Midtown drive times improved by as much as 14.5 percent during the busiest times of day after the city’s installation of a state-of-the art traffic system, officials announced yesterday.
The year-old program — dubbed “Midtown in Motion” — has proven so successful , the city is doubling the area it covers, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said.
The zone — outfitted with microwave sensors, dozens of traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers to monitor movement — will expand from First to Ninth avenues, bordered by 42nd and 57th streets.
Previously, it included Second to Sixth avenues.
“When Midtown moves, New York City moves,” Sadik-Khan said.
Since the program was implemented in July 2011, average travel speed climbed in the zone from 6.5 mph to 7.2 mph between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., a 10.2 percent improvement.
On Madison Avenue, the average travel speed jumped from 6.9 mph to 7.9 mph, a 14.5 percent improvement.
Least improved were traffic speeds on Fifth Avenue, which climbed from 6 mph to 6.4 mph, a 6.7 percent increase.
The system alerts city engineers to severe gridlock conditions. Then it proposes new traffic-light sequences, based on algorithms, to clear up any traffic jams.