Smart City Traffic Management

For urban areas addressing the challenges caused by constantly increasing volumes of traffic, smart city traffic management solutions can help to alleviate congestion, reduce costs, improve safety and pave the way for autonomous vehicles.

Smart city traffic management uses a variety of technologies and a myriad of data points to monitor and control traffic based on real-time conditions. Smart traffic lights automatically adapt to real-time congestion, altering the duration of traffic signals to allow vehicles to pass through intersections more quickly and efficiently. Smart traffic management also uses technology to sense the movement of pedestrians and bicycles and to better manage their movement through intersections to promote greater safety. As the use of autonomous and connected vehicles continues to rise, smart city traffic management can deliver real-time information to vehicles to help avoid congested spots, accidents or dangerous conditions. And smart city traffic solutions can make it easier for emergency vehicles and first responders to reach their destinations by intelligently routing traffic flow.

Additional benefits of smart city traffic management include:

• Improved quality of life for citizens. By reducing congestion and the air pollution that economies it, smart city traffic management improves the experience of living and working in the city.
• Increased productivity. By reducing commute times for workers, smart traffic management enables employees to spend more time on productive tasks and less time sitting in their cars.
• Reduced costs. With lower congestion, city infrastructure is subject to less wear and tear, helping to reduce the cost of repairing and replacing it.
• Enhanced enforcement. Smart city traffic management enables law enforcement to more easily identify traffic violations and to enforce city traffic regulations.
• Greater traffic safety. By reducing congestion and managing the flow of traffic through intersections more carefully, smart traffic technology helps to reduce the number of accidents involving vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles.

The technology that powers smart city traffic management

A smart city traffic management system involves variety of technologies that include:

• Sensors, cameras and other IoT-enabled devices that monitor traffic volume, movement, congestion and roadway conditions, as well as data about pedestrians and bicyclists.
• GPS applications on smart phones that help to track the trajectory of cars, bikes and people as they move through the city.
• An IoT platform with powerful analytics that combines and processes data from sensors and GPS applications with data from emergency vehicles and other transit data to automatically route traffic through the city most efficiently.
• Interfaces such as smart traffic lights and digital signage that translate the insight produced by vast amounts of traffic data into instructions and recommendations for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Connecting IoT sensors with an analytics platform and communicating actionable intelligence to specific interfaces requires network connectivity with high-bandwidth, ultra-low latency and 100% reliability. Networks must also be able to protect data from breaches and intrusions that could jeopardize safety and personal privacy.

Spectrum Enterprise: a partner for smart city traffic management

Spectrum Enterprise, a leading provider of connectivity for the nation’s largest businesses, provides the foundation of connectivity that powers smart city traffic management solutions and other smart city technology throughout the U.S.

Spectrum Enterprise’s fully interactive, two-way fiber network currently spans 840,000 miles of network infrastructure, and Spectrum is now investing another $25 billion in additional capacity and capabilities. As more municipalities embrace the potential of smart city solutions, Spectrum is perfectly positioned to be a reliable partner for high-performance connectivity.

To support the needs of smart traffic management technology, Spectrum offers:

• High-speed connectivity, with symmetrical connection speeds of up to 100 Gbps for local governments and enterprise clients, and gigabit connections for homes and businesses throughout the Spectrum service area.
• Cellular connectivity through one of the country’s largest LTE cellular networks, providing more connection protocols for IoT-enabled devices.
• Spectrum WiFi hotspots – more than 350,000 across the nation – that will soon be capable of wireless connection speeds up to 1 Gbps.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.