According to the 2019 Traffic Signal Benchmarking and State of the Practice Report, sitting at red lights and the associated traffic caused by them costs society almost $23 billion a year.
Engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a new method for creating traffic models using data from connected cars that will allow traffic light timing to be optimized every few months, rather than every few years—and at a much lower cost.
While most traditional forms of traffic monitoring only show the volume of cars traveling through an intersection with an estimated speed, this new method allows researchers to see speeds and delays between intersections. New timing plans decreased travel times by 20%, and the need to stop at traffic lights by 30%.
