Pearland - Friendswood - Manvel | February 2026

New trac sensors roll out across Pearland intersections From the cover

At a glance

A closer look The new trac sensors will be paid for through city or capital improvement funds.

10 complete intersections 21 upcoming intersections

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Pearland is rapidly modernizing the way it regulates trac ow with a new generation of digital trac sensors called NoTrac—an articial intelligence mobility platform that provides real- time data on vehicle and pedestrian movements through intersections. The systems alert the city when something goes wrong, so city sta don’t have to rely on citizen reports or routine checks to become aware of problems. “Prior to our system, you would start getting calls from drivers,” said Tim Morehead, the director of sales at Texas Highway Products. “Maybe there’s a wreck, and they start inundating you with the calls about the wreck, and you don’t nd out about the wreck until you start getting all those calls.” Morehead added that the sensor systems allow cities to x trac problems before residents ag them to the city. In 2025, the city bought over 30 sensor systems from Texas Highway Products and is preparing to install nearly a dozen more in 2026, Morehead said. The new sensors will be installed in batches of about 10-15 intersections at a time, Pearland Trac Superintendent Mario Tellez said.

MCHARD RD.

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6 Responds to platoons of cars, gaps in trac and o-peak conditions

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Detection in all weather conditions

Tracks red-light running events

Fusion of radio and radar sensors

SOURCE: CITY OF PEARLANDTEXAS HIGHWAY PRODUCTSCOMMUNITY IMPACT

COURTESY NOTRAFFIC

How we got here

“Technology changes every year, and our signals [and] our equipment are no dierent,” Ramirez said. “It’s all electronic parts … [that] has been in place for more than 10 years. Usually, people think that once you build a new signal, it will last forever. That is not the case.”

tried a single-camera per intersection detection. However, the cameras struggled with weather and obstructions, such as birds sitting on the cameras and blocking the footage, Ramirez said. By 2024, the city began piloting the NoTrac system and noticed a “big dierence,” Ramirez said.

Pearland’s signal equipment and sensors, which dier from newer technology now being installed, are more than a decade old, Pearland Trac Engi- neer Yolci Ramirez said. To try reducing maintenance, the city was using in-pavement magnetometer sensors and then

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