Imagine you could control traffic lights — and they turn green the moment your car approaches.
For many drivers in Belgium, this is already a reality, and it offers a fascinating glimpse into the future of transportation.
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Traffic light timing is designed to give more green time to main roads, at the expense of the smaller cross streets that intersect them.
If you drive at night, you've surely experienced the cost of this design — waiting at a red light for a long time, even when the main road is completely empty.
But if the traffic lights knew you were there, they could turn green just for you.
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The project began about two years ago, initiated by the Flemish Roads Agency, as a follow-up to a similar project first carried out in the Netherlands.
Drivers were given the option to install an app, which broadcasts the user's location to smart traffic lights now deployed at 230 intersections.
The traffic light detects the approaching vehicle via the app, and as soon as the main road is clear, it turns green for that driver.
More than 200,000 drivers have already installed the app, and real-world performance assessments suggest it is meeting expectations and saving valuable time.
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The challenge is that, much like user-based apps such as Waze, the app is only effective when installed by a significant percentage of drivers — yet as long as it isn't effective, drivers don't install it.
The solution is to sync the traffic light system with apps already in widespread use, such as Google Maps and Waze, but doing so requires cooperation from Google — a step that has yet to succeed.
The plan is to eventually sync with vehicle onboard computers as well, so that traffic lights would know at any given moment how many cars are waiting at each light and could dynamically route traffic accordingly.
A change of that magnitude is enormously significant, and it will be many years before every vehicle and every traffic light on the road can operate in harmony and with sufficient security.
But there is no doubt that this is where we are headed — and when it happens, our driving experience will change completely.
*Pictured — leave the car at home and come to Tel Aviv by train. Quite the experience, highly recommend it.*