Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately integrated web of processes that help transport personnel, drivers, and commuters control the flow click this and efficiency of traffic. Intelligent traffic systems can alter the mechanisms that control traffic, like traffic lights and freeway onramp meters as well as bus rapid transit lanes. They also employ advanced IoT hardware and routers that use cellular technology as well as cellular networks. They also aid in forecasting shifts in traffic demand and offer a variety 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 for experimentation in the heavily congested area of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: Drivers travelled 25 percent further and spent 40 percent less time in traffic jams than before.
The system works by capturing data from sensors that monitor the flow of traffic and adjust their timing on-the-fly. It also detects pedestrians at intersections, and gives them enough time to cross the street safely. The sensors send their raw data into the central hub, where it is processed by artificial intelligence. It is then sent back to the intersections through 5G-enabled cell networks.
These systems are intelligent and allow for better and more accurate modeling of scenarios that minimize risks, which human traffic managers cannot attain. All this in real-time. This is a major step towards Vision Zero, the goal of a road with no accidents where humans and vehicles can share the road without collision.
