Cities are shifting to smart technology for traffic to reduce energy waste and improve road safety as traffic congestion in cities becomes a growing problem. In addition, this assists in reducing time for drivers and passengers and reduces emissions. It also helps reduce traffic jams.

The technology behind it is built on both software and hardware. The former is the subcomponent that runs, and the second is the command and control centre. Both are complemented by the latest sensing and processing technologies which include ANPR (automotive license plate recognition) which collects data on vehicle technologytraffic.com/2021/07/08/generated-post movements and can detect traffic signs.

Depending on the type of solution, smart traffic lights can process data on-devices or transfer it to a cloud. This type of solution offers more sophisticated models and predictive analysis to stave off traffic congestion and harmonize public transport schedules. According to Carnegie Mellon University, this will cut travel time by 25 percent, wait times for signal signals are reduced by 40%, and emissions are reduced by 20%.

In addition to cutting down on traffic signals’ control delays, a smart traffic light system will also increase the flow of pedestrians and micromobility vehicles such as electric scooters and e-bikes. This is due to the fact that they’re often not able to follow traditional traffic signal preemption rules. In London for instance crashes on e-scooters jumped by 2800% in the initial half of 2021, and so it is important to incorporate them into traffic light controls.