As congestion in urban areas becomes a major issue cities are turning to smart technology to improve the safety of drivers and reduce wasted energy. This helps motorists and passengers save time, reduces emissions, and reduces traffic jams.
The technology behind this is based on two principal elements: Hardware and Software. The first is the component that executes, and the second is the command and control centre. Both are enhanced by advanced sensors and processing techniques, such as ANPR (automotive plate recognition), which captures data about the movement of vehicles and is able to detect road signs.
Depending on the software employed, data can be processed on-device by smart traffic lights or sent to cloud. The latter allows for more sophisticated modeling and analysis to reduce traffic congestion and coordinate public transport schedules. In this way, they can cut average travel times by 25%, reduce the time between signals by 40%, and lower emissions by 20% according to Carnegie Mellon University.
In addition to cutting down on the time it takes to control traffic signals, a smart traffic light system will also increase the flow of pedestrians and micromobility vehicles like electric bikes and e-scooters. This is because they’re typically not able adhere to traditional traffic signal preemption rules. In London, for example, e-scooter crashes increased 2800% during the first half of 2021. therefore it is vital to factor them into traffic light control.
technologytraffic.com/2020/05/21/the-benefits-of-using-modern-traffic-technologies-by-data-room/
