Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. If you've ever been in
Speaker 1: a motor vehicle in a city or suburb, you've likely
Speaker 1: experienced the frustration of being stuck in a long line
Speaker 1: of vehicles at a traffic light. You wait for what
Speaker 1: seems like forever until the red turns to green, but
Speaker 1: then only crawl forward a few feet before the light
Speaker 1: turns yellow and red again. Once it's finally your turn
Speaker 1: to get across the intersection, you may only get to
Speaker 1: roll a few hundred yards before you're confronted by another
Speaker 1: light about to turn red. Even in the year, a
Speaker 1: year in which the pandemic shutdowns reduced traffic, drivers in
Speaker 1: the United States experienced slowdowns that added twenty seven hours
Speaker 1: to their commuting time and increased their fuel costs by
Speaker 1: six hundred and five dollars per driver. And that was
Speaker 1: down considerably from non pandemic years of slowdowns added fifty
Speaker 1: four hours to commutes in twenty nine. With streets and
Speaker 1: highways returning to normal traffic density and gasoline costs soaring,
Speaker 1: this year's numbers are likely to be much higher. There's
Speaker 1: got to be a better way. Unfortunately, engineering visionaries have
Speaker 1: been thinking the same thing for years and have developed
Speaker 1: a potential answer, smart traffic lights. These monitor incoming traffic
Speaker 1: and continuously adjust their timing to keep vehicles flowing as
Speaker 1: smoothly as possible, communicating with other lights along routes, and
Speaker 1: working together to prevent log jams from developing. Numerous companies,
Speaker 1: large and small, are pushing smart traffic light technology ahead.
Speaker 1: For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: spoke with Carnegie Mellon University research professor Stephen Smith, who
Speaker 1: began working on the problem back in two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: That's when a local Pittsburgh business leader approached him with
Speaker 1: concerns that worsening grid luck might interfere with the city's
Speaker 1: efforts to transform itself from a smokestack city into a
Speaker 1: technology and healthcare hub. A Smith, a faculty member at
Speaker 1: Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute who studies the use of artificial
Speaker 1: intelligence to coordinate large systems in transportation, manufacturing, and other fields,
Speaker 1: developed traffic signals equipped with individual computers and software that
Speaker 1: have AI capabilities, which can use cameras, radar, or inductive
Speaker 1: loop detectors in the pavement to spot approaching vehicles and
Speaker 1: adjust the signals timing. When Smith installed a few experimental
Speaker 1: prototypes at intersections in East Liberty, a heavily congested area
Speaker 1: on Pittsburgh's East End, he immediately got results. Drivers average
Speaker 1: travel time to get to their destinations decreased by and
Speaker 1: they spent forty percent less time idling and traffic jams.
Speaker 1: Since then, Smith's company, called rapid Flow Technologies, has installed
Speaker 1: its smart traffic management technology in twenty two North American cities.
Speaker 1: Smith said, we generate the timing plans in real time,
Speaker 1: and so we watch the traffic that's approaching the intersection,
Speaker 1: and then in real time we generate a signal timing
Speaker 1: plan for moving that traffic through the intersection, and so
Speaker 1: we're actually scheduling the actual traffic on the road. A
Speaker 1: Once an intersection builds up a timing plan and starts
Speaker 1: to execute it, it will send to its downstream neighbors,
Speaker 1: for example, what traffic it expects to be sending their
Speaker 1: way according to its schedule. Smart traffic lights like these
Speaker 1: could become even more powerful as increasing numbers of cars
Speaker 1: and trucks employ connected vehicle technology, which could enable them
Speaker 1: to communicate both with one another and with infrastructure such
Speaker 1: as traffic signals. Instead of smart traffic lights relying upon
Speaker 1: spotting vehicles as they come in range of cameras, for example,
Speaker 1: they could make decisions based on messages that they're receiving
Speaker 1: from the cars about their location and direction, or even
Speaker 1: their entire planned route. In advance. Smart traffic signals may
Speaker 1: even make it safer for cars and trucks to share
Speaker 1: streets with cyclists, pedestrians, and people using mobility devices such
Speaker 1: as scooters. A smart traffic light could have the ability
Speaker 1: to detect pedestrians at street corners and calculate how much
Speaker 1: time they'll need to get across an intersection safely. Smith said,
Speaker 1: if you're moving with a walker or something like that,
Speaker 1: it knows how long you need to get across the street,
Speaker 1: so it communicates that to the signal in advance, so
Speaker 1: that when you do get the green light, you'll be
Speaker 1: assured to get enough time to cross. Meanwhile, an Israeli
Speaker 1: company called No Traffic takes a somewhat different approach. Instead
Speaker 1: of decentralized smart traffic signals, it provides cities with plug
Speaker 1: and play Internet of Things sensors for intersections, which include
Speaker 1: cameras and radar, and combines them with a cloud based
Speaker 1: virtual management center. The effect is the same though, autonomous
Speaker 1: optimization of traffic flow for everyone on the road, reducing
Speaker 1: emissions and making roads safer. How stuff Works also spoke
Speaker 1: via email with Vera Resnik, the company's vice president of marketing.
Speaker 1: He said, we demonstrated how our platform can potentially reduce
Speaker 1: the number of drivers driving through a red light by
Speaker 1: an average of almost also by eliminating time wasted and
Speaker 1: clogged traffic, smart traffic lights could play a significant role
Speaker 1: in combating climate change. Study by Juniper Research found that
Speaker 1: smart traffic management systems could lower global emissions by two
Speaker 1: twenty six million tons by However, although the idea of
Speaker 1: adaptive signal control systems is gaining traction in the United States,
Speaker 1: it's still far from being universally accepted and implemented. Part
Speaker 1: of the reason maybe the cost. According to the U
Speaker 1: S Department of Transportation, the cost of deploying certain intelligent
Speaker 1: transportation systems technologies is upward of twenty thousand dollars per intersection,
Speaker 1: and the numbers for these systems vary widely depending on
Speaker 1: location and any intersect and remodels or upgrades that might
Speaker 1: be necessary. As Smith thinks it will take a couple
Speaker 1: of decades for this technology to become the norm, and
Speaker 1: even that could be a generous estimate and depending on
Speaker 1: how companies and municipalities alike are able and willing to
Speaker 1: adopt the technology and cooperate with each other. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article going Nowhere Fast Smart traffic
Speaker 1: lights can help ease gridlock on how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Patrick J. Keiger. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen into your favorite shows.