A delicately interwoven network of processes, smart technology for traffic can help transport workers motorists, commuters and drivers control traffic flow and efficiency. Utilizing the latest IoT devices, sensors routers, sensors and cellular technology smart traffic systems can adapt control mechanisms dynamically, like traffic lights and freeway on-ramp meters bus rapid transit lanes highway message boards, and even speed limits. They can also assist in forecasting shifts in traffic demands and provide a range of real-time information to road users.
Pittsburgh’s adaptive traffic signal system is an excellent example. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first few traffic signals that were experimental in a heavily congested area of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results. Drivers drove 25 percent further and spent 40 percent less time in traffic jams than they had before.
The system collects data from sensors which monitor incoming traffic and adjusting their timings on the fly and also identifying pedestrians near intersections, and giving them time to safely traverse the street. The sensors then transmit their raw data to a central location where it’s processed by artificial intelligence and then distributed back to the intersections via 5G-enabled cellular networks.
These systems can also allow for modern traffic technologies better, more accurate modeling of risk-reducing scenarios that a human traffic supervisor could not accomplish – and all in real-time. This is a major step towards Vision Zero, the goal of safe road-driving where both vehicles and humans are able to share the road without collision.
