Red, green or yellow?

EAST COUNTY — Vishal Kakkad doesn’t want you to sit in traffic during rush hour.

He wants drivers to have a safe, timely ride home.

The East County resident plays an instrumental role in the community traffic picture. He oversees the 400 traffic signals and 150 traffic cameras stationed throughout Manatee and Sarasota counties.

As traffic design division manager, Kakkad worked with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), along with his team of 17 traffic professionals, to ensure University Parkway saw minimal traffic impacts from the opening of The Mall at University Town Center Oct. 16.

“It was hectic, but we ensured traffic and safety weren’t issues in the area,” Kakkad said.

Kakkad worked with a team that manually overrode the programmed traffic lights during major community events, such as the mall’s opening and when pieces of an overpass fell onto southbound Interstate 75 last year during a semi-truck accident.

He and his team of traffic engineers continuously study traffic patterns throughout East County, as well as Manatee and Sarasota counties. When traffic backs up on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and State Road 70, Kakkad and his crewmembers turned red lights green when appropriate.

“It doesn’t mean we can make every red light green, but we don’t want you to catch every light on State Road 70,” Kakkad said. “Whatever decisions I make about traffic are things I can see brought to life in my community. My job has a direct impact on someone else’s life.”

Kakkad is now playing a role in implementing a plan Manatee County Commissioners passed this month to further ease congestion in growing East County.

FDOT and the county are working to implement an adaptive traffic control system project. The groups will partner to install InSync equipment at Market Street, Town Center Parkway and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, along with intersections throughout Sarasota County.

The device’s software will control traffic signals on an as-needed basis. When traffic builds up along the three East County hot spots, the software can make real time changes and change the color of the lights based on fluctuations in traffic.

Although FDOT will fund the project and the software is capable of running itself, Kakkad and his team will monitor to ensure traffic demands are met.

The county’s new traffic toy isn’t replacing any jobs in Kakkad’s office. The equipment can’t detect major traffic changes and will need assistance at times, he added.

Kakkad and his teams will watch the flat screen television lining the wall at their office in the Manatee County Public Works Building for situations that merit adjustments.

He’s excited for the technology and isn’t worried about job security. Behind every traffic light, camera and program, there’s an engineer pulling the strings, Kakkad said.

“Technology is slowly touching every field and profession in the world,” Kakkad said. “Think about where technology is going. Yes, they’re just three colors — green, yellow and red — but, there’s a lot that goes into that traffic signal.”

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].

DID YOU KNOW?
There are more than 400 traffic signals and 150 traffic cameras in Manatee and Sarasota counties.