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

Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately woven web of processes that help transport workers, drivers, and commuters to manage the flow and efficiency of traffic. Making use of advanced IoT devices, sensors, routers and cellular technology intelligent traffic systems are able to automatically adjust control mechanisms such as traffic lights and freeway on-ramp meters bus rapid transit lanes, highway message boards and even speed limits. They can also predict changes in traffic demand and provide real-time information for road users.

Pittsburgh’s adaptive traffic signal system is a great example. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first couple of traffic signals, which were merely experimental, in a heavily congested area of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: Drivers traveled 25 percent faster and spent 40 percent less time in traffic jams than they had before.

The system works by collecting data from sensors that track incoming traffic and adjusting their timing on the fly and also detecting pedestrians in intersections, and giving them time to walk across the street. The sensors send their raw data into an centralized hub, where it is processed by artificial intelligence. The data is then transmitted back to the intersections via 5G-enabled cell networks.

These systems are also able to provide better, more precise simulation of risk-minimizing scenarios that a human traffic controller could not accomplish – and all in real-time. This is a major step toward Vision Zero, a goal of accident-free driving in which cars and human beings share the road without collisions.