One fix for Boston traffic jams? More efficient street lights, officials say
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
One of the intersections bordering the North End that city officials say now has less congestion. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
A 10-second shift between two street lights was all it took to reduce congestion around Atlantic Avenue, city officials say.
Why it matters: Boston's efforts to optimize street lights to help move traffic through intersections faster help reduce congestion, says Michael Lawrence Evans, the city's director of emerging technology.
State of play: The intersection bordering the North End is one of at least 60 areas where Boston officials have updated traffic signals at intersections under Google's Project Greenlight to cut down on inefficiencies that slow traffic.
- The partnership, which began last year, lets Boston use AI and Google Maps driving trends to identify traffic hot spots and implement recommended efficiencies.
- The city kept the green light running seven seconds longer at one street light, and extended the green time at another nearby by three seconds, Evans tells Axios.
By the numbers: Boston and its partners are monitoring congestion across more than 900 intersections.
- These changes led to an average 13.5% reduction of traffic across the 114 intersections it's updated, Evans tells Axios.
Zoom in: Boston has tweaked signals in 18 neighborhoods, with the most changes in Back Bay and Dorchester, per data shared with Axios.
- That includes multiple points along Columbia Road, including at Pond, Devon and Annabel streets.
- Other hot spots include Massachusetts Avenue at Belvidere Street (Back Bay) and at Frontage Road (South Boston) and Beacham Street and Broadway in Charlestown (near the Everett casino).
What they're saying: "That's going to improve the experience for everyone going through that intersection, whether they're a pedestrian or a bicyclist or a driver," Evans tells Axios.
Reality check: This alone won't solve Boston's traffic problem, and the lag time it cuts down on doesn't happen overnight.
- The system sends a few recommendations each week, which city engineers need to review before implementing.
- One-third of the intersections being monitored aren't connected to the city's project management center. At those intersections, the timing of the traffic lights needs to be manually changed, Evans said.