Traffic congestion in urban cities is at an all-time high around the world. Population explosion, inefficient management due to lack of real-time data and aging infrastructure of the cities have led to longer journey duration, environmental pollution and declining quality of life, impacting the city environments. The World Bank predicts average city traffic volume is expected to rise exponentially by 2030, with more than 1.2 billion cars on the road – double today’s volume.
While COVID-19 restrictions brought temporary reliefs from the extreme urban traffic, conditions are most likely to restore to their original state as we move back to the old normal. These developments call for cities to find ways to improve traffic conditions with new strategies and technologies that can promise a sustainable future ahead. Using data and insights from connected vehicles can help solve this problem effectively, enabling quick expansion of cities to lighten the traffic load.
Data-Centric Approach to Traffic
Real-time mobility data from connected vehicles allows smart city planners to analyze and formulate smart traffic management systems and solutions that are needed for fast-moving traffic, cost-effective improvements, sustainable expansions and continued safety of traffic flow on the city streets. While managing traffic flow can include devising simple solutions such as rerouting around high-density areas, it is the data that actually makes those interpretations possible. Connected vehicle data supports up-gradation of the city’s transportation system while improving system reliability and reducing associated costs.
How Data fuels Optimization
Advanced traffic management solutions, based on real-time data analysis, aim to increase the capacity of the streets, without adding new roads or disrupting traffic flow. Such intelligent transportation systems utilize data from connected vehicles along with sensors, cameras, automated monitoring and upcoming technologies such as 5G communication, to manage flow of traffic effectively.
The solutions give smart city planners the advantage of scalability, high efficiency and automation, all of which make an integral part of smart cities.
More than just Traffic Management
Optimizing traffic flow management using real-time data can lead a city to great success. Reducing traffic congestion can reduce accidents, improve driving comfort, optimize existing infrastructure and minimize expenses linked with fuel and maintenance costs. It is the key to having a better and more up-to-date picture of what’s happening and how the overall actions can be further improved.
Consumption of Data by Smart Cities
Data helps smart city planners to understand what causes traffic congestion, look into habits and behaviors of drivers and plan how they can improve traffic flow management.
Here are some key functionalities that smart cities successfully achieve from real-time traffic data:
- Up-gradation of city infrastructure adequately to handle traffic volume load.
- Systematic monitoring of traffic flow patterns, during peak hours and usual hours, to avoid congestion and allow smooth flow.
- Prompting variable speed limits and lane access to control traffic flow.
- Adaptive control over traffic lights, signals and transit lanes to match dynamic conditions.
- Congestion detection and monitoring of freeways and intersections from a centralized management center.
- Sending real-time alerts to drivers, indicating potential obstacles, accidents, road closures and more.
- Intelligent parking management with open space detection and automated payment.
- Prioritizing police, fire, medical and other emergency services to avoid gridlocks.
Smarter Cities lead to Greener Environments
Purposeful utilization of technology and data further has huge benefits beyond the scope of time, safety and cost of living. Connected mobility solutions empower smart cities to undertake sustainable actions towards the betterment of the environment. Solutions such as energy optimization, low fuel consumption, air quality monitoring and waste management result in fewer emissions and enhanced savings, to deliver a better quality of life.
Accelerate your Efforts towards Sustainable Solutions with CerebrumX
CerebrumX is transforming cities through the power of connected vehicle data. With the industry’s first Augmented Deep Learning Platform (ADLP), CerebrumX enables smart city planners to unlock data from millions of connected vehicles to generate predictive insights that enable sustainable solutions. CerebrumX Secure Consent ensures utmost privacy of drivers’ personal information through explicit consents, to assist with efficient traffic flow management using real-time data and traffic analysis.
Final Thoughts
Connected vehicle data, in conjunction with sensors, video-analysis and automated traffic monitoring, is transforming how cities manage urban traffic flow.
For more information regarding connected vehicle data and the evolving ecosystem around it, Contact us or reach out to our experts.
