Fighting Congestion in Minneapolis on a Tight Budget

In early October a power outage in Minneapolis threw the city's central traffic-signal control system into disarray. Lights at various intersections lost much of their coordination, with some lights quickly changing color, leading to intense frustration among drivers and not a few complaints. The confusion underscored the general antiquity of the city's traffic control system, which has been updated, but never overhauled, since it was first installed back in 1974.

The traffic situation in Minneapolis isn't pretty. The 2011 Urban Mobility Report ranked the Twin Cities third worst among large cities in annual delay per commuter, at about 45 total hours. Of course a number of factors contribute to city congestion, but the decades-old traffic control system in Minneapolis certainly isn't helping. Neither is the city's tight budget: in the recent past there has been enough money only to upgrade parts of the system piecemeal.