Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately integrated network of processes that assist transport personnel, drivers, and commuters to manage the flow and efficiency of traffic. Making use of advanced IoT sensors, hardware, routers and cellular technology intelligent traffic systems are able to adapt control mechanisms dynamically, like traffic lights, freeway on-ramp meters, bus rapid transit lanes highway message boards and even speed limits. They also aid in forecasting shifts in traffic demand, and offer a variety of real-time information to 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 drove 25 percent further and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than they had before.

The system collects data from sensors which monitor the traffic coming in and then adjusting their timing in real-time and also spotting pedestrians at intersections, and giving them time to safely cross the street. Sensors send their raw data to the central hub, where it is processed by artificial intelligence. It is then sent back to the intersections via 5G-enabled cell networks.

These advanced systems technologytraffic.com/2021/12/29/generated-post-4/ also enable better, more precise simulation of risk-minimizing scenarios that a human traffic supervisor would not be able to achieve and all in real-time. This is a major step towards Vision Zero, the goal of a safe road that ensures motorists and pedestrians are able to share the road without colliding.