A delicately woven together network of processes, smart technology for traffic can help transport workers, drivers and commuters manage traffic flow and efficiency. Intelligent traffic systems are able to adjust the controls of traffic lights and freeway onramp meters as well as bus rapid transit lanes. They also utilize advanced IoT routers and hardware as well as cellular technology and cell networks. They can also assist in forecasting changes in traffic demand and provide a variety of real-time information to road users.

A good technologytraffic.com/2021/12/29/generated-post-3 example is the traffic signal system that is adaptive in Pittsburgh. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first few traffic signals that were experimental in a highly congested part of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: drivers traveled 25 percent more efficiently and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than before.

The system works by collecting data from sensors which monitor the flow of traffic and altering their timings in real-time, as well as detecting pedestrians at intersections, and giving them time to traverse the street. The sensors send their raw data to a central center where it’s processed by artificial intelligence and then dispatched back out to the intersections via 5G-enabled cell networks.

These systems can provide better and more accurate modeling of scenarios that minimize risks, which human traffic managers cannot do. And all of this is in real-time. This is a major step toward Vision Zero, a goal of safe and secure driving in which motorists and pedestrians share the road without collisions.