Real-time traffic light preemption optimization

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In Canada, traffic congestion imposes heavy economic and environmental burdens, with estimates of the congestion cost in urban areas between $2.3 billion and $3.7 billion per year, where more than 90% corresponds to time lost in traffic. Traffic congestion is widely perceived as the major challenge faced in most metropolitan areas worldwide. City traffic is coordinated by traffic lights: when these are well synchronized, they can act as a buffer to control traffic flow efficiently across intersections. In some contexts, city officials use different patterns for the duration of green-red lights in order to favor the flow in one direction, to better accommodate pedestrian crossings, or to help with the dispatching of emergency vehicles. More recently, thanks to the emergence of connected vehicles and online real-time information, transportation planners can benefit from preemption with adaptive signal control. Some cities work with public transport providers to allow buses to benefit from preemption in order to help them stick to their schedule, reduce travel time, and encourage public transport usage, but their implementation remains challenging.This project leads to increased mobility and respect of the schedules, less congestion and pollution, reduced fuel consumption, and increased productivity. These impacts are clearly aligned with federal, provincial, and municipal level efforts for a green recovery and contribute to decreasing our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. These potential outcomes will be clearly measured and quantified in our project. As indicated above, preemption is not yet used with private fleets. This innovative collaboration will assess how traffic light control can reduce congestion, consumption, and emission. Our findings will allow the system to be applied elsewhere in the city, and our knowledge will be immediately exportable elsewhere in Canada and abroad. Our training and knowledge transfer plans will ensure that Canada is recognized as a leader in urban mobility with this new technology.