By Jesse Fowler, Owner OSC Web Design
If you’ve lived in Scarborough for any length of time, you’ve experienced the heavy amounts of traffic that flow through our town on a daily basis. Going to work in the morning, coming home, even a trip to the grocery store around 3-4pm can be daunting. To mitigate this, the Town of Scarborough is using new technology to reduce congestion, lower greenhouse gasses and put money back in your pocket.
Roughly 40,000 cars travel on Route One each day, with about 30% simply passing through town. One way to ease the flow of traffic would be to add a lane to each side of the road – but that would come at the cost of land and a huge price tag, so that’s a non-starter. A second way is to make our existing roadways more efficient, and this is exactly what the Town is doing. In a recent interview with Town Manager Tom Hall and Public Works Director Doug Howard, I learned how Scarborough is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help keep traffic flowing.
Traditional traffic lights work on timers that are set to predict the traffic flow at different times of day. This is why you may be stopped at a red light even when there are no other cars at the intersection. Some lights have cameras or sensors that can spot and respond to this situation. AI-based traffic management systems take this even further. They learn traffic patterns and then respond to changes in real time based on actual volume, not predicted volume. The lights do this by using video cameras, radar, and thermal imaging to “see” what is happening. Upgrading and integrating all of a town’s lights is a long process. The new AI system needs to learn traffic patterns, build algorithms, and process faster. That’s what is happening right now in Scarborough.
The Town has just recently completed the full upgrade along the Route One corridor. You may have noticed that drivers going south on Route One at the intersection with Black Point Rd now receive two left-turn green lights during heavier traffic times. This is all thanks to the AI determining where the demand is and allowing people to get through the light instead of waiting. This has made a very noticeable difference for those heading onto Black Point Road; the line has become much shorter.
The AI-equipped system will have multiple benefits: a reduction in wait times, increased traffic flow, and even lower greenhouse gasses. Less time idling at red lights means cars burn less fuel. According to the company that installs the AI, other towns have seen a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of as much as 40%. Less fuel also means more money in drivers’ pockets, in addition to less time stuck at traffic lights. Sounds like a win all around!
I’m glad to be in a town like Scarborough that is forward thinking, taking advantage of the tools out there and finding solutions to problems such as this. A big “thank you” to Tom Hall for taking the time to talk me through how this process is working, and thanks to Doug Howard and all of the people working to put this into place!
Jesse Fowler is a Scarborough resident and owner of OSC Web Design.
Photo by Tim Gouw
