 2014.