As urban traffic congestion is becoming a major problem, cities are turning to smart technologies for traffic to increase road safety and decrease wasted energy. This helps passengers and drivers save time, reduces emissions and decreases traffic congestion.
The technology behind this is based on two fundamental components: hardware and software. The first is the executing component, while the latter functions as the command and control center. Both are enhanced by technology for processing and sensing that include ANPR (automotive license plate recognition) that captures data on the vehicles’ movements, and also detect traffic signs.
Depending on the method employed, data can be processed on-device using smart traffic lights or sent to cloud. This allows for more advanced analysis and modeling to reduce traffic congestion and align 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 cut by 20%..
A smart traffic light system is not only able to reduce the delays of traffic signals and improving the flow of pedestrians as well as of micromobility vehicles like ebikes or e-scooters. This is due to the fact that they are often unable to adhere to traditional traffic signal preemption technologytraffic.com/2021/07/08/generated-post rules. In London, for example crashes on e-scooters jumped by 2800% in the first quarter of 2021, therefore it is vital to include them in traffic light control.