Danville finished putting 79 cameras on 26 signalized intersections along Sycamore Valley Road and Camino Tassajara this year. A $1 million federal grant secured through Rep. Mark DeSaulnier's office paid for them. The next round goes to seven intersections on Danville Boulevard, San Ramon Valley Boulevard and Diablo Road, according to a Danville San Ramon report on the Town's October project update.
Most of these cameras are video detectors. They tell a signal that someone is waiting: a car, a person in the crosswalk, a cyclist at the stop bar. The county transportation authority runs the countywide program, but what each light does with that information is set by Danville's own traffic engineers. When the timing at your usual intersection changes over the next year, that choice was made by the Town.
The rollout started at the edges of town
The upgrade comes in three stages, and they don't all run on the same schedule.
| Stage | Where | Equipment | Status in the Town's October 2026 update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal grant phase | 26 intersections on Sycamore Valley Road and Camino Tassajara | 79 cameras, new signal cabinets at Sycamore Valley Road/Camino Ramon and Camino Tassajara/Crow Canyon | Complete |
| Countywide Smart Signals, Danville package | Seven intersections on Danville Boulevard, San Ramon Valley Boulevard and Diablo Road | 27 cameras, emergency vehicle preemption at all seven, transit signal priority at seven | Bids opened in October; contract award was scheduled for November |
| Town Traffic Signal Modernization and Safety Improvements | 10 intersections | 17 detection cameras | Construction planned for spring 2027 |
The grant phase went first, and it took months. The Town Manager's update to the Council for March 2026 listed the work as capital project C-634B, with crews installing video-detection cameras at 26 intersections and new cabinets at Sycamore Valley Road/Camino Ramon and Camino Tassajara/Blackhawk/Crow Canyon. Those two cabinet locations are among the busiest junctions on the east side of town, where traffic from Blackhawk, Crow Canyon and the Camino Ramon office corridor meets.
The plan goes back further than this year's construction. At a February 2024 Council planning workshop, a councilmember asked what the Traffic Signal Modernization Project involved. Staff described two efforts: Smart Signals upgrades along the San Ramon Valley corridor downtown, and a modernization project to install "video detection cameras, CCTV cameras, and upgraded software along Sycamore Valley, Camino Tassajara, and Crow Canyon corridors." Two years later, the Sycamore Valley and Camino Tassajara cameras are installed, and the downtown corridors are next in line.
What a camera on a signal mast is built to do
The Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which runs the countywide program, describes the detection equipment on its Countywide Smart Signals project page as video and radar sensors that "locate approaching vehicles, people, and bikers, and automatically adjust traffic lights for safer crossings." The same sensors give cities real-time traffic data. The upgraded hardware can do more than detection, and each feature works a little differently on the street:
- Signal coordination. Neighboring lights share timing, so a driver moving along a corridor hits fewer unnecessary reds.
- Detection of people and bikes. The authority notes that older signals "sometimes did not detect bicycles accurately, which could mean longer waits." The new sensors are built to see cyclists and pedestrians as well as cars.
- Emergency vehicle preemption. Fire engines, police cars and ambulances get green lights through equipped intersections.
- Transit signal priority. Buses lose less time at red lights, which helps them stay on schedule. County Connection is one of the transit agencies working with the authority on the program.
- Remote-view sensors. These let engineers see what's happening at an intersection and respond to problems faster.
- Battery backup. Signals keep running during a power outage.
The authority also says the connected network is meant, over time, to help coordinate traffic during emergencies, "including helping manage traffic flow during evacuations in the event of wildfires or other major incidents."
The software side is moving in step with the hardware. Danville San Ramon reported that Town staff are setting up new cloud-based software from Econolite for the town's traffic management program.
The Town decides how your light behaves
The authority's own FAQ says plainly that the equipment varies by place. "This is a countywide upgrade, but it's not one size fits all," the project page reads. On who makes the calls, it says local engineers decide day to day "based on each location's needs." Transit priority works the same way. Whether and when it's used "depends on each city's decisions and local transit needs."
Danville's package shows that choice at work. All seven downtown-corridor intersections get emergency vehicle preemption, and seven get cloud-based transit signal priority, according to the staff report Development Services Director Diane Friedmann prepared for the Council. The authority's guidance for anyone curious about a particular intersection is to start with the city's engineering or public works department, and it keeps an interactive project map that shows the planned upgrades at each location.
Danville is also where the countywide effort officially began. The authority held its groundbreaking in town in late May and named Danville and Concord as the first communities to get upgrades. In the authority's release, Mayor Newell Arnerich said, "Danville residents experience every day how important signal timing and traffic operations are to safety and quality of life." The full program covers all 19 cities and towns in Contra Costa County plus the unincorporated areas, about 365 intersections in total, at a cost of $30.8 million drawn from Measure J, local contributions, and federal and state funds.
Why the downtown phase lands at a useful moment
Emergency preemption on San Ramon Valley Boulevard matters more over the next stretch than it might at another time. The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District is getting ready to bid a remodel of Fire Station 31 at 800 San Ramon Valley Boulevard. Ahead of that work, the district plans to move operations temporarily into the former Town offices at 500 La Gonda Way, Danville San Ramon reported. The seven intersections in the Smart Signals package sit on the same three roads that carry most traffic in and out of central Danville.
Downtown is also full of construction. Grading is underway for the 49-unit Lanes townhome project on the former Danville Bowl site at 200 Boone Court. On the Town Green, the bandstand came out in August, and the pavilion replacing the grandstand is set to be done by spring. Signal work on Danville Boulevard, San Ramon Valley Boulevard and Diablo Road will overlap with all of it.
What comes next on the calendar
- This month. The authority was scheduled to award the construction contract for the Danville Smart Signals package in November, after bids opened in mid-October.
- December. On Diablo Road, the separate Diablo Road Trail project is set to finish. Paving was scheduled for November, and handrails and a steel-backed timber guardrail along the creek segment are among the last items.
- Spring 2027. The Town's own Traffic Signal Modernization and Safety Improvements project is scheduled to start construction, adding 17 detection cameras at 10 more intersections.
Across the three phases, the Town's plans add up to 123 detection cameras. The 79 on Sycamore Valley Road and Camino Tassajara are already up, and the 27 for the downtown corridors come next.
How long it takes to get across town matters when you're deciding which side of Danville fits your weekday routine, and it's something we talk through with clients often. If you'd like a local read on how Sycamore Valley, Camino Tassajara or the downtown corridors fit into a move, AJ Cohen Homes is happy to help. Let's Connect.
