Smart Technologies for Traffic

As congestion in urban areas is becoming a major problem, cities are turning to smart technologies for traffic to increase road safety and decrease wasted energy. In addition, this helps to save time for passengers and drivers, lower emissions, and reduce traffic congestion.

The technology behind this is based on two main elements: Hardware and Software. The first is the executing subcomponent, while the latter is the command and control center. Both are enhanced by advanced sensors and processing technologies like ANPR (automotive plate recognition) which records data about the movement of vehicles and detects road signs.

Depending on the method utilised, data may be processed on device using smart traffic lights, or sent to cloud. This allows for more sophisticated analysis and modeling to reduce traffic congestion and coordinate the schedules of public transportation. According to Carnegie Mellon University, this could cut travel time by 25 percent, wait times modern traffic technologies for signal signals are cut by 40%, and emissions are cut by 20%..

A well-designed traffic light system as well as reducing the time it takes to get traffic signals, can also improve the flow of pedestrians as well as of micromobility vehicles like e-bikes or electric scooters. They’re not able to conform to traditional traffic signal preemption laws. In London the e-scooter accident rate increased by 2,800% during the first half 2021. Therefore, it is important to include them in traffic light control.