Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately integrated system of processes that aid transport workers, drivers, and commuters regulate the flow and efficiency of traffic. Intelligent traffic systems are able to adjust the controls of traffic lights and freeway onramp meters as well as bus rapid transit lanes. They also use advanced IoT hardware and routers, cellular technology and mobile networks. 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 a great example. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first few traffic signals that were experimental in a highly congested part of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: Drivers traveled 25 percent farther and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than they had before.
The system collects information from sensors that are monitoring the traffic flow and adjust their timings on the fly and also detecting pedestrians in intersections and giving them the time to safely traverse the street. The sensors then transmit their raw data to a central center where it’s processed by artificial intelligent and then dispatched back out to the intersections using 5G-enabled cellular networks.
These intelligent systems allow for better and more accurate simulation of scenarios that minimize the risk, something that a human traffic manager cannot do. And all of this is in real-time. This is a significant step towards Vision Zero, the goal of a road with no accidents where humans and vehicles can technologytraffic.com/2020/05/01/modern-traffic-technologies-by-board-room share the road without collision.