AI-Powered Traffic Signal Optimization

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚? 𝑾𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅," says Dotan Emanuel from Google's Project Green Light team. This quote perfectly captures why this is one of my favorite projects: it seamlessly blends sustainability with efficiency, tackling something we can all agree we want less of – traffic! 🚦 Project Green Light leverages over a decade of Google Maps driving trends to create an AI model that analyzes traffic flow at intersections. It identifies opportunities to improve timing, which city engineers can then easily implement using existing infrastructure. This scalable approach requires no additional hardware or software, making it accessible to cities worldwide. A few fun facts about this work: 🟢 Reduction in stops: Project Green Light has demonstrated the potential to reduce stops at intersections by up to 30%, leading to smoother traffic flow and less frustration for drivers 🟢 Lower emissions: By minimizing unnecessary acceleration and idling, this initiative can cut greenhouse gas emissions at intersections by up to 10%, contributing to cleaner air and a healthier environment 🟢 Significant impact: The project is currently benefiting up to 30 million car rides per month, showcasing its potential for widespread benefits as it scales further The early results are promising, showcasing the tangible impact AI can have on sustainability. As Project Green Light expands to hundreds of cities and thousands of intersections, it has the potential to transform our urban landscapes, making them greener, more efficient, and more enjoyable for everyone. It's a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration in tackling complex challenges like climate change, and a shining example of how technology can improve our everyday lives while contributing to a better future. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ewCkrR6P #sustainability #AI #Google #ProjectGreenLight #traffic #emissions #smartcities #innovation

What happens when you combine the precision of Seyond lidar, the real-time power of edge computing, and the intelligence of AI? You get highways that don’t just move traffic—but understand it. We’re talking next-gen ground truth highway insights powered by object-level detection. Using lidar, we can collect granular data like: 🔍 Object Speed 🚛 Object Class 📏 Height, Width, Length 🧭 Heading + GPS Coordinates ☄️ Real-time Trajectory Tracking And when you layer that with on-device AI and edge analytics, we can extract metrics that matter: 📊 85th% Speed – The gold standard for understanding driver behavior ⏱ Time Mean Speed – A snapshot of average flow conditions 🔲 Occupancy (Time + Space) – Where congestion lives, second by second 🛣 Lane-by-Lane & All-Lane Volume – Precision traffic counts for smarter signal timing 📉 Queue Length Monitoring – Know where and when things stack up No more piecing fragmented data together. No more lagging sensors. No more black boxes. This is real-time, actionable, infrastructure-ready insight—no induction loops, no cameras, no milti-sensor clutter. Just 24/7 365 lidar-powered awareness, embedded at the edge and ready to scale. 🧾 For audit teams at tolling agencies, this means reduced revenue leakage through more accurate object classification, object measurement down to 10 centimeters accuracy and movement tracking. 🛠 For operations teams, it’s a game-changer: better data for faster decisions, more efficient traffic flow, and improved safety at scale. 🏛 And for DOTs and TMC operators, this technology becomes the connective tissue—offering a unified view of what's happening on the roadway right now, and providing the fidelity needed to power the next generation of transportation strategies. The future of highway and tolling ops isn't just smart—it's self-aware.

In an interview for the Philadelphia Citizen's "Ideas We Should Steal" section (https://lnkd.in/erjnu5vk) I highlighted one of my favorite #techtransfer projects from Carnegie Mellon University's National University Transportation Center - #Surtrac now a part of Miovision "…Though you can’t build new roads overnight, and redesigning the city grid can take generations, technologies exist that can help with our mobility as we cope with the reality of our aging infrastructure in the meantime. When Pittsburgh tried this tech-driven route, they managed to slash idling times at major intersections where technology was deployed by 41 percent, traffic by 25 percent, and emissions by 20 percent. Behind that success? A homegrown innovation called Surtrac, an AI-powered system that can control traffic signals in a city and optimize the flow of vehicles based on volume… The technology’s deployment was the result of a unique partnership between scientists Carnegie Mellon University and City Hall… “We are about solving real world problems,” says Karen Lightman, the executive director of Metro21. “I’m a believer in ‘blue sky’ research, but that’s not what we’re doing. We’re about deployment.” …The origin story of Surtrac began with a billionaire at a red light. In 2009, venture capitalist and Pittsburgh native Henry Hillman was idling at an intersection, as the story goes… Steve Smith Raj Rajkumar Rick Stafford Stan Caldwell Chris Hendrickson