Dive Brief:
- Seven emergency service districts in Northwest Harris County, Texas, will install smart traffic signals at 437 intersections to give green signals to emergency vehicles.
- Cameras will detect emergency vehicles as they approach an intersection, reducing response time and intersection collisions, according to a press release from Miovision, a traffic technology company. The system also improves protection for pedestrians and cyclists, the company says.
- The company will upgrade an older system under a 12-year agreement with the ESDs.
Dive Insight:
Hurricane Harvey, which hit southeastern Texas in August 2017, flooded some 25% of Harris County’s intersections, which had emergency vehicle priority systems installed in 2007. Following that, the seven ESDs contracted with Miovision to install its traffic vehicle preemption system. The new agreement will use technology already installed in the counties’ emergency vehicles.
“The fact that we don’t need resources committed to supporting the day-to-day operation of the system is a godsend because in public safety, you never have enough money and you never have enough people,” Harris County ESD Number 16 Project Manager Mike Pate said in a statement.
Most signaled intersections in the U.S. typically have a control cabinet, with pre-programmed timing. Some include vehicle detectors within the pavement that can help adjust timing based on traffic conditions. But smart intersections are the future, experts say.
“What's coming is ultimately going to be a full digitization of the intersection,” Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride told Smart Cities Dive. He foresees connected and autonomous vehicles, providing “more situational awareness beyond just traffic.”
McBride said Miovision has over 100,000 intersections connected to its system. “We generally see anywhere from a 10% to 30% improvement in stop delays” where its technology is installed, he said.
The company announced on July 6 a program that brings together myriad traffic studies onto one platform, enabling traffic engineers to query studies, generate reports and quickly gain insights into traffic issues in their communities. “A big part of what we do today is help cities to quantify their problems,” McBride said.
