PI: Pramesh Pudasaini, Ph.D.
Co-PI: Yao-Jan Wu, Ph.D., P.E
Sponsor: Town of Marana
Aug 2026 - July. 2027
The Town of Marana and the University of Arizona (UA) have collaborated for the past seven years to improve arterial traffic operations, safety, and data-driven decision-making across the town's transportation network. Most recently, through the ongoing multi-year eff ort on "Technical Support for Effective Arterial Traffic Management," the partnership has advanced several practical initiatives, including the development and maintenance of interactive traffic monitoring tools, configuration suppo1t for traffic management systems, traffic signal optimization and retiming, and saf ety-oriented analyses such as red-light-running assessments. These ef forts have helped Marana proactively manage arterial traffic while expanding the town's use of emerging traf f ic sensors, data sources, and decision-support tools.
This next phase builds on this foundation while refocusing the work on targeted operational needs identified during Phase 2. While collaboration with UA has successfully devised technology-driven solutions, Marana continues to face several operational and implementation challenges that could be better addressed through continued applied research. These include developing new interactive traf f ic monitoring tools and maintaining existing ones; conf iguring advanced traffic management systems; developing a data-driven framework to identify corridors and intersections for signal optimization; and exploring new data-driven applications related to speeding, intersection safety, roadside assets, and setting target speeds. The Center for Applied Transportation Sciences (CATS) at UA is well-positioned to support these needs through applied research, analytics, tool development, and technical evaluation tailored to Marana's needs. Accordingly, Phase 3 focuses on providing continued technical support to the Town of Marana for data-driven arterial traffic management through advanced analytics, interactive decision-support tools, traffic signal operations support, and feasibility assessments for emerging safety and asset-management applications. The work will produce practical methods, frameworks, tools, and recommendations that Marana can use to support day-to-day operations, prioritization, planning, and future implementation. Below is a detailed description of the Scope of Work for this project.