I live in Maine, which means I often have to fight my way through Boston traffic to do “big city stuff.” The age and high population density of metropolitan Massachusetts make it one of the worst places in the country to drive, in many areas worse than Los Angeles. The city is trying to address the problem through a new partnership with Google’s Project Green Light, which relies on artificial intelligence to change traffic light patterns to reduce congestion.
Boston’s Highways Minister Jascha Franklin-Hodge said WCVB The system “provides our traffic engineers with critical data to adjust a signal in a matter of seconds, which can help reduce congestion along a route.” The city also said the technology should smooth stop-and-go traffic and reduce emissions.
The partnership has been successful so far in limited early tests. Officials said: “At the intersections of Huntington Avenue and Opera Place and Armory Street and Green Street, stop-and-go traffic has been reduced by over 50%. Cities around the world using Project Green Light have seen an average emissions reduction of 10%.”
Boston is regularly one of the cities with the worst traffic in the USA. At the beginning of the year CNBC noted that drivers will lose an average of 42 hours in traffic jams by 2023, so any improvement in commute times is a benefit that everyone can support.
Google Product Manager Matheus Vervloet said: “Through Project Green Light, we are using AI to improve people’s lives in cities around the world by reducing traffic and emissions. Green Light’s success is only possible thanks to our partnership with cities like Boston. We are encouraged by the initial results we have seen in Boston and look forward to working closely with the city to expand this technology to more intersections.”
Project Green Light is still a new project, with Seattle being the only other U.S. city in the test program. Google said the project is active at over 70 intersections worldwide, affecting 30 million car trips each month. The company plans to expand it to “hundreds of cities and tens of thousands of intersections” over the next few years.
