Cities are adopting smart traffic technologies to cut down on energy consumption and improve road safety as traffic congestion in urban areas becomes an increasing problem. This helps drivers and passengers save time, reduces emissions and delays in traffic.
The technology behind it is built on both software and hardware. The first is the executing subcomponent, and the latter serves as the command and control center. Both are complemented by the latest processing and sensing technologies such as ANPR (automotive license plate recognition) that records information about vehicles’ movements and can detect traffic signals.
Depending on the method utilized, data can be processed on-device using smart traffic lights or sent to cloud. The latter offers more sophisticated modeling and predictive analysis to stave off traffic congestion and harmonize public transportation schedules. According to Carnegie Mellon University, this could cut travel time by 25%, signal wait times are cut by 40%, and emissions are cut by 20%..
In addition to the reduction of traffic signals’ control delays, a smart traffic light system can also enhance the flow technologytraffic.com/2021/07/08/generated-post/ of pedestrians as well as micromobility vehicles like electric scooters and e-bikes. This is due to the fact that they’re typically not able comply with traditional traffic signal preemption rules. In London the e-scooter accident rate increased by 2,800% over the first quarter of 2021. Therefore, it is important to include them in traffic light controls.