Smart traffic lights?

[Neo]

I was reading my March 2005 issue of Popular Science and they had an article about what makes a city a top tech city. Minneapolis ranked as #1 in tech and they had a little write-up about a piece of technology I didn't know was around. It seems that in Minneapolis they have sensors at intersections that measure traffic density and automatically adjust traffic light timing to compensate for the amount of traffic volume. I wonder how many other cities have similar or same technologies and did anyone else know this stuff existed?

One interesting note is that Charlotte ranked #1 in supermarket technology. Bloom (Food Lion's new breed of high-tech grocery stores) received recognition for giving shoppers RFID scanners, etc.

There's a lot of stuff in here about various cities so I encourage you to pick up or at least glimpse through the issue at the book store. Too much information to post, LOL!

[Allan]

Southfield has a couple intersections like this that I've seen. The technology is expensive, so it's not very common yet.

[SoMAtic]

Everyone of central downtown LA and Hollywood's Traffic signals are monitored by the traffic control center. Cameras determine the traffic flow and compute algorithims to ease traffic flow-- its true-- but "The Italian Job" is a but far-feched

[K6-III]

Moscow has a very advanced smart traffic light system. They've been working on it better for over 30 years.