The City of Boston has partnered with Google on a smart traffic project to optimise traffic signal timing and improve traffic flow in the city’s highly congested areas.
The Project Green Light technology uses AI to model traffic patterns and creates signal timing recommendations that can reduce stop-and-go traffic and emissions.
For the past five months, the project team have been analysing traffic at hundreds of signalised intersections using AI and Google Maps driving trends to provide recommendations for optimisation of traffic signals and patterns.
“We are just starting to realise the potential of machine learning and AI in some of the City’s core operations,” said Michael Lawrence Evans, Director of Emerging Technology for the City of Boston.
Green Light, a Google Research initiative, uses AI and Google Maps driving trends to model traffic patterns and make recommendations for optimising the existing traffic light plans.
They then identify adjustments to traffic light timing to improve the efficiency of an intersection, such as improving the synchronisation between lights at nearby intersections or shifting “green time” between lights to better match demand.
The same Google project is now live in 14 cities on four continents. Boston and Seattle are the only U.S. cities included in the program.
“The success of Green Light is only possible thanks to the partnership we have with cities like Boston. We’re encouraged by the initial results we’ve seen in Boston and look forward to working closely with the city to scale this technology to more intersections,” said Matheus Vervloet, Product Manager at Google.
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