Traffic Signals Make Intersections Safer
As request by Jersey City Vision Zero, each and every life has been lost as a result of a traffic accident is unacceptable and can be avoidable. Under this vision, city governance should pay more attention on the intersections, where roughly 40 percent of crashes occur and about half of fatalities involved in turn.
The current traffic light system, fixed-time signals, is not able to adjust and manage traffic flows during peak hours when the volumes of all kinds of modes spike. Stopping a long traffic queue under the short-time signals will arouse drivers’ anxiety for speeding to turn, which places crossing pedestrians and cyclists in great danger.
The next-generation traffic light enhanced by adaptive traffic system, such as the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS), can improve street safety and move all modes of traffic efficiently. The system can collect real-time traffic data and find the right timing of lights for each intersection to coordinate pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Those signals can adjust timing for each direction during peak or none-peak hours. They can leave more time for children, the elderly, or the disabled to cross. What’s more, they can slow down vehicles passing intersections with average speeds exceeded 20 mph (the threshold that people being killed by crashes will be more likely).
The adaptive traffic system can be deployed in any cities and any sections of city roads including highways. To meet the growing need in traffic administration for denser population areas, better traffic control algorithms can promote efficiency and reduce delays, and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure technology can optimize city traffic further. To me, traffic lights in the future are designed for pedestrians rather than automobiles.
