Smart Traffic Signals Boost Cycling

Summary

"Copen­ha­gen is mak­ing its trans­port­a­tion sys­tem more in­tel­li­gent and mod­ern­iz­ing its traffic sig­nals to be con­trolled in real time in or­der to fur­ther pro­mote cyc­ling and pub­lic trans­port.

Copen­ha­gen is in­vest­ing in In­tel­li­gent Trans­port Sys­tems (ITS) by in­stalling new con­trol­lers in traffic sig­nals at the city’s 380 in­ter­sec­tions. The new tech­no­logy not only en­ables the city to con­trol traffic and op­tim­ize sig­nals in real time, res­ult­ing in more ef­fi­cient flow of bikes and buses, but also de­creases the en­ergy use of traffic sig­nals by one-third. Over­all, the travel time of cyc­lists will be re­duced by 10% and travel time for buses is ex­pec­ted to de­crease by up to 20%.

The city hopes the im­prove­ments will en­tice even more people to par­take in cyc­ling in par­tic­u­lar, which already ac­counts for 45% of com­mutes. Copen­ha­gen is also us­ing the smart traffic sig­nals to re­duce the num­ber of stops for cyc­lists by 10%, which will re­duce the in­cid­ence of ac­ci­dents. ITS will help Copen­ha­gen achieve its vis­ion to have 75% of all trips in the city be by bike, by pub­lic trans­port, or on foot by 2025."

Quote from: http://solutions.sustainia.me/solutions/smart-traffic-signals-boost-cycling/