Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately interwoven network of processes that assist transport personnel, drivers, and commuters control the flow and efficiency of traffic. Intelligent traffic systems can adjust the controls of traffic lights and onramp meters for freeways as well as bus rapid transit lanes. They also utilize advanced IoT routers and hardware that use cellular technology as well as cellular networks. They also aid 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 couple of traffic signals, which were merely experimental, in a highly congested technologytraffic.com/2021/07/08/generated-post-2 part of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results. Drivers drove 25 percent more efficiently and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than before.
The system is able to collect data from sensors that track traffic and adjust their timings on the fly. It also detects pedestrians in intersections and gives them enough time to cross the street safely. The sensors then transmit their raw data to a central hub, where it’s processed by artificial intelligent and then dispatched back out to the intersections via 5G-enabled cellular networks.
These advanced systems also permit better, more precise simulation of risk-minimizing scenarios that a human traffic controller could not achieve – all in real-time. This is an important step towards Vision Zero, a goal of accident-free driving in which cars and human beings share the road with no collisions.