Smart technologies for traffic are a delicately interwoven network of processes that help transport workers, drivers, and commuters manage the flow and efficiency of traffic. Using advanced IoT equipment, sensors routers, cellular technology, and sensors intelligent traffic systems modify control mechanisms in a dynamic manner, such as traffic lights as well as freeway on-ramp meters bus rapid transit lanes, highway message boards and even speed limits. They can also help forecast shifts in traffic demand, and offer a variety of real-time information to road users.

Pittsburgh’s adaptive traffic signal system is an excellent example. When Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Stephen Smith installed his first couple of traffic technologytraffic.com/2020/05/21/the-benefits-of-using-modern-traffic-technologies-by-data-room/ signals, which were merely experimental, in a highly congested part of the city’s East Liberty, he saw immediate results: Drivers travelled 25 percent more efficiently and spent 40 percent less time idling in traffic jams than before.

The system collects data from sensors that monitor the flow of traffic and adjust their timing on the fly. It also detects pedestrians near intersections, and allows them enough time to safely cross the street. The sensors send their raw data to a central hub where it’s processed by artificial intelligence and then distributed back to the intersections using 5G-enabled cellular networks.

These systems are also able to provide better, more accurate simulation of risk-reducing scenarios that a human traffic planner could not achieve and all in real-time. This is a significant step towards Vision Zero, the goal of safe road-driving where cars and human beings are able to share the road without colliding.