SPRINGDALE — Later this month, the Springdale City Council will greenlight traffic lights that use artificial intelligence technology to help flow traffic through the city.
Public Works Director James Smith went to Congress’ Finance Committee on Monday to ask for $153,120 to buy a TrafficLink system that uses cameras and AI to monitor traffic lanes and change traffic lights when needed. I plan to.
Smith said the city plans to install the TrafficLink system at 10 intersections. He said the city budgets to replace traffic lights at 10 intersections with the latest technology each year.
Smith reports that there are 83 intersections with traffic lights in the city.
Department staff have been very satisfied with testing the AI TrafficLink system at the intersection of North Thompson Street and Wagon Wheel Road, Smith said. According to figures posted on the Arkansas Department of Transportation website, the intersection receives 17,000 vehicles per day.
Smith said the city plans to test a more advanced AI traffic system, NoTraffic, on South Thompson Street and Don Tyson Parkway in the coming weeks. The State Department of Transportation reports that this intersection receives 21,000 vehicles per day.
Smith said that if staff prefer the NoTraffic system, he will return to Congress to amend the request.
Smith said the city paid $20,000 to $25,000 to install the TrafficLink system at an intersection, and the lights, poles and control boxes have already been installed. If the technology connects intersections with corridors, the price will rise to $30,000, he said.
Smith said the city would pay about $300,000 for an intersection without a signal system or for a new intersection on a new road.
Springdale residents voted Tuesday to issue a bond that includes $135 million to improve roads. While the project will include new roads, the city will also make changes to busy intersections, including adding lanes, right-turn lanes and traffic lights.
City Councilman Mike Overton said Friday he supports any action to improve transportation. He said his current frustration is going north and south on Turner Street across East Robinson Avenue.
“Traffic is a real problem right now in northwest Arkansas,” he said. “And it’s going to take a while to get anything done.”
Mr. Smith passes through a wagon wheel crossing on his daily drive to and from work.
He called the TrafficLink system, owned by Canada’s MyoVision Technologies, “awesome.”
According to Smith, about a year has passed since the AI system was introduced.
“We have zero false positives,” Smith said. “And the signal changes as soon as the car leaves the zone.”
Smith said the city’s current system uses video to detect traffic, and cameras can change traffic lights based on wind-blown objects and windshield reflections.
Fog, snow, or shadows can obscure the current system’s visibility and stop traffic. Smith said there was a lot of fog at the intersection of Hilton Road and East Robinson Avenue, which caused false positives.
Smith further explained that traffic lights on the city’s larger streets are programmed to remain green until vehicles from smaller streets arrive and cross the intersection. The traffic system stops cars on big streets at red lights and turns lights on small streets to green.
Kurt Leiter, the city’s signal supervisor, said the AI system will recognize not just objects passing in front of the camera, but also cars, bicycles and lorries. The AI component has a built-in system that makes decisions to modify the signal. AI technology can also recognize pedestrians and control traffic at intersections to alert them, Reiter said.
He saw the latest AI system, NoTraffic, at a conference in Texas last month. This is the system the city is testing on Don Tyson Parkway.
Leiter said the company is flying drones to observe traffic routes in cities before installing the new system. He said the footage showed what appeared to be West Sunset Avenue, crowded with cars.
A month after deploying the technology, the company once again sent the drone down the same corridor on the same day of the week and at the same time as the first flight.
“We asked where we were stuck in traffic,” he said. “Nothing.”
Other traffic lights that use the same system also allow cars to move smoothly through all the intersections in the corridor.
“We are hopeful,” Smith said.
Reiter said NoTraffic will also monitor pedestrian movement at crosswalks. It can change the traffic light so that if a pedestrian crosses the road seven seconds before the required time, the driver won’t sit down more than necessary.
“Every second counts in traffic,” Smith said.
The system could also adjust to the driver looking at the phone rather than at traffic lights, extending the time for cars behind that driver, Reiter said.
Reiter said NoTraffic is so advanced that if a driver ignores a red light and is speeding through an intersection, the system will turn the light green and warn them to stay on the red light.
The system could also send video of the crash to emergency calls, allowing firefighters, police and ambulances to be dispatched to the scene before lifeguards call 911, Smith said.
Reiter said traffic management systems will one day use information from drivers’ and pedestrians’ cell phones and even smart cars to control traffic.
