This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Crowds will flock to downtown Salt Lake City this weekend for the LDS Church's Christmas concerts, a Utah Jazz game, shopping and Christmas lights. But a friendlier side of "Big Brother" technology should help it all move smoother.

The Utah Department of Transportation uses a vast system of traffic detectors and cameras that helped the agency learn from experience how many people are coming and when, where they will park, and when big crowds will cross streets. Models tweak the timing of traffic lights accordingly.

And real-time observance also allows UDOT to make instant changes if needed, in case of crashes or unexpected congestion somewhere.

The agency has been doing signal-tweaking quietly for special events in recent years — as well as for regular daily traffic — and decided to advertise it a bit Thursday at its traffic operations center, which looks much like NASA's mission control.

"We've reduced 360,000 hours of delay [for special events in 2013 and 2014], and the economic value of that is almost $12 million," said Lisa Miller, traveler information manager for UDOT.

Besides big holiday weekends, she said those special events include such things as games by the Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.

But much of the work on signal timing focuses on regular daily commutes. Miller says with better signal timing recently, UDOT figures that saves two hours a year in delays for the average driver.

Last year, UDOT launched an initiative to better measure how well signal timing is working — and improve it.

"From our traffic operations center in Salt Lake City, we have connectivity to about 80 percent of the traffic signals in the entire state," Miller said.

She adds that constantly provides "a mountain of data" from signals "about arrivals on red, speed, and people who are arriving on green," which the agency is using to better time signals on state highways.

Also, Miller said UDOT partnered with such agencies as Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Provo and Orem to coordinate their traffic signals.

That led the agency to fix some problems it found.

For example, it re-timed signals on Bangerter Highway last year between 3500 South and 11400 South. "We saw a 1.1-minute improvement in travel time" for that stretch, Miller said. "It was a 54 percent improvement in arrivals on green."

She adds, "That leads to travel-time reliability as well as less time spent idling your vehicle, less time waiting at red lights."

It also re-timed Foothill Boulevard in Salt Lake City, which brought "about a 19 percent increase for arrival on green there."

Miller offers suggestions on how to take advantage of timing, and the "Big Brother" type of data that UDOT collects.

First, "Go the speed limit. The signals are really timed for the speed limit that is posted," she said.

Also, she suggests sticking to some of the major state highway corridors — such as exiting Interstate 15 on 600 South in Salt Lake City and traveling on it. That "will increase the number of green lights they hit," she said.

Finally, she urges drivers to use UDOT's traffic app. All the data it collects is fed into maps and alerts there to warn where traffic is currently slow.

"UDOT really does leverage technology and innovation to make sure we can keep traffic moving as smoothly as possible," she said.