City governments worldwide are turning to smart technologies for traffic management. These solutions are saving billions in infrastructure costs while improving safety and reliability for citizens.
Smart technologies are able to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety by using the Internet of Things. These systems integrate a range of hardware, software and cloud technology to dynamically adjust traffic lights, freeway on-ramp meters, bus rapid transit lanes, highway message boards and speed limits.
Intelligent traffic signals can adjust the lengths of green and yellow signals in real time to maximize efficiency, and protect pedestrians and bicycles from collisions. They can also alert drivers of pedestrians and other road users, allow emergency vehicles priority access and support lane changes in an intersection.
These systems are able to react quickly and efficiently to changing traffic patterns, reducing wait times at intersections and cutting fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. These sensors and cell technologies can be incorporated into existing or new infrastructure.
Adaptive traffic controls can also improve air-quality by reducing the emissions and energy consumed by cars that are idling. This is achieved through a combination of camera data, sensor networks, and cell technology to dynamically change traffic lights, entrance alarms, express bus lanes, and other features.
To ensure that all of this information is able to reach its intended destination, network connectivity is essential. It must be able to provide high bandwidth, ultra-low latencies and 100% reliability in order to support the large amounts of data required for traffic management solutions.
