26 June, 2021 | Oviyaa Venkateshwaran
The smart city market is set to rise by over $2118bn during 2020-2024 with a decline in the price of connected devices predicted to increase the market growth.
Traffic congestion is a major urban problem in cities, as a result of increased automobile usage. Several countries with inefficient public transport system experience traffic management issues, making urban dwellers choose their private vehicles for the commute.
Roads and highways are constructed to ease the traffic, only adding to more congestion in urban areas. Traffic congestion causes problems of time wastage, property damage, and environmental pollution.
It is necessary for city and traffic officials to properly manage traffic for high-quality urban service for the people. Better organization of traffic will enable cities to reduce traffic congestion and improve the flow of vehicles on the road.
Here’s how smart transportation management methods help in controlling traffic.
Smart Transportation systems use IoT sensors to detect congestion and traffic patterns.
Technology stands as one of the most effective ways to relieve traffic congestion. According to research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), utilizing technologies such as video cameras, algorithms, and electric road signs to manage road congestion is more adequate than constructing further roads especially in metropolitan cities where more traffic is experienced.
Autonomous traffic sensing is integral to smart city infrastructures. According to recent research, the Internet of Things (IoT) can play a significant role in traffic management by linking physical devices over the internet to exchange data, tracking and monitoring traffic flow.
Analyzing and measuring congestion is the foremost process in the traffic management process. The movement, occupancy, and density are the largely utilized traffic congestion systems, which are majorly accessed from image and videos were taken by vision systems at first.
Some ways to gather data for real-time road information are through global positioning systems, sensors, probe vehicles, and vehicle to infrastructure communication.
Among the latest vehicle monitoring solutions, sensors like acoustic and magnetic sensors are cost-effective, power-efficient and well-known.
The collected traffic information from various sources can be utilized to predict and manage congestion. IoT-based system model offers real-time traffic updates via roadside message units. Smart sensors are utilized to measure traffic pattern, predict traffic congestion, and controls the routes of the traffic. The sensors enable productive and efficient means to monitor and control traffic with the help of real-time information.
IoT systems and sensors could enhance the city environment through a better traffic management system. However, it is important to use the system both in urban roads and collector roads for creating a smart city infrastructure.
This technologically based traffic monitoring and the controlling system can be efficient in cities since it has less impact on the environment. Wider scale usage of IoT systems in traffic management will be highly necessary for cities to thrive in the rising population and automobile usage.