A delicately woven together network of processes, smart technologies for traffic can help transport workers motorists, commuters and drivers manage traffic flow and efficiency. Intelligent traffic systems can alter the mechanisms that control traffic, like traffic lights, freeway onramp meters and bus rapid transit lanes. They also use advanced IoT hardware and routers that use cellular technology as well as wireless networks. They can also predict changes in traffic demand, and provide 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 part of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: Drivers travelled 25 percent faster and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than before.

The system works by collecting data from sensors that track the flow of traffic and adjust their timing 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 is processed by artificial intelligence and then distributed back to the intersections via 5G-enabled cell networks.

These systems are intelligent and allow for more accurate and precise modeling of scenarios that reduce risks, which human traffic managers cannot accomplish. And all of this is in real-time. This is an important step towards Vision Zero, a goal of safe and secure driving in which humans and vehicles share the road with no collisions.

technologytraffic.com/2020/05/01/modern-traffic-technologies-by-board-room/

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