Cities are using smart traffic technology to cut down on energy consumption and increase road safety as traffic congestion in cities becomes a growing problem. This helps both drivers and passengers save time, lowers emissions and traffic jams.
The technology behind this is based on two fundamental elements: Hardware and software. The former is the subcomponent which executes, while the second is the command and control center. Both are complemented with advanced technology for sensing and processing tools, for instance ANPR (automotive plate recognition) which records data about the movement of vehicles and can identify road signs.
Depending on the solution, smart traffic lights may process data on-device or send technologytraffic.com/2020/05/01/modern-traffic-technologies-by-board-room the data to a cloud storage. The latter provides more advanced modeling and predictive analysis that can prevent traffic congestion and coordinate public transportation schedules. According to Carnegie Mellon University, this can reduce average travel time by 25 percent, while signal wait times are cut by 40% and emissions are cut by 20%..
A smart traffic light system is not only able to reduce the time it takes to get traffic signals and improving the flow of pedestrians as well as of micromobility vehicles such as e-bikes or e-scooters. They are unable to adhere to traditional traffic signal preemption laws. In London, for example crashes on e-scooters jumped by 2,800% in the first half of 2021, and therefore it is essential to include them in traffic light controls.