A delicately woven together network of processes, smart technology for traffic can help transport workers, drivers and commuters control traffic flow and efficiency. Intelligent traffic systems can adjust the control mechanisms, such as traffic lights, freeway onramp meters and bus rapid transit lanes. They also employ advanced IoT routers and hardware that use cellular technology as well as cellular networks. They also aid in forecasting changes in traffic demand and offer a variety of real-time information to road users.
A good example is the traffic signal system that is adaptive in Pittsburgh. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first few experimental traffic signals in the heavily congested area 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 collects data from sensors that monitor the traffic flow and adjust their timings in real-time in addition to detecting pedestrians at intersections and allowing them time to safely traverse the street. The sensors then send their raw data to a central location where it’s processed by artificial intelligent and then distributed back to the intersections via 5G-enabled cellular networks.
These systems are also able to permit better, more precise modeling of risk-minimizing scenarios that a human traffic controller could not accomplish and all in real time. This is a big step toward Vision Zero, a goal of accident-free driving in which cars and human beings share the road without collisions.