We are living in an era where more and more people prefer to migrate to cities. This results in congested urban areas and nowhere is it more evident than the public roads. In most large cities, traffic management, especially during peak hours is a nightmare.
We are living in an era where more and more people prefer to migrate to cities. This results in congested urban areas and nowhere is it more evident than the public roads. In most large cities, traffic management, especially during peak hours is a nightmare.
A report from TomTom reportedly showed that Mexico City had the most congested traffic in the world, drivers having to spend 59 percent extra travel time stuck in traffic which became up to 103 percent in the evening peak periods and added up to 219 extra travel hours per year.
But modern video analytics that makes use of big data could be an answer to the issue. With the complex information that can big data provides, more efficient traffic management decisions could be taken and this could go a long way in making our roads safer and easier to travel in.
In a recent case study, Intel gave an example of a city in China, Zhejiang, that employed big data to ease its problem of congested traffic. Although the report refers to data in various forms, its application can be considered in the case of video data alone.
There were three major challenges to this – a traffic management system had to enable centralized management of traffic data, optimize utilization of massive data and improve traffic flow across the city. But by deploying a unified data center and similar other means it was possible to bring traffic under control.
In a whitepaper on a similar topic, Frost & Sullivan pointed out how video can become an advantage when trying to manage traffic.
“Intelligent video can also enhance transportation management by providing system managers with city-wide visibility across an entire transportation network to improve incident response,” Brian Cotton said in the whitepaper. “It can also help personnel evaluate traffic patterns, dynamically manage public transit, help alleviate congestion and ultimately improve commuter satisfaction.”
With big data on traffic, multiple departments or systems can work together to process the information that’s gathered through different sensors. This will help the authorities take better decisions on managing the traffic.