The vide below is from yesterday but the reason I decided to make a video is because I have thinking about this for a while. I experienced the exact same scenarios in Massachusetts as well, and then now here in Illinois. Since I collect such events as data, I have now quiet a collection, most of them repeating the same pattern like deja vu. Let me describe why the traffic light pattern in this video is not only dumb, it is dangerous.

A protected left arrow allows those waiting to take a left turn to take that left, while the rest of the traffic waits. As with any traffic light, the protected arrow turns orange after a while and then obviously turns Red. Now watch the video.

There is one car in front of me. The protected light turns from Green to Orange in flat one second, and the first car itself is smack in the middle of the intersection by the time the lights turn Red. Then the lights turn all Green for through traffic in less than five seconds. I see major safety issues, and this happens at least once every week.

Since (and I hope) traffic lights are automated, there is something going on with the automation? Including me, the car in front, and those behind me, there were five cars waiting to take left. You would assume that the light should work in a way that it will allow at least one car to take the left turn safely.

Here is another example at the same intersection from today. As you can see, I waited even after the light was Green because I could hear the sirens but could not see where the trucks were coming from. Real-time traffic management can ensure safety by leveraging smart cameras to ensure that the light remains Red till the trucks pass. I am a defensive driver but not everyone drives responsibly. 😁

This is why there is a need to leverage AI and real-time traffic flow data to automate these lights. I have discussed this in one of my previous articles, The Future of Public Transportation Scheduling With AI. While that article was focussed on trains, one element was how traffic lights need to be aware of traffic patters during specific hours. One of the illustrations from the article captures the road traffic aspect.

If lights are not hard coded by time windows, then the only safe way to automate them is to understand the traffic flow. The doodle below captures a high-level solution.