Pittsburgh’s Smart Traffic Signal's Started at CMU

Mayor Bill Peduto recently announced an expansion of Pittsburgh’s “smart” traffic signals, investing more than $11 million to reduce travel time for Pittsburgh commuters. With this new implementation, the project improve the reduction of time cars spend idling by more than one-third.

Smart traffic-management systems are not new to the city of Pittsburgh – since the launch of a CMU pilot program in 2012 they have proven to effectively reduce traffic wait-times, shortening commutes. The system is a Metro21 project called Surtrac – a traffic management system that optimizes traffic flow in real-time using sensors and artificial intelligence.

The system has since evolved into Surtrac 2.0 and has spun off into its own startup called Rapid Flow Technologies. It has been implemented in parts of Pittsburgh already, reaching 50 intersections by 2016, and is now being introduced to other cities.

Read more about the mayor’s plans here.