The City of Austin recently became the first Texas community to test traffic-signal technology for “connected” vehicles.
The city entered the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SPaT (Signal Phasing and Timing) Challenge through the National Operations Center of Excellence. The challenge is an initiative of the Vehicle to Infrastructure Deployment Coalition.
Under the challenge, the city installed dedicated short-range communication technology at five intersections.
Connected cars use the technology to communicate in real time with a traffic signal controller and receive information on traffic and if pedestrians or bicyclists are in the intersection.
The technology will be installed next year at two more intersections.
Austin approved a Smart Corridor Plan in February to improve mobility and began testing autonomous shuttles in July.
“We need to get out of our own box and quit drinking our own Kool-Aid and look at different ways to attack the mobility problem from an equitable perspective, and not look at it in the traditional methods of origin, destination, and use of freeways,” Jason JonMichael, the city’s assistant director for smart mobility, said. “But look at how people move around, understand what their existing challenges are and then based off those scenarios innovate to find solutions to those.”