Las Cruces invests $1 million in new traffic management system

The City has invested $1 million in a new Traffic Management Center to help ease congestion on the roads.

The city installed interconnected fiber optic lines on 10 intersections along Lohman Avenue, two along North Valley Drive and three on East Mesa.

The system allows the city’s traffic engineers to make changes to signals if back up occurs due to lights not working properly, construction or an accident.

Transportation Director David Maestas showed ABC-7 the big screen mapping out the major intersections in Las Cruces.

Red and green lights change simultaneously with what’s happening on the road. Cameras show cars approaching turn lanes in real time, and flashing squares let engineers know when there’s a back up.

90% of the $1 million investment came from state funds, the rest from the city’s general fund, city officials said.

Maestas says the city has received complaints every few days about lights not working properly, or drivers hitting consistent red lights.

“People wonder, ‘can I get through here a little quicker?’ Obviously, we don’t want people to be sitting at intersections longer then they have to be, that gets emissions in the air and delayed time for people for where they need to go,” Maestas said. “So yes, we had some people calling in but also we had innovative traffic personnel who want to make this system better for the city in general.”