Smart Technologies for Traffic

A delicately interwoven system of processes, smart technology for traffic can help transport workers motorists, commuters and drivers improve efficiency and flow of traffic. Intelligent traffic systems are able to adjust the mechanisms that control traffic, like traffic lights and freeway onramp meters as well as bus rapid transit lanes. They also employ advanced IoT routers and hardware that use cellular technology as well as cell networks. They also can forecast changes in traffic demand and provide real-time information to road users.

An excellent example is the adaptive traffic signal system in Pittsburgh. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first few traffic signals that were experimental in a crowded area of the city's East Liberty, he saw immediate results: drivers traveled 25 percent farther and spent 40 percent less time in traffic jams than before.

The system collects data from sensors that track incoming traffic and adjusting their timings on the fly in addition to spotting pedestrians at intersections and giving them the time to traverse the street. The sensors send their raw data to an centralized hub, where it is processed by artificial intelligence. It is then sent back to the intersections through 5G-enabled cell networks.

These systems can provide more accurate and precise modeling of scenarios that minimize risks, which human traffic managers cannot do. And all this in real-time. This is a significant step towards Vision Zero, a goal of accident-free driving in which humans and vehicles share the road with no collisions.

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