Smart Technologies for Traffic

A delicately knitted network of processes, smart technologies for traffic assist transport employees, drivers and commuters improve efficiency and flow of traffic. Using advanced IoT equipment, sensors routers, sensors and cellular technology, intelligent traffic systems can modify control mechanisms in a dynamic manner, such as traffic lights and freeway on-ramp meters bus rapid transit lanes highway message boards and even speed limits. They also assist in forecasting shifts in traffic demands and provide a variety of 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 traveled 25 percent faster 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 on the fly. It also detects pedestrians near intersections, and allows them enough time to safely cross the street. The sensors send their raw data into an centralized hub, which is then processed by artificial intelligence. The data is then transmitted back to the intersections by 5G-enabled cell networks.

These systems can also provide better, more precise simulation of risk-minimizing scenarios that a human traffic manager could not accomplish and all in real-time. This is a significant step towards Vision Zero, the goal of technologytraffic.com/2021/07/08/generated-post-2/ a road with no accidents where both vehicles and humans are able to share the road without collision.