Smart traffic lights

The Netherlands is the first country in the world to start using a standardised method for making traffic lights smarter on a large scale. This opens up a plethora of opportunities. In the future, every car, smartphone or navigation device, along with any other device, could be connected to ‘intelligent’ traffic control systems via the cloud.

This means that priority could be given to specific road users (such as cyclists) at intersections, which often constitute a bottleneck in traffic flows. If a cyclist’s commute to work on a speed pedelec is rapid, due to traffic flows being geared towards the cyclist, pedal power will become a lot more attractive to commuters.

Working in collaboration with the City of Rotterdam and GoBike, BAM has started up a pilot project for linking data collected by traffic lights to intelligent GoBike bikes. These are shared bikes that are connected to the internet via a tablet. The result? The tablet on your hired bike shows you how long you have to reach the next traffic light while it is still on green.

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